Why the Filter in Our Mind?

“This or that or whatever is bad!”, “People hating on that!”. You may be tired of seeing all these social media posts that focus on comparison or dislike. Until you search for something broader, all the results will always be about how “this or that or whatever” has a collective following of hate, or at least a perspective that doesn’t differ from your opinion. Because of this, it can lead to the degradation in our mind, thinking our perspective is right, everyone’s wrong, but I am here to explain that, to show why it's wrong.

Personally, filter bubbles are dangerous hooks that pull you into big rabbit holes. What we are returned does not make up for what we give, we spiral into this abyss of information curated to conform our opinions, without thinking of the outside outlooks, which could potentially lead to fueling hate, misinformation, and turn media literate people to uninformed ones

Though I could see the possibility of why people could fall for this rabbit hole. I understand the want to be right, to find the answer we desire to our question, but it's predatory. Opinionated posts online divert people onto more wrong, assuring those who just want answers, not knowing the algorithm is against them. 

Unintended consequences

Now you may think to yourself that this could be helpful, that filter bubbles may or may not just be the best thing in the world in certain circumstances. Maybe for research, to help reinforce the ideas on the paper you’ve written, or when a company has an algorithm to curate for their consumers. It reinforces the viewpoints of many people who are looking for answers to their questions. 

The entire point of a thought bubble is to isolate the user from the diverse outlooks of thought into opinionated ideas, all of these not taking into account the contradictions with information, harmful or predatory behavior which could lead to dangerous actions, thoughts and beliefs, dividing us with civic discourse. (Filter Bubbles - ECPS, n.d.)

Why would you let this information disorder degrade you, imagine yourself speaking out for a topic you only know one view point of, disregarding others? Personalization is a loaded gun waiting to be unloaded.

Though this has an easy solution but something not so easy to do. A solution where we should never always seek our own views, but to seek more diverse perspectives to answer a common question, not everyone sees things the same as we do, and some are more right than others. It's that easy.

Source: Filter Bubbles - ECPS. (n.d.). EUROPEAN CENTER for POPULISM STUDIES. https://www.populismstudies.org/Vocabulary/filter-bubbles/

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