Bluestalking

The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser

Penguin Press (May 2011)

ISBN: 978-1594203008

304 pp.

 

It's no secret the internet has your number. But it also has everything you've ever searched for, everything you've even hovered a mouse over, what books you've read on Kindle, how long you've spent on each page, what you've highlighted... The internet likely knows your blood type, children's names and ages, what their interests are and how they're doing in school. Likely? Oh, I'm sure it does.

When I was working to earn my M.S. in Library and Information Studies I took a course on intellectual freedom. Definitely the most fascinating topic I've ever studied. That was only two years ago, before several books about the internet's intrusion into our lives were published. Already, many in the class had an idea just how much about our lives was being bought and sold by marketing companies, how much of a trail we were leaving everywhere we went. There were, shockingly enough, naysayers who argued back, but not as vehemently as those of us who didn't know all the details, but had a pretty good suspicion we were being tracked, and not always with good intent.

The naysayers all pretty much had the same naive argument: If I'm not doing anything wrong, why should I care? But we're not talking about doing anything wrong! It's just everyday searching. Maybe you're looking up a malady a friend or family member was just diagnosed with, and it has nothing to do with you. The internet doesn't know that, it just knows you searched about it. Or, say, you're writing a paper, or an article, on drug addiction, internet porn addiction, or anything unrelated to you for which you need to search. Your information is going to go on some list, somewhere, and track you in perpetuity. Did you do anything "wrong"? No! But does the internet know that? Even if you were seeking help for something considered outside "normal" behavior, don't you have the right to?

This is so wrong, in so many ways, but we have no power over this. And it isn't going to stop. Why would it, when someone's making so much money from it?

"In the view of the "behavior market" vendors, every "click signal" you create is a commodity, and every move of your mouse can be auctioned off within microseconds to the highest commercial bidder."

I've blogged countless times on the internet and how it's a blessing and a curse, and I'm not talking solely about the invasion issue. I'm also very, very concerned about the influx of information on the human brain, and how it has and will change the synapses in our brain. I already see it in myself, and I didn't grow up with the internet. My attention is splintered. I often have ten or more windows open simultaneously, from going on tangents while reading - or skimming, rather - on article, leading me to another, then another, and I still haven't finished reading the page that lead me on the wild goose chase in the first place. And did I need to know all this information? Was it something I sought out, looking it up on my own? Often not. But the internet is seductive. Hyperlinks beg me to follow, and very often I do. Is this my fault or the internet's? Ultimately, it's mine. However, as with any addiction the internet can feel as though it's in control of me, rather than the truth, which is vice versa. Or, at least, I think that's the truth.

Eli Pariser opened my eyes to some of the sneaky - because it is, let's not pretend otherwise - ways marketing on the web is customized to each one of us. And I was already suspicious about how we were all being manipulated. Little did I realize how much.

I'd already noticed after I've looked something up online a related ad will pop up next to my email box. I'll even get email from a company offering to sell me something similar to what I've researched. For example: I have a bum knee, one I had surgery on last year to repair a torn meniscus tendon. Last evening I was looking through my Yahoo email and what did I see in the right sidebar? Yep, an ad for knee replacement surgery. Coincidence? Erm, NOT.

Pariser states:

"According to one Wall Street Journal study, the top fifty Internet sites, from CNN to Yahoo to MSN, install an average of 64 data-laden cookies and personal tracking beacons each. Search for a word like "depression" on Dictionary.com, and the site installs up to 223 tracking cookies and beacons on your computer so that other Web sites can target you with antidepressants."

But what, exactly, is the definition of the "filter bubble"?:

"The new generation of Internet filters looks at the things you seem to like - the actual things you've done, or the things people like you like - and tries to extrapolate. They are prediction engines, constantly creating and refining a theory of who you are and what you'll do and want next. Together, these engines create a unique universe of information for each of us - what I've come to call a filter bubble ..."

There's another  problem with all this, one I also argued for in my Master's class. When the internet thinks it knows you, it presents you with like information. So, how much energy and effort does it take to break free from that and explore totally unrelated things? What happens to serendipity?

Personally, I don't worry as much about this for myself. I read rabidly and widely, becoming interested in something new all the time, pursuing much of the information I'm interested in via books and web sites. Frankly, I think the internet would have a fair amount of challenge profiling me, when I'm looking up Victorian novelists one week, and the history of Russia the next. Then again, they'll see history as a common theme. So maybe I'm not as immune as I think.

