I just finished reading an interview with the author of the book The Filter Bubble, Eli Pariser, on the issue of web personalization. Pariser states in his book that the promotion of web personalization within search engines and news aggregates is leading to society having a limited world view. Because websites such as Google and Yahoo News essentially cater search results according to that user’s typical clicks and interests, they are merely limiting the interaction that the user is having with the world. In turn, web users are receiving a convenient, tailored package of what they will want versus the gamut of world views and intellectual ideas to sift through. Therein lies the issue of whether web personalization is harmful to the socialization of contributing members of society? Are they only seeing what the aggregate wants them to see? Or, is this just the continuation of a long-time human error?
In the interview, Pariser concedes to the notion that personalization is more effective in that it saves the surfer from having to sort through millions of search results to find what they need. However, he believes that web personalization differs from people’s tendency to watch the same news network or read the same newspaper. Pariser states that people understand what the editing process is at Fox News Network and that certain information will be left out, whereas in the internet world people don’t realize that their searches have been altered to fit their past website views. I find this hard to believe. Given the amount of commentary I have personally witnessed and overheard in which individuals cite Fox News as a balanced, throroughly cited news source, I highly doubt that many people are media literate enough to know where their news comes from. Sure, for some it may be easy to comprehend how every form of media has their shortcomings in terms of accountability, bias, and truthfulness. For many, though, anything that is shown on television, printed in a newspaper, or plastered on a magazine cover must be true.
Pariser also states that his fear with web personalization is that people will stop caring about un-sexy stories, whether it be “homelessness, the war in Afghanistan, or the end of humanity altogether.” Mr. Pariser clearly has better faith in humanity than I do, because I’m convinced that people stopped caring about salacious stories upon the advent of yellow journalism well over a century ago. When I have to hear more about Snooki, Kate Gosselin, and Kim Kardashian on news networks than I do about issues that directly affect me, then clearly something has gone wrong. Personalization happens with every form of media at some point down the line, whether it’s when my Google results page loads or a producer tailors a newscast to get ratings. Everything we consume in media is based upon what most people like, how much they like it, and to what extent they will they listen to someone talk about it. Unfortunately, Arbitron and Nielsen have been doing analytics much longer than Google and this is simply a continuation of the cycle.
