Another very useful illustration of how online discourse is structured by filter bubbles. Colors here are indicative of assumed US-political party affiliation of opinions, but despite Fox news and Jon Stewarts rant about their coverage of the matter, I think this figure indicates something else about where most people - and thus likely a lot of Republicans - come down on this particular matter. But theres also a couple of meta level questions: this graph illustrates perfectly why social discourse mostly consists of talking about the other instead of to the other. I dont know what the discussion is like in the thinly populated center between the two bubbles where people are at least connected to each other - are they reaching across the aisle? Are they simply shouting at each other? And what about public discourse in the professional media? Its clear that those filter bubbles represent opinion markets that outlets cater to - have to cater to: theres not much going on in the middle. But was that ever really different? Was there more real conversation going on in the middle when opinion markets werent as constantly and loudly proclaiming and reconstructing themselves? In other words: is the technology we are using to talk to each other as a society the very reason we cannot talk to each other anymore? And is the answer to that technological challenge of our behavioral patterns technological? Or would that merely replicate the problem? Can we even choose? This is isnt just some theoretical question, as not least Jeff Jarvis essay about eurotechnopanik (zeit.de/kultur/2014-11/jeff-jarvis-eurotechnopanic-google-germany-english-edition), published today on ZEIT ONLINE indicates. The internet is broken on so many levels, and when were getting to the point of wondering if the biggest problem for realising a technological utopia is the human factor, were entering truly dangerous territory. Perhaps even the kind of danger Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have recently talked about. #socialmedia #publicdiscourse #ferguson #xaad #internet #democracy
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 20:31:26 +0000