Month: February 2015

Eli Pariser’s idea, that we are being isolated by our computer search filters is designed for maximum impact.  Since he is addressing a newly risen resurgence of a societal issue, it relates to the audience; everyone he is addressing is experiencing their own filter bubble, whether or not they know about it.  Pariser’s choice to present his ideas in a TED talk is important in that the TED series is focused on contemporary issues and looking at all sides of any issue.  In presenting the idea of informational isolation to a group like TED viewers, Pariser creates a stronger emotional reaction, one that is more likely to become a call to action.

Pariser wants human input in the filtering system.  His talk had the objective of shedding light onto the issue and calling for a more diverse set of information displayed to the user.  By showing both information we want right now and information we actually need, the system satisfies our curiosity and entertainment as well as providing us with information that we need as human beings and citizens of a democracy.

Pariser’s idea is not a new one, though he does do a very good job of simply stating the problem. The debate on how to prioritize massive amounts of information has been going back a log time.  His assessment that editors used to serve as gatekeepers and as a quality control system have general support by those in the industry.  He does fail to address how we should create filters that do as he suggests.  Current filters are designed to prioritize using previous data on what the user actually cares about, so how do we change that without simply diluting relevant information with useless data?

This title refers to a chapter in the book, “It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens,” written by Danah Boyd. This chapter is about how social media is actually increasing social divisions among race, rather than bringing them together like people expected. Based off of this information, I believe that the book was targeted towards educated individuals who are interested in the social divisions that are brought on in schools among teenagers. Boyd is trying to educate people on the relationship between social media and issues regarding race.

The book was published by Yale University Press. This shows that it is mainly used for educational purposes for people looking to gain more knowledge on the topic of segregation among teens. The book has a lot of valid information, because Boyd talked to many teens to get the information that she did regarding the topic of the chapter. The main idea of the text that I read was to talk about how digital technology that is developed always ends up being biased towards a specific race. Different social media platforms also end up being targeted towards a specific race or group of people. A quote from the book gives an example of this segregation in technology, “…many image-capture technologies have historically had difficulty capturing darker-skinned people because they rely on light…”

Regarding social media, many people thought that being online meant that nobody knew who you were, which would ultimately end the segregation. However, platforms such as Facebook and Myspace give out identities of its individual users. This means that segregations in schools, where students usually group together with people of their own race or social standing, will never be broken by social media. A girl named Kat explained how more of the ghetto students used Myspace in her school, while the white kids moved onto Facebook. This shows another way in which segregation occurs within social media, without even realizing it.

I understand where this article is going with the idea of segregation among races in school and social media. However, I don’t think anything will ever end this separation among people. Most people feel that they can relate more with people of their own race. I believe that it comes naturally. I can relate what Boyd talks about in this chapter to how my high school worked. You’d see specific sports associated with specific races, and while Facebook was used by everyone, most of the comments that were left on peoples pages were by people of their own race.

I appreciated how Boyd related technology being designed in terms of specific races, whether it’s done intentionally or not. I never realized this, until I read this chapter. I also appreciate how she started the chapter with a conversation with a girl who is negatively affected by segregation that occurs within her hometown. She doesn’t like how people associate gangs with black people. People stare if a group of black people are together and this prevents her from being able to go out as much as she’d like to. Her school is very segregated, to the point where they have specific names for groups of different races. This was a strong example of separation among races in schools and was a good way to start off the chapter.

One question that I have is, now that its come to the attention that some technologies are easier for specific races to use, should companies make other designs that are targeted towards other specific races? Are the current designs biased enough to begin making designs for specific races?

