Beware online "filter bubbles" | Eli Pariser
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- čas přidán 1. 05. 2011
- www.ted.com As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there's a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a "filter bubble" and don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Eli Pariser argues powerfully that this will ultimately prove to be bad for us and bad for democracy.
Read our community Q&A with Eli (featuring 10 ways to turn off the filter bubble): on.ted.com/PariserQA - Věda a technologie
"You liked this video. We'll use this to improve your recommendations."
I am a proud bubble.
hmm..... not necessarily bad in the sense that yes I would like to know more about this kind of stuff, but changing preferences based on one video is stupid. I watched a number of film reviews from a CZcamsr but none of his videos were later suggested to me, had to revisit history to check up on her. But I once clicked on a very right-wing channel and I constantly got their videos popping up
It been 11 years for this man imagine where he at now 🤔
@@verticalvorce8938 dog that’s crazy asf to think about
😅
CZcams does this too, even with the comments. The YT comments look entirely different depending on who is logged on.
This speech is waaay ahead of its time and super relevant to 2019
It was just as relevant back then.
It's become worse. However, I dispute "personalisation". They don't show me what I want, instead they are showing me what they want.
I fear this might be an important part to why there is so much polarization at this moment towards face masks and racism.
And 2020 even more so.
TOWER OF BABEL
watching this in 2021. This man was ahead of the game
Not Really Ahead Of The Game? The Game Never Changed
@@HunnitAcreWoods the game is subjective
@@Tu_Madre. the game is mind control, doesn’t change
@@HunnitAcreWoods perhaps that’s YOUR GAME but it is not limited to only that. What exactly are you trying to prove?? Lol
@@Tu_Madre. i see, so filter bubbles exist because mind control is “my game”
Great take. Enjoy
I think this is why there's an increasing divide in our politics. Everyone is spending more time online, and they're spending more time in their bubbles of news that cater to their opinions. People become more opinionated and emotional when they're met with someone who doesn't agree with them on a more mainstream platform (like CZcams), and people viciously fight, then retreat back into their news bubbles, and the cycle repeats itself. Google is doing this knowingly, but I can't place my finger as to why they are. This is what happens when you have customers (in this case, advertisers) who are fighting for the spot on the front page of a Google search, I guess. In the case of Facebook, I guess that explains why they were valued so high during their IPO. Advertisers and sellers of products want Facebook to find their markets for them. They want to sell things to their customers - customers who are people who might not even be aware themselves that they are a customer of so-and-so company. Same thing for CZcams.
All of this is a result of greed for user information and advertisers selling and Google/Facebook selling that ad space.
So much this
Because google is selling a product. If people see stuff they like more (I.E reaffirm their opinions) they're more likely to use the service more often.
damn capitalism
This is it exactly...and not only is it creating factions, but convincing people they are 100% right by constant reinforcement and it’s also convincing people that the others are 100% stupid. Television media is also split, which boosts this mindset, creates divisions.
I tell you the truth- whatever news broadcast you watched this past month would probably dictate to you whose side you’d be on in this recent Kavanaugh hearing. If you watched Fox, Ford had absolutely no case and her story was “full of holes”, but if you watched CNN, Ford came across as completely believable. You’ll be told a different story and it will dictate what you believe to be the truth.
It’s all about what you hear...at least until you choose to do some major contemplating and thinking, investigating...then and only then might you start to see things differently, but people don’t typically make time for that. There’s also personal bias as well- we only know what we know and can fathom from there. And sometimes what we think we know, we actually don’t. Internet just serves as a reinforcement of ideas we search for. Unless we purposely look up the opposite, but who does that?
I think the Google algorithm was trying to make us happy by attempting to make the bubbles smaller to get back to tight nit communities like the early days and the informational isolation is just a side effect to this.
Perhaps broadening the bubbles topics would work (ie. Right wing, Into, political) creating venn diagrams.
It’s 2020 and I wish more people were aware of this... our society is tearing at the seams.
THANK YOU SO MUCH, nobody at my work place ever believes what I say about the problem with social media, this presentation explains things so well, I'm so happy there's people out there that share my thoughts!
