Monday, December 19, 2011

Book Review: "The Filter Bubble"

As a professional in the field of information technology, I am quite aware that information is more or less crafted per user. Until I read "The Filter Bubble," however, I didn't realize not just the extent of this filtering, but the ramifications thereof. 

I would highly recommend everyone whose primary sources of information are derived from the Internet to read this book and take heed. People should well be aware of the extent to which the information you are provided with has in many cases been pre-chosen for YOU. This helps explain in part the reason why so many people seem so convinced of their own pre-concluded opinions. Interent searches, FB news items, Yahoo news, etc. will tend to predominately provide the individual with the information that that services has deemed of greatest interest to the individual. That is to say, diversity of opinion is, if not precluded, at least quite restricted. 

The main question, the eternal question remains: what is to be done? It is only users of the internet, who are armed with this information, who can force a change in the way the internet is presented to us. And this is why "The Filter Bubble" is a required read.

Hacking Into the Past

In my youth, I would take apart various electronic games, un-soldering and re-soldering them, and taking pride in the fact that that the suc...