Filter Bubbles and Technology Refusal

Read the questions after the video and audio recordings then watch the video and listen to the audio recording. Be able to discuss the questions with a partner or with the class.

Video: Eli Pariser--Beware of Online Filter Bubbles

Questions:
1. After watching the video, explain the relationship between the filter bubble and Mark Zuckerberg's comment that "a squirrel dying in your backyard may be more rlelevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa."
2. Explain how Pariser first noticed the effects of personalization on the web.
3. Explain the danger algorithmic editing can have on democracy.
4. What are some of the companies mentioned in the video that use personalization?
5. Who were the traditional "gatekeepers" and how is that different from what is happening on the web today?
6. Explain the request Pariser making to people such as Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Listening: Refusing Facebook Has Social Cost

  Right click the picture and to open the link in a new window and then click on the Audio file to listen to the discussion between Nora Young and Alice Marwick (or read the summarized article  if there is not enough time to listen to the entire interview)

1. What is "technology refusal"? What is your experience?
2. What are the costs of opting out of technology?
3. Explain the business model of "free" social-networking sites.
4. How does the speed of new technology affect the decision to opt out?
5. What role does age seem to play in opting out of technology?
6. Where is most social-networking technology created and how does this affect people in other parts of the world?

More articles to reflect on regarding the internet and social media:

 Nick Harding's anthropological insight on the Science of the Social Network

Michael Agger talks about Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows  and how the internet is changing the way we think and process information in this article: The Internet Diet

Mitch Joel writes about What You Always Need to Remember About the Internet

Cynthia Reynolds' article in Macleans Magazine on Why Your Teenager Can't Use a Hammer