Filter Bubbles, Epistemic Bubbles and Echo Chambers

Conversational Leadership an online book by David Gurteen https://conversational-leadership.net

Filter bubbles, epistemic bubbles and echo chambers

Echo chambers, filter bubbles, and epistemic bubbles are confusing concepts and are often conflated, but they are distinct concepts.

Filter Bubbles

A filter bubble is an Internet phenomenon where social media platforms such as Facebook and Google limit our exposure to news and other information by using algorithms to prioritize content that matches our demographic profile and online history.

A filter bubble is the intellectual isolation that can occur when websites make use of algorithms to selectively assume the information a user would want to see, and then give information to the user according to this assumption.

Websites make these assumptions based on the information related to the user, such as former click behavior, browsing history, search history, and location.

For that reason, the websites are more likely to present only information that will abide by the user's past activity.

A filter bubble, therefore, can cause users to get significantly less contact with contradicting viewpoints, causing the user to become intellectually isolated.

Personalized search results from Google and personalized news stream from Facebook are two perfect examples of this phenomenon.

Credit: What does Filter Bubble mean? Techopedia

How social media filter bubbles work | CNN Business

Epistemic Bubbles

An epistemic bubble is a phenomenon where we fail to access relevant information sources either intentionally or unintentionally. It compares to a filter bubble where information does not reach us through no fault of our own.

Examples of epistemic bubbles include where we deliberately block, unfriend, or disconnect people on social media who hold opposing views or where we only subscribe to news channels or blogs that confirm our existing beliefs.

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In a non-Internet environment, an epistemic bubble is created when we only mix with people of similar backgrounds and views.

Echo Chambers

In everyday language, an echo chamber is often conflated with a filter bubble (as in the video above). But in academic circles, an echo chamber is a different concept altogether.

An echo chamber describes a situation where voices are actively excluded and discredited. It depends on manipulating trust by methodically discrediting people and sources of information outside of the chamber.

This is summarized quite nicely as:

Filter bubbles: where you don’t hear the other side.

Echo Chambers: where you don’t trust the other side.

Credit: C. Thi Nguyen

https://conversational-leadership.net/paper/echo-chambers-and-epistemic-bubbles/

Beware online "filter bubbles" | Eli Pariser

Popping our bubbles

Free yourself from your filter bubbles | Joan Blades and John Gable

Resources

Farnham Street: How Filter Bubbles Distort Reality: Everything You Need to Know Article: The devastating impact of “filter bubbles” and how to break free Reuters Institute: The truth behind filter bubbles: Bursting some myths

[Status: work in progress - more to come here on avoiding filter bubbles and the myths. This is a more complex topic than first meets the eye. The Reuters Institute article above is an interesting one.]

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