I’ve just stumbled upon this clip that was posted over a decade ago, but it still resonates with the challenges we face in today’s generation.
No puedo creer que estoy haya sido dicho en 2011 y recien ahora nos empezamos a enterar de este control sobre nuestro uso en las redes sociales! han pasado literalmente diez años y no ha cambiado absolutamente nada! gran charla, en su momento, habrá sido una gran revelación y un desafío hacerla, y escucharla.
exacto, un genio, y aún seguimos dormidos en el mismo aspecto.
I actually stood up and clapped for this one....even though I'm at home. We NEED to make sure this issue get resolved. I've sent it to everyone in my contacts. Good one TED.
Reminds me of the Big Brother-ly advertising scenario in the film "Minority Report," where the environment scanned you and targeted you with specific products they knew you wanted--and the government scanned peoples' retinas on public transportation in order to watch you. But I'm not paranoid.
exactly hahaha we'll be there eventually
Just because I'm paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get me.
Excellent talk, highlighting the dark side of personalisation.
I hope the algorithm loops this one around every so often. Literacy on this subject is fast becoming a requirement.
The problem is that most people really don't care staying in their own bubble, and actually don't like getting out of it. Progressive people who like to talk to conservatives are very rare, as rare as conservatives willing to talk to progressives...
Or is it that people staying in their own bubble don’t believe they’re doing so because there becoming progressive within it? A false sense of progressiveness...or is it? Or is a more fine tuning of that bubble? More specialized? Exacting? Isolating, certainly.
By seeking to make a change as a progressive when said change becomes the norm & later tradition.
To preserve it across generations would it just make the title progressive & conservative dependent on who's against you?
@@yato4302 yes that's actually exactly what the terms mean as far as I'm aware (pretty old comment but oh well)
John McCain and Joe Biden were from different parties, but they had one of the most enduring friendships in the Senate.
You won't find AOC and Ted Cruz sitting together at lunch, that's for sure
@@PenaltyKillah
Right NoName and Buyden have no problem selling out their country.
His book on this, is nothing short of incredible. It is direct, on the spot, and loaded with clarity. Eli isn't the greatest public speaker (I'm watching this video, after having read the book)... but his book on this (The Filter Bubble) is one of the most vital reads out there today. He goes into incredible depth about the colossal consequences of what companies like Facebook, Google, MSN, Axciom, are already doing with the immense amount of private info we handover.
Oh no. It's only gotten worse. It's at the point that some people are unwilling to have conversations with people they have strong disagreements with. How am I supposed to determine what positions I hold are misguided if I can't participate in honest conversations about any-and-all topics?
ive reached the peak of my filter bubble and now im BORED
+Jess Chappell Haha good one. Anything change?
So relatable
Start a sport maybe?
I clicked "Like" to this vid...and ironically CZcams spit out "You liked this video. We'll use this to improve your recommendations."
awesome
One of my favorite TedTalks to date. Good job.
It's very interesting to see the implications of the filter bubble, when at times the conversation has been about the filter saving us from 'information overload'.
Wow! It took me almost 9 years to see this video and I did it only because it was a task in a course I'm doing. It's high time I tried different search engines.
Anyone else notice that the title isn't grammatically correct. It is missing the word "of"...
The actual problem is the personal bias of the people who set the algorithms.
Somebody just brought his TED talk to my attention. While it's from 2011 it's still relevant. Just wanted to share it with you
1:15
2011 "I'm progressive politically...I'm clicking more on the liberal links...And I noticed the conservatives have disappeared from my feed."
2021 I'm conservative politically...I'm clicking more on the conservative links...And I noticed the conservatives have disappeared from my feed as well.
Interesting.
Hi,
I found this fascinating, and would love to turn off the personalisation filter, but following the link in the description I could not find the information anywhere. If someone could swing me a link I'd appreciate it.
It's called "duck duck go" instead of Egolog.