 

Danah Boyd’s book “it’s complicated” discusses the current conditions of modern social networking and the resulting implications that the implementation of technology has on teens.  This book was written so that teenagers, parents, teachers, or anybody that interacts with teenagers and social media on a regular basis would have insight and further knowledge as to what they actually see on social media as opposed to what it looks like on the surface.  The main idea that Boyd was trying to express in writing this piece was that prejudice still exists even with the implementation of social media.  The “techno-utopians” as he calls them, were wrong about technology being able to completely eradicate prejudice.  Many had believed that the internet and anonymity would make racism, sexism, and prejudice a thing of the past because these things would not be viewable online.  However, people still brought their same networks with them online and true anonymity proved to be very difficult to find.  Teens wanted to maintain the same social standing they had worked for in person when they went online, so as a result this same system transitioned onto the online world.  The internet ended up being just as segregated as the real world except magnified due to the fact that it exists publicly for all to see.  In writing this Boyd was hoping to make the reader aware of both the presence of prejudice that still exists in the world contrary to what some may claim.

I thought this piece was very good as it was a very accurate portrayal of the social media world that I have grown accustomed to and took into account what other actual teens were experiencing as opposed to simply trying to understand what was happening without actually asking the people using it.  What I enjoyed in this reading was seeing how every teen didn’t believe that they were prejudiced personally and then when they looked at the details of their social media lives they were actually interacting almost exclusively with peers that were members of similar socioeconomic status.  I find this interesting because I immediately thought of myself and went to examine my own social media accounts to determine if I had a similar subconscious discrimination.  What I found was that I was closer to the exception than the rule.  I played football in high school, a sport that was predominantly considered a “black sport” considering that I was one of 6 white kids on the team.  As a result of this I interact with members of other socioeconomic classes more than some of my other peers.  However, it was still noticeable that I did in fact interact with other white males more than any other group of people.  So, while I still somewhat interact with members of other classes I have mainly interacted with members of a similar class.

The major question that I am left with at the conclusion of this article is, with the tremendous potential that social media has for the eradication of prejudice what can we as teens who primarily inhabit this medium due to assist the process?

 

Eli Praiser gave a Ted Talk about “filter bubbles” and how they are negatively impacting our lives online. He found this shifting of how information flowed over the internet when he noticed that his conservative friends’  links disappeared from his Facebook. He realized he had been clicking on the liberal links more, and without consulting him about it, Facebook edited out his conservative friend’s links. This is true for other sites as well, including Google, who uses 57 different signals to personalize your query results. Your filter bubble is all of your personalized filters put together, to create your own “personal, unique universe of information that you live in online.” Essentially, our searches are loaded with information junk food because we usually click on what interests us first, not the “vegetables” that give us a balanced information diet. What you click on first becomes your bubble and blocks out everything else.

Praiser is trying to educate internet users about how these “filter bubbles” are not as great as some may initially think. His Ted Talk and book were filmed and published in 2011 (New York) and are still relevant now. All internet users should be aware of the filter bubbles so they know that they may not be getting the whole search. The main idea is that we need the web leaders to make sure that we get a say in what gets filtered so that we can be introduced to new ideas and different perspectives, rather than be isolated in our own information junk food. Praiser’s goal was to inform us about filter bubbles, because many do not know about them. It’s important to know how the internet shields you from valuable information just based on what you previously clicked on. The filter bubble takes away the opportunity for chance encounters that bring insight and learning. He wants people to understand the issue and pass it on, to hopefully start some kind of change.

I thought this Ted Talk, along with the introduction from his book were really eye-opening. I knew that sites tailored certain things based on your interests because I always see ads on Facebook from stores that I bought things from online. I never knew that everyone’s search on Google was different or that so many companies tailor their search to your previous clicks. I thought that everyone had the same page if they searched the same word on Google, so it was crazy and interesting to learn about this topic. I appreciated that Praiser realized how the filter bubbles aren’t a positive thing and informed us about the negative aspect of it. I also liked how he compared our searches to desserts and vegetables because that definitely helped me understand the concept better. Even though this was back in 2011, I can see that it is definitely still relevant now because of my experiences with internet ads. I agree that the filter bubble isn’t a good thing and that we should be cautious of it if we want to keep the internet’s role in our lives a positive one. I would ask Praiser who the new gatekeepers should be that take responsibility for the codes/algorithms and how we should go about avoiding the filter bubble as much as possible at the time being. I think it will take a while for any real change to happen, so I think we should all find a way to truly beware of our filter bubbles.