What is a Filter Bubble?

John Spacey, updated on February 03, 2017

A filter bubble is the tendency for personalization of information to lead an individual to information sources that strictly conform to their world view. This potentially allows one-sided views of information to thrive over neutral accounts that explore both sides of complex issues. The following are illustrative examples.

Personalized Search

A search engine may try to guess the articles and media outlets that a person will find most interesting based on algorithms that learn from the user's search history. As a theoretical example, an individual who searches for "environment" may be receive a top result that lists environmental issues. Another individual who searches for "environment" may be shown an article discussing the costs of environmental regulations to businesses.

Social Media

People have a tendency to follow media outlets that conform to their views on issues. Media outlets may have incentive to be extremely consistent on issues in order to gain and retain followers who agree with them. This may be detrimental to journalism ethics and standards that traditionally valued presenting both sides of every story.

Personalized Information Streams

Personalized information streams on social media and other platforms may use information such as the articles shared by friends to generate streams of content. Such streams may have a tendency to conform to an individual's views on issues.

Overview: Filter Bubble
Type	Knowledge
Definition	The tendency for personalization of information to lead an individual to information sources that strictly conform to their views on issues.
Attributed to	Eli Pariser
Risks	Reinforcement of cognitive biases and misinformation. May encourage media sources to take a one-sided approach to issues to the detriment of journalism ethics and standards.
Related Concepts	Knowledge Cognitive Biases Information Asymmetry