I agree with this talk that points out the problems of personalizing Internet algorithms. Corporate personalization strategies for profit-seeking undermine the intrinsic value of the Internet, which can eventually unify users' thinking. Therefore, companies should make efforts to properly control the "filter bubble" through a thorough review of algorithm personalization.
7:45
Its extremely sad to see how this is all getting worse.
How do I get some of these presentations to my elected representatives: Senators, Representatives, State Senators, State Representatives? Also, how do I get it to the FTC and FCC?
+Dennis Boyer Sometimes it's as simple as visiting your elected rep's Facebook page, posting this video, and asking how he or she could address it.
(Just make sure that your rep is active on his page...IE, his posts or her posts are current, and that he or she responds to comments.)
If you're really interested in this stuff... You could perhaps e-mail or message your family members who might have a good grasp of how social media and politics works....And ask them how this could be addressed.
The most important thing is: WHO decides what is important and what is not? Zuckerberg? A burocrat in UN, EU or other politician? Then we're back to gatekeepers...
"Fact checkers" - just another name for official censors.
It's mainly algorithms, that learn from huge chunks of past data
TOWER OF BABEL
Thank you for this one! Bursting one’s imagination bubble will definitely be hard for the mainstream media. Of course, they are already earning that way. Why try something risky? This one is the sure deal. Those who want to get something new could always search for other materials that may not be on the Web.
This reminds me of the old AOL walled gardens that the internet was in the early/mid 90's
Someone needs to send this video to the CEO of Netflix.
Man, this was prescient.
Great topic.
There's a difference between direction and denial. It's one thing to push a controversial item to a person whom isn't impacted, but another to refuse requested information to another who searches for it.
Vidiots remain as such. Those in search of something greater will seek it out volitionally. This can be viewed as a maturation process.
Providing information doesn't bestow the responsibility or desire to use it.
Yes, I'm glad that this topic have been bring up to TEDtalk.
Such filtering and "adjustments" of search results is been irritating me personally for years now. And it's getting only worse.
I do think these filters are "innocent", in that it's optimising the likelihood of people clicking into a link by showing them what they want so that it maximises ad revenue, but he's right, it's also important that we know what those filters are and have the ability to disable them should we choose to, but this video is quite old now, has this improved?
we just seen the result of this on Paris Attack and the Beirut, There was a big empathy gap and this might be reason
+Y Nish I heard about it two days later from my friends; I didn't even know it happend until they told me. I wish there was an option to turn them off, other than using a private browsing feature.
omg. I have been working on finding a solution for this problem for a year. This guy describes the problem so well!
I click on a TED video from my CZcams homepage and then I start clicking on all the TED videos suggested, and there goes my day.
More relevant today than ever...
It's so true but the question is HOW do we do that? How can we stop search results from being specific to people and reinforcing their own biases?
Use vpn
Use browsers that don't store your personal information, such as DuckDuckGo or TOR.
First step:
Use a browser which, unlike the toxic mainstream ones (e.g. google chrome, microsoft edge, internet explorer, firefox,) will not annihilate your privacy for the purpose of political, influential, and/or monetary gains. The commenter above mentioned one great example already, which is a browser called *TOR.* That's a very good one for privacy. *Vivaldi* is also a great, new browser still being developed but it is quite fantastic already. It's very similar in feel and appearance to google chrome and it's incredibly customizable. Another browser that lots of people like is called *Opera.*
Second Step:
*DITCH. GOOGLE.*
Try to ditch every possible google service in every possible situation that you can manage. Google is becoming increasingly terrifying and sinister, and we, the consumers, are the *ONLY* ones left with the ability to take the power away from them. The *BEST alternative search engine ever* is called *DuckDuckGo.* They even have a blog about this very issue (www.spreadprivacy.com) which has tons of fantastic tips on how to take back your privacy from these scary corporate and government entities which seek to brainwash us all for their own gain. We need to get as many people as possible to switch to the duck side!! It's an infinitely better search engine for so many reasons, and in all seriousness, it's important for the good of humanity that we take away as much power from Google/Alphabet (its parent company) as possible.
