%% Title: Filter bubbles Created: 2022-03-06 18:48 Status: Parent: [[Resources/Philosophy/Thinking]] Tags: Source: %% # Filter bubbles The basic idea is this: 1. Your primary interface with the world is third-hand knowledge gathering. 1. First-hand: you experienced it yourself. For example in school, doing lab experiments is important to gain first-hand experience of key scientific principles. This is the best, surest way to learn. Your experience is your own. 2. Second-hand: knowledge is relayed from someone who experienced it first-hand. Think reading an autobiography. This is the second-best way. Your experience has been transferred by someone who experienced it themselves. 3. Third-hand: your knowledge is relayed from a second-hand source. Think basically every opinion news show. There are some interviews, but they're soundbite quality. I stop the relay counts here, but this includes any n-hand sources above second hand. 2. You primarily interact with the world via a network of worldview-affirming sources. 1. If you don't challenge your worldview, you can't learn to ask [[Resources/Reading/Readwise/Books/Asking the Right Question Is More Important Than Getting the Right Answer|the right questions]]. 3. Every time you accept knowledge relayed by this network, you first stop using your critical thinking skills. Then you start accepting third-hand sources as first-hand sources. - The knowledge you received meshes with your existing first-person knowledge, so you are inclined to do a "fast review" of it, like a quick LGTM. - Eventually, you just auto-accept. - The problem is, [[Resources/Philosophy/Thinking/CriticalThinking]] is a muscle, a fast decaying skill. A filter bubble is functionally an [[Resources/Philosophy/Thinking/EchoChamber]]. ### References - [Beware online "filter bubbles" - Eli Pariser](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ofWFx525s) - the TED talk where I _think_ the term first really came about. - [How filter bubbles isolate you](https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/digital-media-literacy/how-filter-bubbles-isolate-you/1/)