"It's become a bit in vogue to pick on the human brain." Pariser states. "We're "predictably irrational," ... we're terrible at figuring out what makes us happy. Like audience members at a magic show, we're easily conned, manipulated, and misdirected."

Alright. So, being in the Information Studies profession I'm already pretty wary of what is and is not "true" information. I'm a skeptic by nature, untrusting and suspicious. So am I immune from all this manipulation? Not at all. I'm less likely to fall for things, but not at all immune.

But the general public, the average American, let us say, is probably much less skeptical. This would be why sites like Snopes.com exist, sites that pull the plug on untruths. Ever gotten an email warning you about alligators or snakes invading sewer lines, stories about how one person was bitten and how YOU COULD BE NEXT! What about email saying you've won a laptop computer, and all you need to do is CLICK HERE  to claim it? A Nigerian you've never met wants to give you money, you say, and all you have to do is give your bank account number? Goofy as this stuff sounds, someone, somewhere is falling for it. If that wasn't so, "they" wouldn't keep doing it.

In his concluding chapters, Pariser outlines what rights we should have regarding the use of our information, from the 1973 Department of Housing, Education and Welfare:

- We should know who has our personal data, what data they have, and how it's used.

- We should be able to prevent information collected about us for one purpose from being used by others.

- We should be able to correct inaccurate information about us.

- Our data should be secure.

Should,  yes. But is there any way this will ever happen now? Can ever happen? As Pariser quoted earlier in the book, the genie can never be put back inside the bottle.

Now that you're thoroughly depressed and anxious, I wish I could leave you with some sort of reassuring information. Unfortunately, Pariser's book, the result of deep, thorough research, can't guarantee positive change. We should be vigilant, yes, things shouldn't be this way. But what will make that so?

Figure that out and you'll be a Nobel Prize winner. Best of luck. Meanwhile, give The Filter Bubble a read. It may not change the world, but it has the potential to light a fire under all of us. And that's the first step toward pushing for radical change. Forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes, and this book goes a long way toward revealing useful information in a readable, non-scientific way. It's for the average reader, those of us without degrees in economics, marketing, etc. Fascinating stuff, even when it's horrifying. Learn these things. You have the right.

 

Visit Eli Pariser's website.

 

Guest Post: Essay Contest - Good Men

Tom Matlack, one of the gents working for the Good Men Foundation, is my guest poster today. Swing by and check out the website.

There's also an Essay Contest running now through May, and it's for a great cause:

“There is no more important question at this moment in history--with markets collapsing, corruption rampant, two foreign wars, environmental disaster at hand, and the fabric of the American family disintegrating--than what it means to be a "good" man. The conventional wisdom is that men don't like to talk about their interior lives. But James Houghton and I have come to the conclusion, after running a venture capital firm together for a decade, that conventional wisdom is wrong and that men are desperate to tell their stories and hear how other men have met the challenges of our time.

We have collected a cross-section of men--black, white, brown, gay, straight, rich, poor, liberal, conservative in small towns and big cities--to help us look at this issue by writing about a moment that shaped them as a man. We have a drug lord who spent 15 years in Sing Sing and the US Noble Laureate; a football Hall-of-Famer and a Russian Kick-Boxer; a sniper scout in Iraq and the best known war photo journalist covering that war; drug addicts and stay-at-home dads. We have Pulitzer prize winners (Charlie LeDuff), Golden Globe winners (Matt Weiner) and just regular guys--fathers, sons, husbands--grappling with what the hell to do as a man when the world is falling apart around them and what, in the end, really is important.

At the center of our project is our website:   www.goodmenbook.org and our blog www.goodmenbook.org/blog and the forthcoming book Good Men: Real Stories of How We Grow Up, Get Over It, and Get on with Our Lives. The goal of these print and electronic forums is to begin a national discussion amongst men. To that end we are kicking off a national Essay contest March 1 (which runs through May). At a time of darkness, this is a unique opportunity, in our minds, for a reassessment and a new perspective on the part of men in our country. 

Our mission is modeled after Newman’s Own. The Good Men Foundation will support men and boys at-risk across America. All proceeds from our book, magazine and merchandise go to the foundation which fund The Boys & Girls Clubs and Big Brother and Big Sisters, among many other organizations doing work with boys looking to become GOOD MEN.”

      

An Essay by Author Amanda Eyre Ward

How Do You Become a Writer?

By Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Forgive Me

I remember going to hear Joyce Carol Oates read when I was in college.  I wanted desperately to be a writer, and I hung on her every word.  When she mentioned that she wrote by a window, I noted write by a window.  When she said she drank tea, I wrote tea.  Whenever I met a real writer, I asked them where they wrote, how they wrote, and when.  I wanted to know the rules, how to organize my life in order to succeed.

