Stuck In The Bubble

Once upon a time Internet was a place to discover new things. But now it is no different than a TV. Algorithms, not curiosity,curate our online world. This makes me wonder whether it is possible to preserve the initial promise of the Net?

I am going to skip the cliche talk about what is Internet and how it became very popular. Having said that, what is algorithms? It is few lines of code that decide a lot of things.

Take Instagram: you think about buying sneakers, and suddenly your feed fills with the latest models. It goes beyond that. When you search anything on Google, the results can be different depending on your location, gender, job,your favorite color. These algorithms show you what you like and support. Plus they show you the things they want to show(and it is not only ads). You only get to see one side of the story, the side which algorithms are trying to normalize

You see, there a lot of information on the Internet. Worth of billions of terrabytes. Algorithms filter the results to get the best one. But that filter should be moderate or even optional. Because it is limiting our exposure to diverse viewpoints and ideas. Or sometimes it is hiding the truth

A balanced option is necessary. Platforms should be able to offer the things that are outside of user’s interests. We need to be able to choose.

Internet should not be a mirror, it should be window