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Baby Carrots, the Internet, and The Filter Bubble
Why would a web service filter the information that I see?
The information created in the entire history of humanity until 2010 is the same amount of information created online every two days. To filter that vast set of information, web companies have adopted the, “if you like this, you’ll like that” approach to curation.
What started as a tool for presenting product preferences quickly became a model for presenting information, says Eli Pariser, author of The Filter Bubble. Today’s holy grail of web curators: Relevance.
We are each surrounded by a membrane of filters that determine what information comes in and what is left out. We are unaware of the processes that determine these filters.
Three challenges presented by this filter bubble include:
The Distortion Problem
The “like” concept creates a bias. It’s easy to like a marathon, but not so easy to like genocide in Darfur. That doesn’t mean the news is not relevant.
Balance
Filters diminish balance. We want to see news about Justin Bieber, but that needs to be balanced with news about Afghanistan. We eat the junk food we crave but we should target the nutrition we need.
A Matter of Control
We are putting increasing power in the hand of computer algorithms to tell us what to view. Editors used to serve as gatekeepers to information. The Internet swept away gatekeepers. The new gatekeepers are code. These new gatekeepers don’t even have the pretense of civic ethics that the old gatekeepers did.
What can be done?
- Algorithm Ethics: Data sorts need to cause us to encounter multiple points of view.
- Filter Literacy: As we consider digital literacy, we need to consider our knowledge of the filters.
- Baby Carrots: Because people’s information environments are much more personalized, we need to ensure that the “nutritious snacks” make it through the filter bubble.
“We need the Internet to be as good as we hoped it would be.
And it won’t if we’re stuck in a bubble of one.”
- Eli Pariser
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s 2012 Media Learning Seminar in Miami Florida brought together leaders of community foundations, media professionals, technology entrepreneurs, researchers, educators, and foundation staff in the foundation’s quest for informed and engaged communities. I attended as a representative of the James L. Knight School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte, a grantee of Knight Foundation. Read my articles on the conference here.
Academically Adrift (Arum & Roksa, 2011)
Academically Adrift: Limited learning on college campuses (by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, 2011)
Almost half of students in college may not learn anything in their first two years, say authors Arum and Roksa. In a discussion at Queens University of Charlotte’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), faculty members from around the university discussed this issue and its ramifications for teaching.
Arum and Roska point to graduates’ ability to think critically as the intended result of a collegiate education. Some of the issues related to success in this area include:
- Expectations of teachers: Often, teachers ask too little of their students.
- Amount of reading required in the class: 40 pages (or more) per week stimulates critical thinking and learning.
- Time spent studying: Individual or collective time spent with course information improves learning.
These issues surround faculty expectation and student motivation which function hand-in-hand. “When you have students reporting spending fewer than 5 hours per week studying, something is wrong with the college and university model,” says Arum. ”Colleges and universities that are more selective tend to ask more of their students.” How then do instructors and students negotiate a shared understanding of expectations.
The issue for us is creating an academic institution that fosters growth in critical thinking. The students who really learn are the ones who have the ability to distill information and process it. Our job is to teach them how to independently process information from a variety of sources – to teach them how to “self-teach.”
The faculty’s conversation surrounded Queens’ CORE program in the liberal arts; the need for developmental reading and writing programs, first-year experience programs, and coordination with student development offices; student retention; and the opportunity to innovate in student programming.
The conversation continues.
What’s Mine is Yours (Botsman & Rogers, 2010)
What’s Mine is Yours: The rise of collaborative consumption by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers (2010)
“I knew I would love the book when I read the first paragraph,” says Catherine Whittaker. “After I read it, I was glad I borrowed it from the library.”
The embedded lesson in the book is the gross consumption of material items with little regard for waste. Instead, society is moving toward collaborative consumption. What’s old is new again.
Millennials are spearheading efforts toward collaborative consumption, which the authors divide into three models:
- Product service systems: utilizing shared products, like cars or bicycles, reduces the necessity of ownership.
- Re-distribution markets: purchasing used goods gives new life to old items and keeps them out of a landfill.
- Collaborative lifestyles: technology allows for collaboration and conversation, citizen space, shared workspace, and the development of social capital.
Whittaker quotes the book, saying, “What people want is the hole, not the drill.” The challenge is to produce the whole without having to contribute to consumption by buying the drill.
- Overall Response: Read the book. Then, share it.
Previous Reviews of this book: Fall 2010 Part 1; Fall 2010 Part 2
About Digital Media Book Club: In the growing field of strategic communication, social media rockstars, academics, and digital thinkers are investing time and energy to share their learning with others. In my Digital Strategic Communication class, students in the Master of Arts in Organizational and Strategic Communication program at Queens University of Charlotte are sifting through a variety of texts to discover the embedded wisdom. These are their thoughts and reactions.
Switch (Heath & Heath, 2010)
Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard by Chip & Dan Heath (2010)
Change is often hard in any circumstance. The Heath brothers take on this issue by breaking change down into three specific areas that could each serve as catalyst for change. According to Laura Tillistrand, Leasa Tvedt, Leah Beth Parsons, and Jakita Jones, the Heath brothers successfully build their argument using a metaphor of a rider sitting atop an elephant in motion.