          I know now that every writer makes his or her own rules.  The advice I give to beginning writers is to have faith, love the process, and to value writing, to put it in the center of their lives.

          Having faith is hard as rejection letters and bills come regularly in the mail.  But of my friends and colleagues who studied fiction writing with me at the

University

of

Montana

a decade ago, the only ones who have not published yet are the ones who gave up.  The rest of us make a living now by writing.  (Or writing and teaching.)

          Valuing writing is the fun part.  Set aside a desk for writing, set aside a day.  Spend some money on your favorite tea, an important pen, a book you want to read.  Play music, and feel proud when you’ve written a page. Take a walk if you need to.  Get a sitter.  Surround yourself with objects that inspire you.  The rest of the writing life is difficult, and can be heartbreaking.  This is what you get: a solitary morning, a cup of coffee, the luxury of bringing words into the world, the joy of a perfect sentence. 

          Putting writing in the center of your life is also challenging, when so many other important things beckon.  Oprah and everyone else tells me I can make time for an exercise routine, but I can’t seem to do it.  But living as a writer doesn’t always mean being alone.  You can take care of children, or a job, or a spouse while you think about writing.  When you see a movie, ask yourself why it is working or not.  If you lose interest in a friend’s story, ask yourself what she could have done to hold you.  What magazines are you reading, and why?  What could be going on with the bank teller and her strange expression?  Living your life as a writer is a way of participating fully, but also taking notes as an observer.  It’s something that takes practice, but I have found it to be essential.  I have been completely stuck in a novel, left it for the day, and then found my answer on the playground or at the library.  I am always thinking about my novels.

          And, thanks to Joyce Carol Oates, I always sit by the window.

AUTHOR
Amanda Eyre Ward is the award-winning author of How to Be Lost and Sleep Toward Heaven. She lives in

Austin

,

Texas

, with her family.

For more information, please visit www.amandaward.com.

One More Time!: A Guest Post from Authors Lisa Adams and John Heath

Okay, people! Get your thinkin' caps on. Two real, live authors would love to hear what you think about books and reading.

Thanks so much to Lisa and John for guest posting this week!

We read the books. We did the research. And we put forth a lot of crackpot theories. But we want to hear from real readers – real book-lovers. Why and how do you read what you read?

Below are several questions prompted by our findings in Why We Read What We Read. If you've got the time and inclination, we'd love it if you'd answer a few of them. (Or, if you'd prefer not to post publicly, you can send us a message at http://www.whywereadbooks.com/contact/). We would be ever so overjoyed to hear from real, live human beings on these topics that mean so much to us.

1. Our findings suggest that most readers focus on fiction or nonfiction -- but not both -- with women preferring the former and men the latter. Does your reading follow those patterns?

2. Do you read multiple genres? If so, which ones? Are there any genres you won't read? What would it take you to read something outside your normal genres? If you do read primarily one genre, what about it do you find so satisfying?

3. Do you like to read all the works of a few favorite authors or do you prefer to try out unfamiliar authors? Is it better to know what you’re getting, even if a book is just okay, or take a risk on a (possibly great and possibly terrible) new author?

4. How do you pick the books you read? Do you mainly rely on reviews, recommendations from friends, Oprah, book clubs, blogs, random selections from bookstore shelves?

5. Do you read religious books? If so, are you looking to learn about an unfamiliar religion, or deepen your existing religious beliefs?

6. Do you read political books? If so, do you read them more for information or ammunition? Do you read books written by members of opposing political parties? Why or why not?

7. Much bestselling literary fiction focuses on female friendships and/or relationships between mothers and daughters. Are these topics you enjoy? How do you feel about how women are portrayed in contemporary literary fiction?

8. Are you in a book group? What kinds of books does your club choose? Are the members of your group primarily one age group and/or gender?

9. Ultimately, why do you think you read? Is the satisfaction you gain from reading mostly intellectual, emotional, spiritual, or social (i.e. participation in book groups)? Are you looking for entertainment, new ideas, escape, a powerful experience, comfort, discomfort?

And with that, we’ll creep back to our own blog (http://www.whywereadbooks.com/blog) and get back to reviewing the books America loves most. Thanks, Lisa, for having us -– and for doing all you do to promote literacy and great books!

