The video by TED and the article by Sue Halpern are both concerned about how the internet controls our thoughts based on our previous searches in Google, as well as the links that we open up on a daily basis. Which I believe is true. For example in the Mind Control and the Internet article, “Democracy requires citizens to see things from one another’s point of view, but instead we’re more and more enclosed in our own bubbles,” and it's completely right. People no longer know how to think for themselves or question anything they just accept what's on the internet. There was even an State Farm Insurance commercial that relates to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_CgPsGY5Mw
In the third article by Clive Thompson, he states that internet is just like socializing with people in real life because people either have large groups of friends which are close friends or they have a few close friends and a large group of acquaintances that don't really know much about you besides the basics. That is how he looks at internet because the internet world is complicated.In my perspective all the different ideas have some valid points. The internet knows you based on what you research and the links that you choose to click on. The internet doesn't know any personal information that you do not share about yourself and therefore it cannot truly know you based on your searches. It can suggest things specific to your searches, which is creepy by itself just think of all the interference and monitoring of your online usage, but it doesn't know you up close and personal like your close friends would rather then that large group of acquaintances you have. On the other hand, there are many times that an ad will come up on Google or any search engine that you would not normally have ever gone to but you clicked on it and now it helps shape your views.
The video and articles really opened my mind up to the oppression we receive when browsing the internet. Popular search engines like Google and Yahoo limit the capacity of information we can learn by filtering our searches based on what they think we want to see. The eliminate a lot of information that opposes our views and I think this just puts us into a bubble like the video stated because it does not allow us to consider opposing views and opinions in which we can base our arguments with or against. Even advertising gets involved and ads for certain products linked to your past searches and emails start to pop up. I do agree that like minded people are great friends and co workers because they know what catches your attention, but hearing and seeing opposing views really informs us and makes us better rounded people!
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