0myjoe
@@disloyal I know that this is 2 years old but I want to say that DuckDuckGo and Tor are both as infiltrated and as useless. We can't do anything I'm afraid. I use Qwant. But whatever.
@mikesomething i think the point is that a lot of people use the internet to show them a menu, a lineup, of what information is OUT THERE.
They may not want to taste everything on the menu, but it's handy to know what the restaurant serves as it can give you an idea of what meals the general populace prefers.
We humans instinctively notice trends, it's an integral part of living in a society.
Anyone notice how good this guy is in making analogies and making it understandable for everyone? Quite impressive.
Agree with the points, of course, I think a lot of us daily internet users have been noticing this. Let's hope Google and other companies listen to this.
Thanks man was using it as a reference for a paper just didn't know the exact location
Way ahead of his time as Twitter dumps are proof of this...
Nice resume, I could almost imagine his next statement "let me with my understanding of the shortcomings of the filter system based on my progressive criteria." In reality we need to devise an algorithm that can fairly and reasonably determine the keywords for each site rather than allowing commercial entities to sandbag the keywords to get into more and more screens as the top pick. He eloquently made a great point for those that had not thought about their search results.
Really an eye opener for me, I never looked at web personalization this way. Again TED does what it does best.
Pretty uncomfortable, important, challenging stuff :) thanks, TED!
"You liked this video. We'll use this to improve your recommendations." lololol
I just clicked the option that shows all posts from Facebook. Needless to say, the spectrum of posts was a lot different. I will start talking to friends I haven't talked with in months, or even years.
I've been waiting to see someone address this topic.
how about give the user an off switch, to remove algorithms and filters, so we can be delivered unassuming, unbiased data and experience, like the old days? should be easy to do, please don't make us pay for it.
But Google wants that advertsing money.
Dont be evil
only we get to do that Lol.
The ethics of Big Tech seem to be based on "society is using our services for free, so for payment we'll use society as our guinea pigs without candor"
What? There was a crisis in Egypt?
Idk I guess so
I can see his concern over it, because there are too many people that can't be bothered googling anything beyond a cake recipe and the latest gossip. I've grown up in a whole community like that - trying to have an intellectual debate with anyone over world news was impossible. Not to mention it's a bit of a slippery slope - we're not government employees so we'll just filter out what the government's doing. Oh wait. That's already happening.
*2021: App is asking to track your activity
This talk is absolutely ahead of it's time
12...years...later...🤦🏻♀️
This is great, and I'm glad he addressed this issue, but ultimately we as internet users have to take responsibility for what we see. We should proactively leave our own information comfort zone and seek out different perspectives. I suppose being aware of this filtering activity is the first step to knowing that we may be missing something.
"but ultimately we as internet users have to take responsibility for what we see." But exactly how are we going to change this? Since this is not our interests, but the internet's interest? We have no control over what Google or any other site shows us.
definitely a valid point, and I'd say make any filter an option they should advertise, not impose upon you. with the ability to toggle, it's all fine and dandy. being one of those who grew up with the internet as my "only friend" i'm worried to see it get filtered to a bubble around each new person who joins it.
I didn't think of this but it explains a lot - one of the talks topics that I blindly missed - very interesting.
This is just feeding our confirmation bias...
The algorithms are coming! The algorithms are coming!
@yuanster I totally agree that personalization shouldnt be abandoned but it MUST be watched and regulated.
In 2020, it looks as though this was wayyyy ahead of its time. It has only become far worse.
Why would curated filtering even be a thing in the first place? The internet isn't primarily for entertainment. Or at least it shouldn't be... I could see something like this being necessarily for CZcams (maybe), but not Google's search engine. Google says "don't be evil"... yet this is one of the most evil things you could do.
+Steve From Management because THAT would be dangerous. imagine a real free flow of information and no censorship and/or propaganda.
this is one way to limit the damage while giving the illusion of freedom.
The rationale behind Google is simple and benign: this filtering helps YOU find what YOU'RE looking for _faster_.
Every time what you're looking for is on the first page, that's Google's filtering at work.
In theory, its a really great, helpful idea.