- Direct the Rider (think). The rider can see beyond the present, but can get stuck in thinking and not doing. Specific behavioral changes – like identifying successes, writing manageable plans, and pointing toward the destination – can help to direct a thought process toward change.
- Motivate the Elephant (feel). The elephant does the major work for the group, and its feelings can shape the way it moves. Specific behavioral changes – like identifying feelings, shrinking perceptions of obstacles, and investing in the strength of workers – can direct an organization’s members through change. According to Parsons, “the leader’s issue is confidence, but the workers’ issue is motivation.”
- Shape the Path (environment). The environment, rather than an individual, may be the root cause of obstacles to change. Specific behavioral changes – like modifying the elements of a situation, encouraging good habits, and rallying advocates to the cause – may shape a situation and render it ripe for change.
“We’re not trying to change the people, but rather to tweak the situation or the mindset or the behavior in hopes that it inspires change,” says Tillistrand.
“I used these principles today,” says Tvedt, “and that’s how you switch.”
- Overall Response: The book practices what it preaches by breaking down the situation into manageable units that seem perfectly feasible.
About Digital Media Book Club: In the growing field of strategic communication, social media rockstars, academics, and digital thinkers are investing time and energy to share their learning with others. In my Strategic Communication classes, students in the Master of Arts in Organizational and Strategic Communication program in the Knight School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte are sifting through a variety of texts to discover the embedded wisdom. These are their thoughts and reactions.
Made to Stick (Heath and Heath 2007)
Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die (Heath & Heath, 2007)
To make the book stick in our minds, Jim Shoff and Miranda Ervin turn back to an interview with the authors on NPR. ”The curse of knowledge is the arch-villain in our book,” they say. “If you know something, it’s hard to not know it.”
To illustrate, we played the tapper and listener game. Jakita Jones tapped a her pen on the table. She knew what she was tapping but we didn’t. She tapped and tapped a rhythm until Chanee Vijay noted that it was the rhythm of a song (“Happy Birthday to You”). Once we recognized, we couldn’t think the rhythm was anything else. Don’t think it applies to you? Try it with a friend. You’ll know the rhythm, but it will take them a moment to realize what’s happening. And, once they know, they know.
The authors offer six core principles to make ideas stick:
- Simplicity
- Unexpectedness
- Concreteness
- Credible
- Emotional
- Shared in Stories
Ervin has already applied this book to her own coaching. After deciding on the slogan “No Matter What,” she worked on her team’s unity with a clear vision for success. Each teammate created her own commitment – My ‘no matter what’ is…” – and shared her commitment to success with the team.
- Overall Response: Excellent book of communication strategies to help get your messages across.
About Digital Media Book Club: In the growing field of strategic communication, social media rockstars, academics, and digital thinkers are investing time and energy to share their learning with others. In my Strategic Communication classes, students in the Master of Arts in Organizational and Strategic Communication program in the Knight School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte are sifting through a variety of texts to discover the embedded wisdom. These are their thoughts and reactions.
Employees First, Customers Second (Nayar, 2010)
Employees First, Customers Second: Turning conventional management upside down (Nayar, 2010)
“Usually business books focus on the what,” says Stacey Randall. “This book is focused on the how – the process.” Employees First, Customers Second is a vehicle for transparency in an organization. Nayar describes the process utilized by his company, HCL, to create a successful business practice across four steps:
- Mirror, Mirror: Defining where we are as a group of employees and building desire for change.
- Trust Through Transparency: The organization builds internal credibility through open communication with employees.
- Inverting the Organizational Pyramid: accountability is no longer hierarchical, but rather systemic.
- Recasting the Role of CEO: creating sustainable change at the top.
Nayar inverted the “knowledge is power” model, says Randall, by providing financial data to all employees, utilizing internal social media platforms to answer questions about the company, and giving frank answers with full information to any employee who requested it. Employees in the organization flourished. Customers responded.
One criticism of this book is that it is a case study of successful organizational change, absent of the pitfalls of a failed attempt. The communication structures in an organization have unique issues that could be informed by this model.
- Overall response: A practical book by and for change agents in management. Can flipping the model work for every organization? Yet to be determined.
About Digital Media Book Club: In the growing field of strategic communication, social media rockstars, academics, and digital thinkers are investing time and energy to share their learning with others. In my Strategic Communication classes, students in the Master of Arts in Organizational and Strategic Communication program in the Knight School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte are sifting through a variety of texts to discover the embedded wisdom. These are their thoughts and reactions.
Engage! (Solis, 2010)
Engage!: The complete guide for brands and business to build, cultivate, and measure success on the new web (Solis, 2010)
I assigned several books for a graduate seminar in Digital Strategic Communication, taught at Queens University of Charlotte in the Knight School of Communication’s master’s program. The favorite, by far, was Brian Solis’ Engage!
