Bubbles. Kari Haley/Flickr. Some rights reserved.People you may know. Pages you may like.
Our online lives may be more insular than we recognise, which negatively affects our civic life. The great amount of attention given to issues such as ‘fake news’ reflects a larger problem, the collapse of public discourse. We lack a common platform and understanding of what constitutes meaningful public discussion, which leaves public life on shaky grounds. Our current predicament is often framed as a function of the neoliberal age, resulting in increasingly atomised societies; loneliness is up while the emotional connections underpinning collectivist politics is down. Rapid technological advancement facilitates our increasing isolation from each other and the amorality of technology demands that instruments both reflect and further the user’s values – this is embodied by the rise of the so-called ‘bubble filter’ and its creation by neoliberal companies such as Amazon or Facebook.
Aptly named, the bubble filter is the effect created from tools, used by most major websites and social media platforms, to personalise the cyber experience. This effect is demonstrated, by users finding recommended resources and google results tailored to their previous activity. The ever-present barrage of personalised advertisements reflects capitalism’s tightening of the noose around the internet’s emancipatory potential; in a space where all information should be accessible, resources not deemed to match a user’s profile or previous activity are placed at the back of the proverbial line. The bubble filter both explains and creates a climate conducive to the rise of fake news. For the user, fake news is deemed trustworthy, as it is compatible with narratives and information previously presented to them within their insular online experience.
