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"Filter Bubbles" are a real phenomenon to be wary of, particularly for something like YouTube that aggressively suggests videos and autoplays by default or Face

by gundmc 8y ago

"Filter Bubbles" are a real phenomenon to be wary of, particularly for something like YouTube that aggressively suggests videos and autoplays by default or Facebook that injects stories into your news feed. I think what the article misses on that front is not that users don't have access to other sources, but they're passively spoon fed stories that reinforce their beliefs. But I'm not convinced this expands to Search. Search algorithm implementations are enough of a nebulous black box that it makes for a convincing story, and Duck Duck Go has been shamelessly spinning that FUD for advertising, but the claims don't really stand up to scrutiny.

spondyl 8y ago
It's somewhat anecdotal but in my experience, Twitter search can be quite filter bubbly. I've had this recording sitting around in my YouTube account which illustrates an example of this: CES 2015 which was around the time of the shit show known as Gamergate. The event aside, it was interesting to understand how sides were inflamed based on what they were seeing thanks to Twitter effectively amplifying similar opinions, creating an echo chamber. Here's a link to the recording: https://youtu.be/yoCcKYJ7hDI https://youtu.be/yoCcKYJ7hDI On the left is an account that was heavily skewed on purpose, towards the more conservative group while on the right is what a regular, unlogged in user would see. A regular user would have no idea of such an event going on while the user on the left would think that this event was engulfing the planet based on the sheer amount of noise being generated. For users on the left, it would be near impossible to penetrate the noise, based on retweets and likes, short of a tweet being passed around for users to jeer at. A literal bubble in that sense. The sad part is that a great number of people from both sides seemingly had a lot in common without realising it. Unfortunately they had no visibility of the "others" short of going out of their way to meet people and talk with them one on one. As we all know, it's easier to just label a foreign group and pretend we're objectively right. Anyway, that's just my experience with filter bubbles anyway. Hopefully you found it interesting.
- kochikame 8y ago
  Your comment put me in mind of the "get Pao out" hate campaign at Reddit a few years back. At its peak, its most incendiary, bile-spewing peak, if you were not looking at the standard "all" front page you would have had no idea it was even happening at all. With "all" as your default page, it was literally full of it, maybe your top two pages just entirely anti-Pao memes etc. The difference was so stark it was hard to believe I was even using the same Reddit as these people
  - cableshaft 8y ago
    I miss most Reddit garbage now that I no longer go to the front page. I mainly stick to a few subreddits now, like r/boardgames, and the moderators actively keep that stuff out since it has nothing to do with the subject. I think I saw a little of the Pao stuff back then, but I think I saw it from other sites, like Kotaku.
- avar 8y ago
  > A regular user would have no idea of such an event going on[...] The account on the right still had several "#GamerGate" tweets, including one from Milo Yiannopoulos who was involved enough to be covered in the Wikipedia article about it[1]. It seemed to me the main difference in the logged-in & logged-out account in that video is that the logged-out one is getting press release content, perhaps the logged-in account wasn't responsive to that according to Twitter's algorithms? 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy
Theodores 8y ago
Recently I discovered a 'filter bubble' in search. In an online discussion I mentioned the Peasant's Revolt in passing, which, for me, based in England, results in the events of 1381 when the English king who was all of fourteen years old agreed to meet the rebel leader only to kill him. What I had not realised is that a search for 'Peasant's Revolt' is different depending on where you live. So in Germany the search will result in a German 'Peasant's Revolt'. As it turns out every country has had some 'Peasant's Revolt' at some stage of history. I have not tested what results you will get if you search for the same 'event' elsewhere, e.g. in Italy, but I wouldn't be surprised if that gave an Italian 'Peasant's Revolt' as the top search result with the events of 1381 in England far, far down the list. This would be correct behaviour from the search engine but is still a filter bubble. It is okay for us to have different perspectives yet share the same facts and history.

by gundmc 8y ago

spondyl 8y ago

It's somewhat anecdotal but in my experience, Twitter search can be quite filter bubbly. I've had this recording sitting around in my YouTube account which illustrates an example of this: CES 2015 which was around the time of the shit show known as Gamergate. The event aside, it was interesting to understand how sides were inflamed based on what they were seeing thanks to Twitter effectively amplifying similar opinions, creating an echo chamber. Here's a link to the recording: https://youtu.be/yoCcKYJ7hDI https://youtu.be/yoCcKYJ7hDI On the left is an account that was heavily skewed on purpose, towards the more conservative group while on the right is what a regular, unlogged in user would see. A regular user would have no idea of such an event going on while the user on the left would think that this event was engulfing the planet based on the sheer amount of noise being generated. For users on the left, it would be near impossible to penetrate the noise, based on retweets and likes, short of a tweet being passed around for users to jeer at. A literal bubble in that sense. The sad part is that a great number of people from both sides seemingly had a lot in common without realising it. Unfortunately they had no visibility of the "others" short of going out of their way to meet people and talk with them one on one. As we all know, it's easier to just label a foreign group and pretend we're objectively right. Anyway, that's just my experience with filter bubbles anyway. Hopefully you found it interesting.

kochikame 8y ago
Your comment put me in mind of the "get Pao out" hate campaign at Reddit a few years back. At its peak, its most incendiary, bile-spewing peak, if you were not looking at the standard "all" front page you would have had no idea it was even happening at all. With "all" as your default page, it was literally full of it, maybe your top two pages just entirely anti-Pao memes etc. The difference was so stark it was hard to believe I was even using the same Reddit as these people
- cableshaft 8y ago
  I miss most Reddit garbage now that I no longer go to the front page. I mainly stick to a few subreddits now, like r/boardgames, and the moderators actively keep that stuff out since it has nothing to do with the subject. I think I saw a little of the Pao stuff back then, but I think I saw it from other sites, like Kotaku.
avar 8y ago
> A regular user would have no idea of such an event going on[...] The account on the right still had several "#GamerGate" tweets, including one from Milo Yiannopoulos who was involved enough to be covered in the Wikipedia article about it[1]. It seemed to me the main difference in the logged-in & logged-out account in that video is that the logged-out one is getting press release content, perhaps the logged-in account wasn't responsive to that according to Twitter's algorithms? 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy

Theodores 8y ago

Recently I discovered a 'filter bubble' in search. In an online discussion I mentioned the Peasant's Revolt in passing, which, for me, based in England, results in the events of 1381 when the English king who was all of fourteen years old agreed to meet the rebel leader only to kill him. What I had not realised is that a search for 'Peasant's Revolt' is different depending on where you live. So in Germany the search will result in a German 'Peasant's Revolt'. As it turns out every country has had some 'Peasant's Revolt' at some stage of history. I have not tested what results you will get if you search for the same 'event' elsewhere, e.g. in Italy, but I wouldn't be surprised if that gave an Italian 'Peasant's Revolt' as the top search result with the events of 1381 in England far, far down the list. This would be correct behaviour from the search engine but is still a filter bubble. It is okay for us to have different perspectives yet share the same facts and history.