It is easy to come up with a benign reverse-justification for action that violates accepted principle. What's really going on here is that social media giants are crafting algorithms that decide _for the user_ what the user sees. The original operator-driven sorting that made search engines great is practically gone from the internet. A search engine isn't a 'search' the way you could search a news or library index in decades past. It has become digitally curated to show the user content that will insulate rather than stimulate them.
There is another TED talk by Malcolm Gladwell on variability in personal taste. I think that Google and every other social media site and search engine trying to keep pace with Google, is applying these lessons in the wrong way. Most people aren't going to hate or stop using a particular search engine just because they saw something curious, provocative, or disturbing. What Eli is saying is the effect of these filtering algorithms ( which +cbn620 commented on above) is to take away the need to be mentally and emotionally robust while wading through a sea of data to find - whatever. Sometimes people don't run a search looking for something in particular; they run a search to see what comes up, and they interpret what comes up as *_the_*_ most relevant_ results. When different people get different results for an identical search on an identical engine at the same time - that is distorting people's view of a topic or event to diverge _based on their existing views and habits:_
Put another way: The affect of filter bubbles is to keep us where we're at -mentally, socially, emotionally - instead of being provoked and challenged to think, feel, contemplate, and grow.
"Don't ask for security - ask for adventure! Better to live thirty years full of adventure than a hundred years safe in a corner."
-Jim Rohn
welcome to the end of civilization, you get to see it live... enjoy
I agree about this topic.Whenever I search for something it is completely different from what a originally search for especially Google. They give me results of information that im not even looking for. Some people don't really pay attention to real information, we just pay attention to what information we know. We always depend on the popular social sites like Facebook, twitter, CZcams to keep up with society and scary to know that these websites know what links we click on.
The notion of 'filter bubbles' makes a lot of sense. The goal of many big internet entities (instagram, facebook, ...) is to keep as many humans on their site, clicking through content, for as long as possible. They typically use a targeted advertising revenue model, in which they get paid to serve ads to a captive audience.
It is hard to say how it will all turn out, but it is definitely worth thinking about.
What happened to ethics, morals, and basic concerns for the needs of others? We have a self serving, greedy society without any absolutes or boundaries. Our young people don't understand respect and our values are very pathetic!
Valerie Nicholson Was with ya until you blamed the young folks. You know it’s not just them, right?
That explains why I get different search results when working with my clients. I share screens via Skype and always see how different information is related to me vs. my clients in Italy or Canada, etc.. I still don't see the need to have these filters, unless we can 'control' the filters which will filter out those subjects (like negative keywords).
I only found out about his book in 2023, listening to this is just spot on. 👏🏽
where some people see filtering as convenient I have to say it concerns me, not just where and when it will stop but how so many people simply don't see its implications.
At TED. TED is only in Long Beach (just moved permanently to Vancouver). All those other events are TEDx events. Indie events not formally sponsored by TED. There is also a TEDGlobal which moves about. Last year in Edinburgh. This year coming in Rio.
This was an excellent presentation. Bravo!
What an amazing presentation... I'm writing a semester paper on the dangers of big tech to civil discourse and thus indirectly (and sometimes directly) free speech. This is my starting point (I'm also discussing biased algorithms, and big tech's relationship with government). Open to suggestions for videos/articles to research.
do you still got it? Im doing a similar topic for my semesterpaper
Wow, I really wasn't expecting standing ovation for this one. Cool. Great talk.
@mickhalsband There need to be search algorithms that search on your keywords and phrases. Those need to be the algorithms' filter criteria, not some vendors' criteria. It would then be up to the user to filter in or filter out the various results to obtain what he needs or wants.
Is that John McNamee in the background top left at 1:05?? I’m here because of his book “Zucked” lol
Man, Big Tech has divided us with it's anti-social networking sites quicker than you can say "duck duck go".
Saw this when it first came out, keet thinking internet bubbles instead... Covid happened and caused us to isolate and be locked in our "filter" or reenforced it. Decided to watch it again after so long and we are definitely reaching the extreme point.
