Filter bubble

A filter bubble is a state of intellectual isolation that arises when personalized searches, recommendation systems, and algorithmic curation selectively presents information to each user. The search results are based on information about the user, such as their location, past click-behavior, and search history. As a result, users are increasingly exposed to information that reinforces their existing beliefs, while also separating themselves from content that challenges them. This has effectively enclosed individuals from a cultural or ideological bubble, resulting in a narrow and more customized view of the world. The choices made by these algorithms are only sometimes transparent. Prime examples include Google Personalized Search results and Facebook's personalized news-stream.

However, there are conflicting reports about the extent to which personalized filtering happens, and whether such activity is beneficial or harmful, with various studies producing inconclusive results.

The term filter bubble was coined by internet activist Eli Pariser circa 2010. In Pariser's influential book under the same name, The Filter Bubble (2011). It was predicted that individualized personalization by algorithmic filtering would lead to intellectual isolation and social fragmentation. The bubble effect may have negative implications for civic discourse, according to Pariser, but contrasting views regard the effect as minimal and addressable. According to Pariser, "users get less exposure to conflicting viewpoints and are isolated intellectually in their informational bubble." He related an example in which one user searched Google for "BP" and got investment news about BP, while another searcher got information about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, noting that the two search results pages were "strikingly different" despite use of the same key words. The results of the U.S. presidential election in 2016 have been associated with the influence of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, and as a result have called into question the effects of the "filter bubble" phenomenon on user exposure to fake news and echo chambers, spurring new interest in the term, with many concerned that the phenomenon may harm democracy and well-being by making the effects of misinformation worse.