Mind Control and the Internet

In Eli Pariser’s:  Beware Online Filter Bubbles, he starts off talking about how the Internet was not a part of his everyday life as an adolescent. One interesting idea that he brings up is about how to people can search the same thing on Google but have different results. It is like Google knows exactly who you are when you are searching for something. The results that show up are what they want you to see, so ultimately you have no choice in what pops up. I actually find it quite interesting how two people who are searching for the same thing can come up with entirely different results based on what Google feels you as a viewer should see. In Pariser’s opinion, the Internet is becoming more personalized, and it does not show us what is irrelevant to our topics. I agree with him because the Internet chooses what it wants us to see. It can eliminate things right away just because it believes we have no use for that information.              

 Sue Halpern’s article, Mind Control and the Internet discusses Pariser’s ideologies in a similar light. She compares algorithms with Pariser’s ideas about the personalized search engines. Algorithms are the correctors that show the information to viewers that they feel is adequate for their searches. She agrees with Pariser’s idea because she also feels that Google hides information from its users that they are rightfully allowed to see. Google and other search engines make you see only what they feel is relevant to you, when in fact the information they are hiding from you could actually be useful as well.                                     

The last article Clive Thompson on High-Bandwidth Buddies, which is written by Clive Thompson, discusses the idea of homophily. This concept is about the trend of people to associate with others of the identical kind. He believes that we should not be exposed to the same ideas on the Internet, unlike Pariser’s and Halpern’s ideology. Thompson does not see the harm in Google or other search engines showing the viewer what they want them to see. He feels that everyone should not be exposed to the same ideas. Thompson ultimately wants society to break away from wanting people to see the same thing and accept the fact of being able to see different things on search engines.