Bieber-Fever and Information Quarantines
Lecturer of MoveOn.org fame, Eli Pariser, delineates the newest threat to information freedom – taste algorithms. This is an automated ‘service’ provided by the likes of Facebook and Google that shield you from things you’re less likely to be interested in, while facilitating your access to all sorts of useless drivel that you may spend the better part of your wasted existence ingesting. And this taste algorithm will ensure that you never break out of your Bieber-addled nonsense consumption. Because even if you want to look for things outside your usual circle of uselessness, the taste algorithms will prevent you from finding them. Frightening.