# Filter your email

## Three rules for my Microsoft Outlook (from the bottom to the top):

1. Move messages from News at Northeastern to the folder ‘Nu News’.
2. Move messages from Adobe related address to the folder ‘Adobe Message’, and apply the "Red Category".
3. Move messages from Farfetch and HBX to the folder ‘Shopping’.


***
## Discussion for three readings:

- FS, 2017, “[How filter bubbles distort reality: Everything you need to know](https://fs.blog/2017/07/filter-bubbles/).”
- Eli Pariser, 2015, [“Did Facebook’s big study kill my filter bubble thesis?”](https://medium.com/backchannel/facebook-published-a-big-new-study-on-the-filter-bubble-here-s-what-it-says-ef31a292da95)
- Brooke Gladstone, 20110617, [“The echo chamber revisited.”](https://www.wnyc.org/story/143347-echo-chamber-revisited)

All three articles discuss issues related to the filter bubbles, and I would like to talk about my personal experience related to such a phenomenon. Filter bubbles refer to information created by algorithms according to uses’ choices. To be specific, what we have searched and what our friends have searched determine what the Internet will show us. Finally, the filter bubbles will create echo chambers which is an enclosed space full of what we are interested in and what we agree with. It can be understood as personalized customized service, but it also isolates us from outside views.

Fs mentioned “Each time we click, watch, share, or comment, search engines, and social platforms harvest information. In particular, this information serves to generate targeted advertisements” (FS, 2017). I agree with that point because I believe that many people may have the same experience as me. For example, if you have liked or commented on a short video on Tiktok, you will receive videos of the same type or the same publisher many times in the future. My friends and I all find this trend and algorithm, and we started to like videos we like to watch so that the backstage will recommend more similar videos to us.

I think the real change in my mind about filter bubbles stems from my Co-op experience. I took Co-op in a Media agency. The main work is to collect social media data to find the influencer that best fits clients’ products, and Pay the platform for massive promotion. Since the user clicks on such posts, the filter bubbles will recommend more similar posts with the same product to you, but change to another influencer. This phenomenon is also called Reputation Silos which refers to “looking at us, collecting data, analyzing it, predicting what we do and then targeting us with ads, discounts and eventually news and information” (Gladstone,2011). In the other words, if you do not know filter bubbles, your worldview is easily shaped by the internet like what Pariser said: “The more we’re able to interrogate how these algorithms work and what effects they have, the more we’re able to shape our own information destinies” (Pariser,2015).

FS (2017) also mentioned ways to conquer the filter bubbles, such as deleting website cookies history or using the browser without logging in to your account. These methods are indeed practical, but I think I have a different one. I accept effects that filter bubbles and echo chambers bring, but I don’t think the filter bubbles are accurate enough to filter the comments. Everyday posts on social media are delivered to different users since there are overlapping echo chambers. Thus, different comments will appear. Take vaccines as an example, It is inevitable to click news related to vaccines since the world is paying attention to it. Some news will explain the extent to which these vaccines can fight the virus, as well as their obvious side effects such as fever. However, there will be comments in the comment area, such as hair loss and anxiety after vaccination. I will go to search keyword vaccine and hair loss to avoid always receiving similar content. After searching the different aspects of the same news, the filter bubbles will provide you with information from many different aspects (side effects exceed hair loss and anxiety). However, I think people’s lives are not only carried out on the Internet, and other opinions can always be heard in real life. So there is no need to be too anxious about this phenomenon.