Thanks so much for this video! This is an amazing beautiful and useful speech!
I can't believe this was 12 years ago, it feels like RIGHT NOW. Holy heck.
Also Instagram. I hate that I can't find stuff that I'm looking for, instead getting more and more recommendations based on what I already have.
This video was great at touching upon aspects of technology and how it is the major contributor to pollution and psychological issues on society. It can negatively impacts children’s development and cause issues such as depression and anxiety.
Excellent talk, I have definitely noticed this and as mentioned youtube is horrible for this. The worst part is it doesn't even seem to prioritise my favourite channels/topics I just get the inbetweeners for the most part on my main page, stuff I kind of like but not the stuff I really want to see.
this one is really timely, what are we losing to sales/advertising considerations
@weaselfang agreed, thing is we need to be able to control if we are in the mood for Ace Ventura web browsing or a more intelect-chalanging browsing... 9 out of 10 times we might want the Ace Ventura experience but that doesn't mean those 9 times should determine what we get ALL THE TIME...because that tenth time helps us develope as people instead of feeding the person we already are.
this TED Talk is a must view for anyone interested in democracy and in personal growth
From a development perspective the goal is to enhance the experience for the user. Countless people protested about not seeing the specific tailored content they wanted when using earlier search engines in web 1.0 and then sites like metacrawler and Google. Google became a juggernaut because of this. People are so difficult to please so you have to take some complainers with any good product, they will always be there...hopefully though there are more people that are happy about your work!~
It's all about getting that Signal to Noise ratio right.
Most of the time you just want the signal,
...but often the noise will inspire you.
@danielsmedegaardbuus It does not necessarily matter whether we can process all available information.
There are some areas of common ground for everybody.
It would not be difficult at all for something like google to either not filter search results or else give users options as to how results are filtered.
Isn't it ironic how this was released not only in coincidence with your book release, but then also popping up into my bubble on this day the 16th. Just noticed it, nothing personal. Enjoyable talk Eli.
A legend shared this to me after randomly seeing my reply online. This is dope
Shout out to Sean A..
This really was interesting and does answer some questions. Im not surprised at the filtering, but not happy either. It may save time but ultimately, I don't like the fact that to find opposing points of view it will take me longer. I havent seen Facebook editing my friends posts from showing up though.
The real problem is simply that they do not tell us they are doing it - personalization can be useful after all. In FB you can use 'Edit options' for your newsfeed to be 'Show posts from: All of your friends...' rather than the default '...interact with the most'. I n Google, adding "&pws=0" to the url apparently lets you disable it, but cookies and being logged in may also affect it.
In the beginning of internet I used to visit places from all the world. I used to meet people from all the countries. Now I usually only see news, videos and products from my country. Search engines, social sites, are more especialized, but more closed.
You have to actively find alternative sources of viewpoints and information now (through blogs, following links, etc..) . Google, Yahoo, etc.. they do too much behind the scenes filtering to be a first source of information now (We'll i still use them for basic stuff but mostly to search Wikipedia).
@DOHC2L I think what is implied in what he is saying is that many users are not aware enough to detect what is going on. Also implied is that a user shouldn't have to go off-track from his surfing and searching to conduct an investigation as to why he is getting the results he is getting and whether someone is intervening somehow.
I believe that sometimes we want/need our information filtered. Personally, I am okay that Netflix is doing that. But, on the other hand, I am open to hearing ideas that are not aligned with my own and want to see and hear other points of view. I have friends on facebook that are both alike and different from my views. I do not want to see the ones that are different filtered out. I can filter them out if I want to.
How about a user choice of search bias based on:
1. Your browsing Habits.
2. The Most Popular Browsing Habits on the Web
3. The Most Popular Browsing Habits In Your Area.
4. The Most Highly-Funded Sponsored Content (Corporate Mainstream).
5. Technical, Educational and Intellectual Content.
6. Entertainment Content.
7. The most recently uploaded content.
8. Content That is Opposite From Your Browsing Habits.
9. Completely Random Content, No "Matching" Algorythms.