Title: The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You
Author: Eli Pariser
Publisher: Penguin Press HC
Publication Date: May 12, 2011
Hardcover: 304 pages
ISBN: 978-1594203008
Genre: Cultural

From the Publisher:

An eye-opening account of how the hidden rise of personalization on the Internet is controlling-and limiting-the information we consume.

In December 2009, Google began customizing its search results for each user. Instead of giving you the most broadly popular result, Google now tries to predict what you are most likely to click on. According to MoveOn.org board president Eli Pariser, Google’s change in policy is symptomatic of the most significant shift to take place on the Web in recent years-the rise of personalization. In this groundbreaking investigation of the new hidden Web, Pariser uncovers how this growing trend threatens to control how we consume and share information as a society-and reveals what we can do about it.

Though the phenomenon has gone largely undetected until now, personalized filters are sweeping the Web, creating individual universes of information for each of us. Facebook-the primary news source for an increasing number of Americans-prioritizes the links it believes will appeal to you so that if you are a liberal, you can expect to see only progressive links. Even an old-media bastion like The Washington Post devotes the top of its home page to a news feed with the links your Facebook friends are sharing. Behind the scenes a burgeoning industry of data companies is tracking your personal information to sell to advertisers, from your political leanings to the color you painted your living room to the hiking boots you just browsed on Zappos.

In a personalized world, we will increasingly be typed and fed only news that is pleasant, familiar, and confirms our beliefs-and because these filters are invisible, we won’t know what is being hidden from us. Our past interests will determine what we are exposed to in the future, leaving less room for the unexpected encounters that spark creativity, innovation, and the democratic exchange of ideas.

While we all worry that the Internet is eroding privacy or shrinking our attention spans, Pariser uncovers a more pernicious and far- reaching trend on the Internet and shows how we can- and must-change course. With vivid detail and remarkable scope, The Filter Bubble reveals how personalization undermines the Internet’s original purpose as an open platform for the spread of ideas and could leave us all in an isolated, echoing world.

My Review:

I have always been leery of social networking, I share very little about myself and even less about my family, and after reading The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser I will be sharing even less.  Pariser takes the reader through what he refers to as the “filter bubble” leading readers inside the workings of major social networking sights along with the major sites such as Google and Facebook. Pariser tells how these sites are creating individualised “filter bubbles” which control what each of us see on a daily basis according to our clicking preferences.  I was curious to see what would happen if each of my family members Googled the exact same thing and low and behold, we all had different links suited to our presumed preferences.  As a political scientist I happen to like a broad spectrum of international news, my husband, a scientist received less on international relations and my teens received an eclectic array of links.  This worries me as it does author Eli Pariser, as more and more people come to find relationships and information on the internet. Are we being introduced to a wide range of thoughts and views or only those carefully chosen for us, individualised by the “filter bubble” to create an environment were what we see mirrors ourselves?  Pariser’s thoughts, research and interviews are extremely thorough, insightful, and he offers up ways to have the “filter bubble” work for the individual.  I highly recommend The Filter Bubble to anyone who happens to use a computer, especially to those who are exceedingly fond of social media sites.

About the Author:

Eli Pariser is the board president and former executive director of MoveOn.org, which at five million members is one of the largest citizens’ organizations in American politics. During his time leading MoveOn, he sent 937,510,800 e-mails to members in his name. He has written op-eds for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal and has appeared on The Colbert Report, Good Morning America, Fresh Air, and World News Tonight.

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I received an copy of The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.