The Filter Bubble:  What the Internet is Hiding from You by Eli Pariser

2017 Reading Challenge - Read a NonFiction Book About Technology.

I wasn't looking forward to this challenge 1. because I'm not a huge fan of nonfiction 2. I am not a fan at all of reading about technology.  Yet, I discovered this book on my bookshelf.  I don't remember how I heard about it, but I do remember specifically seeking it out.  Then, of course, like many books it sat on my shelf for years - until this challenge forced/inspired/persuaded me to read it.

And WOW.  You know when you happen to click on an article about the latest advance in oh, say sunglass technology by xxxx, Inc.  Then later in the day you hop on to check your Facebook page and "Hey, what a coincidence - there's an ad for sunglasses from xxx, Inc."  Well, it's not a coincidence.  Its a very creepy, very real thing that Google, Facebook and other companies are doing called personification.  Every click, every like, every item you buy online is being saved as data and placed into an algorithm.  So the next time you go online ads for the items you've looked at before will pop up, articles similar to what you've liked/read before will appear.  Sounds neat right?  Yet, the vastness of the Internet that was to open you up to new worlds, new information, open your mind is now only bringing to your attention, only showing you the things you already like, articles/pages/friends that are liberal/conservative - way that you lean, so that the Internet world is in fact narrowing and by doing so narrowing your world view, your creativity, your empathy and humanity.  Yeah, creepy, scary and real.  "...personalization algorithms can cause identity loops, in which what the code knows about you constructs your media environment, and your media environment helps to shape your future preferences."

For being a tech book, Pariser didn't get bogged down in real techy stuff, so it was fairly easy for a layperson to read and it's not all doom and gloom.  He does offer suggestions at the end as to how we can resist this global personalization.

Quotes:  "Democracy requires citizens to see things from one another's point of view..."

"We don't wake up and brief an e-butler on our plans and desires for the day." (Book was written in 2011 - before Amazon's Echo and Alexa)

"'...if there is not steady supply of trustworthy and relevant news.  Incompetence and aimlessness, corruption and disloyalty, panic and ultimate disaster must come to any people which is denied an assured access to the facts.'"

"To be free, you have to be able not only to do what you want, but to know what's possible to do."

"The world often follows predictable rules and falls into predictable patterns:  Tides rise and fall, eclipses approach and pass...But when this way of thinking is applied to human behavior, it can be dangerous, for the simple reason that our best moments are often the most unpredictable ones. An entirely predictable life isn't worth living."

"Ultimately, democracy works only if we citizens are capable of thinking beyond our narrow self-interest.  But to do so, we need a shared view of the world we cohabit.  We need to come into contact with other peoples' lives and needs and desires."

"'We don't need more things,...People are more magical than iPads!  Your relationships are not media.  Your friendships are not media.  Love is not media.'"