In our course debrief this week, students raved about the book. For them, it continues to serve as a guide for successful strategic communication practice on the web. One student commented, “I loaned my copy to a colleague last week and I’ve already asked for it back.”
In an age of so-called “social media consultants,” Solis launches himself as a practitioner of and thought leader in social media. His book offers strategic communicators the opportunity to define, understand, practice, and measure web-based promotion and branding. Moreover, it encourages communications staffers who face negative perceptions or concerned hesitation in applying social media technologies to business practice.
The book has both accessibility and depth, which is a hard standard to achieve. Thus, it succeeds as a guide for navigating the social media marketplace.
I also want to thank Brian Solis for being an approachable colleague on Twitter. Twitter opens the focus of businesses, but it can also expand the walls of a classroom. Some of my students conversed with Solis on Twitter. He gave support and encouragement to these learners and experimenters by practicing the open, conversational style he espouses.
- Overall Response: The most applicable guide to social media around. If you only read one book on social media, this is the book.
About Digital Media Book Club: In the growing field of strategic communication, social media rockstars, academics, and digital thinkers are investing time and energy to share their learning with others. In my Digital Strategic Communication class, students in the Master of Arts in Organizational and Strategic Communication program at Queens University of Charlotte are sifting through a variety of texts to discover the embedded wisdom. These are their thoughts and reactions.
Wikinomics (Tapscott & Williams, 2006)
Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything (Tapscott & Williams, 2006)
Premised around four major ideas of a new economy – (1) Openness; (2) Peering; (3) Sharing; and, (4) Acting Globally - Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything suggests that mass communication turns the traditional inward business model toward an outward focus.
The authors point to current business trends in corporations that favor an open approach to idea generation and collaboration. These concepts seem intriguing and commendable, especially in a global market. Why not share and build on the ideas of others.
“That can work in local instances,” says Bill Gary, “but for major companies, that may create redundancies across the company.” The debate here is whether we build a global car or a local car. Which target market do we serve?
According to the new laws of Wikinomics, those companies that collaborate and share, with open architecture, will reap the economic benefits of a new economy.
- Overall Response: This book is the anti-Solis. It works as a consulting read for CEOs but not as a vehicle for real social media strategy. Experienced social media users will find it lacking.
About Digital Media Book Club: In the growing field of strategic communication, social media rockstars, academics, and digital thinkers are investing time and energy to share their learning with others. In my Digital Strategic Communication class, students in the Master of Arts in Organizational and Strategic Communication program at Queens University of Charlotte are sifting through a variety of texts to discover the embedded wisdom. These are their thoughts and reactions.
What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy (Gee, 2007)
What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy (Gee, 2007)
James Paul Gee’s What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy is less about video games and more about a theoretical approach to education, says Kristen Odell.
The concept behind the book is a discussion about learning, arguing that the way that we learn in video games has value. Learners in a digital world learn differently than their analog peers. Probing, semiotic domains, and cultural models can all be taught through the play of video games.
This isn’t a book about the content of video games, but rather the ways that video games can change the process of learning. “In video games, not just conscious knowledge is rewarded,” says Odell. Instead the abilities to try, to practice, to build a contribution (even in the midst of failure) are rewarded. Learning is rewarded.
So why choose video games? They are accessible and the learning process is readily interpreted in a way that other media cannot offer.
- Overall Response: This highly accessible book does what it advocates. It places learning theory in the context of video games, but with our learning as the goal.
About Digital Media Book Club: In the growing field of strategic communication, social media rockstars, academics, and digital thinkers are investing time and energy to share their learning with others. In my Digital Strategic Communication class, students in the Master of Arts in Organizational and Strategic Communication program at Queens University of Charlotte are sifting through a variety of texts to discover the embedded wisdom. These are their thoughts and reactions.
Blog Rules (Flynn, 2006)
Blog Rules: A business guide to managing policy, public relations, and legal issues (Flynn, 2006)
The discussion surrounding Blog Rules: A business guide to managing policy, public relations, and legal issues by Nancy Flynn highlighted using business blogs as an internal tool for top-down communication.
Flynn suggests that companies treat blogs as archives, ensure corporate policies are in place, and consider the workplace environment created on blogs. Blog posts and comments on corporate websites can contribute to a workplace environment, so companies need to be well-versed in employee policies and procedures.
Employees must also be aware of the corporate policies. Employee bloggers often face firing for the content of their blog (which Flynn calls “being dooced” in honor of an infamous social media human resources case).
“The book is not necessarily a cautionary tale,” says Catherine Whittaker, “but it would cause a business to pause before launching social media efforts.” The goal, says Whittaker, is to help a company think through the issues before they arise.
- Overall Response: If your company is considering a new company blog, this might be a good resource for identifying potential risks.
About Digital Media Book Club: In the growing field of strategic communication, social media rockstars, academics, and digital thinkers are investing time and energy to share their learning with others. In my Digital Strategic Communication class, students in the Master of Arts in Organizational and Strategic Communication program at Queens University of Charlotte are sifting through a variety of texts to discover the embedded wisdom. These are their thoughts and reactions.
