We Are What We Click

Ever been stalked by an advertisement? Or a viewpoint? Or a topic? Most people have. And it’s because we each occupy a “filter bubble” that results from large technology companies diligently tracking our online journeys and employing algorithms that perpetually send us content that matches what they think we like.

The term “filter bubble” was coined in 2010 by internet activist Eli Pariser, whose book, “The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You,” contained astute observations that are just as applicable today. Filter bubbles have changed our existences by distorting reality and intellectually isolating people.

Being stalked online by your own identity is bizarre, and sometimes troublesome

Amazon, Netflix and Google deploy these algorithms based on what you have clicked on, bought or searched for. This process has contributed to the polarization of public opinion. For example, if you search the word “depression” on a site, its cookies will be stored on your computer, which identify you to other sites and advertisers as someone who’s interested in mental illness, buying antidepressants or attending clinics. From then on, while you’re browsing on your computer, you will be bombarded with pertinent ads and sites.

Even retweeting or sharing a story about cooking could result in a stream of ads for pots and pans, cookbooks and barbecue equipment. Search a topic like “Ukraine” and just wait for the Russians to surreptitiously arrive.

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Filter bubbles serve advertisers by allowing them to offer products or services that a user is most likely to buy. But they also serve to pervert our view of the world by filtering opinions we may disagree with. Some social media sites hide posts from friends with differing opinions and only offer up news stories from sites people are likely to agree with. This converts civic discourse into feedback loops and echo chambers because biases are constantly being reinforced.

It’s also geographically targeted. Search the same topic from a laptop in Toronto and the search results display a ranking of sites, opinion pieces and advertisements that will differ completely from those that result from a search made on a laptop in Ottawa or Baton Rouge. This magnifies social divides.

Pariser also described how filter bubbles are created: “First, you figure out who people are and what they like. Then, you provide them with content and services that best fit them. Finally, you tune to get the fit just right. Your identity shapes your media.”

Another phenomenon is cyber-balkanization, or the clustering of sub-groups of like-minded people who spurn other viewpoints and reinforce one another’s views. Such bubbles have always existed — in the form of organized religions, cults, gangs and movements — but digitization has sped up their creation.

The notorious manipulator tool built by the now-shuttered political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica was a master at creating these bubbles

The notorious manipulator tool built by the now-shuttered political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica was a master at creating these bubbles. It was able to identify and tap into groups people, based on psychological and other traits, during the Brexit, French and American elections. It achieved this by mining great gobs of personal data from Facebook users.

Being stalked online by your own identity is bizarre, and sometimes troublesome. There have been cases of spouses who realized their partners were cheating or misbehaving by seeing the trail of advertisements selling escorts, dates or porn that kept popping up on the family computer.

Fortunately, people can ignore the filter bubbles’ effects, or can mitigate, or even negate, their influence. The best strategy is to always rely on multiple sources when seeking information, delete your search history, delete cookies, use non-advertising supported sites such as Wikipedia and seek out contrary opinions.

However, as with so many other questionable technological innovations, governments should play more of a role in protecting online privacy than they currently do. Europe and California are leading the way in this regard. But too many people remain oblivious to the bubbles they exist in and continue to follow immutable thought grooves and spending patterns.

Tragically, the internet’s promise of connectivity has disconnected us. We are what we click.