About The Filter Bubble
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: The Penguin Press (May 12, 2011)
“You spend half your life in Internet space, but trust me—you don’t understand how it works. Eli Pariser’s book is a masterpiece of both investigation and interpretation; he exposes the way we’re sent down particular information tunnels, and he explains how we might once again find ourselves in a broad public square of ideas. This couldn’t be a more interesting book; it casts an illuminating light on so many of our daily encounters.”
—Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth and The End of Nature, and founder of 350.org
An eye-opening account of how the hidden rise of personalization on the Internet is controlling-and limiting-the information we consume.
In The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You, online organizer and former director of MoveOn.org, Eli Pariser reveals just how invasive and pervasive personalization has become. Each page you land on is collecting data about you, never mind if you’ve logged in or not. It uses your online history as cues to narrow down what you will see in the future. As sites fine-tune their ability to personalize content, we will increasingly each live in our own, unique information universe, our own “filter bubble.” We’ll receive news that is familiar, pleasant, and confirms our beliefs—and since the filters are invisible, we won’t know what is being hidden from us.
Using this surprising revelation as a jumping-off point, Pariser pulls back the curtain of the Internet. He peers into the server farms, the secret algorithms, and the geeky entrepreneurs that have given us this new reality. Along the way, he also investigates the consequences of corporate power in the digital age. In the end, Pariser shares the ways that citizens and corporations can take action to alter the isolation of our filter bubbles. It is still possible to change the course of information sharing so that we are able to encounter information that sparks creativity, innovation and the democratic exchange of ideas.
The Filter Bubble will make you think twice about everything you do online, from shopping on Zappos, to browsing the news on ABCnews.com.
About Eli Pariser
Eli Pariser is the Board President, and former Executive Director, of the 5-million member organization MoveOn.org. A pioneer in online politics, Pariser is a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and a co-founder of Avaaz.org, one of the world’s largest citizen organizations. His op-eds have appeared in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal. He grew up in Lincolnville, ME.
Eli’s Tour Stops
Tuesday, May 10th: Regular Rumination
Wednesday, May 11th: Bluestalking
Thursday, May 19th: English Major’s Junk Food
Monday, May 23rd: Graywolf’s SEO Blog
Wednesday, May 25th: Reading Through Life
Thursday, May 26th: The Road to Here
Monday, May 30th: Rundpinne
Thursday, June 2nd: In the Next Room
Wednesday, June 8th: Social Media Explorer