My sister and I have noticed this effect in our networks. Facebook feeds people exactly what they want to see and nothing more. See Filter Bubble: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble Its eerie that I can tell shortly after friending someone whether or not theyre interested in the news items I am by how much activity I witness. I can also tell thematically what Facebook elects to show them, because some people show up on certain items all the time. Furthermore, some people only show up on my own newsfeed when they post certain kinds of articles. Facebook is essentially computer-aided navel gazing. On one hand, this is nice. I will find things that are of interest to me or are somewhat amusing. On the other hand, this is terrible. I will never be challenged in a meaningful way. Whats worse? My network will probably not engage with anything more challenging than your average Pinterest post. I essentially use Facebook as a publishing tool. In some ways, it does exactly what I need it to - when I post, it delivers posts about tech news, social justice articles, science, and more to exactly the people who would appreciate them. In other ways, it is a limitation. A thumbs-up is meaningless if its inevitable. We need to go beyond reading and nodding our heads. We need to be challenged to grow as people.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 04:35:47 +0000
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