Guest Bloggers Lisa Adams and John Heath: Bestseller Fun Poll

Time for another guest post from Lisa Adams and John Heath, co-authors of Why We Read What We Read. Hope you enjoy this completely entertaining romp through the world of the bestseller. And while you're doing that, I'll be in the city, accompanying a couple hundred bundles of hormones teenagers. I'm one of the adult chaperones for my daughter's chorus field trip downtown to see The Phantom of the Opera. Aren't I the lucky one!

(Pray for me. Please.)

Lots of people ask us for a list of the best and worst bestsellers that we reviewed while writing Why We Read What We Read. To that, we usually say, read the book yourself! But that look in your eye is unnerving, so we’re going to tell you anyway. “Best” and “worst,” however, are way too boring, so we’ve come up with our own special award series: the Killer Albinos!

The Killer Albinos, were, of course, named for Silas, Dan Brown’s alabaster villain in The Da Vinci Code. Who else but a killer albino could represent—nay, symbolize!—America’s contemporary bestselling landscape? No one. Silas is the ultimate. He is our new mascot.

But as such, he can’t win any awards. Thus we hand over the Killer Albino for BEST ALBINO WHO ISN’T SILAS to that kid who plays Draco in the Harry Potter movies, because even though he isn’t supposed to be an albino he rather looks like one.

Okay, okay…books.

One thing that made us pretty mad throughout our project was how short and insubstantial many bestsellers actually were. Here we were spending years researching and writing this dumb book, and a lot of other people were making millions of dollars on junk they probably wrote in a weekend. We were stupid; they were lame—it was all a bit infuriating.

It was hard to decide just who was doing the least amount of work, however. Celebrities like Dr. Laura and Bill O’Reilly basically paste together their radio/TV transcripts and slap in a little commentary. Mystery/thriller author James Patterson is also a contender; all of his books are short to begin with, and most are co-authored by what we can only imagine are desperate unknowns hoping to break into the mystery scene—how much does the big-name actually do? But the official Killer Albino Award for LEAST EFFORT goes to Spencer Johnson for Who Moved My Cheese? This unspectacular little parable, popular mainly in the business world, is less than 100 pages, its giant print supplemented by drawings of cheese and mice. Yet in the first ten years of Amazon.com’s existence, it was the #1 seller, and over 10 million copies are now in print.

On the other side of the equation are those authors who don’t seem to do anything but write. By far, romance writers are the most prolific in the world of bestsellers, often cranking out multiple novels a year. And these babies are long—usually in the 300-500 page range. Sure, the authors get to cut a few corners simply by writing in a genre that deliberately limits plot and character options, but each of those words still has to be written.

Of these busy ladies, though, no one does it quite like Nora Roberts, who takes away the Killer Albino for MOST LIKELY TO BE A CYBORG. This dynamo publishes about 8-9 full-length novels every year—one every six weeks! Only a robot (or perhaps the perpetually productive Bluestalking Reader) could possibly accomplish such a feat.

Romances certainly possess a strong fantastical component, but with 10-15 of them hitting the bestselling charts each week, we couldn’t possibly choose. Instead we award the Killer Albino for BEST FEMALE FANTASY to He’s Just Not That Into You by Greg Berendt and Liz Tucillo. We actually like this funny little book quite a bit and agree wholeheartedly with its basic premise. However, its constant assertions that every lonely female is perfect, lovable, and—most importantly—HOT, quickly start to border on the ludicrous. This book will make the perfect pick-me-up holiday gift for all the ailing girls you know, especially if they are none of the above.

The boys, on the other hand, can enjoy some testosterone-soaked splendor from Clive Cussler, who takes the award for BEST MALE FANTASY with his Dirk Pitt series. Dirk is a Real Man, a swashbuckling adventurer, Casanova, and fine-dining enthusiast (heavy on the wine and exotic game). He’s so studly it hurts. These books are so patently wish-fulfillmenty that we feel a little embarrassed for anyone caught reading them—it’s sort of the literary equivalent of buying a really, really big truck.

But there’s no shame in reading about historical heroes, and, while the bestseller lists are not overflowing with choices in this genre, one of the best authors consistently hits the charts. Thus we hand over the Killer Albino for MANLIEST MEN IN TIGHTS to David McCullough for his recent smash 1776.

Other authors, especially the ones considered “literary,” prefer the realm of the anti-hero. One of the most enjoyable of these is Jonathan Franzen, who creates a fabulous cast of misfits in The Corrections. This hilariously hopeless family beats out other pathetic charmers to take the Killer Albino for MOST LOVABLY DYSFUNCTIONAL.

Then there’s the underdog hero—the one who wins our hearts not with a beefy bod and a fine chardonnay (as in the genre fiction), or a life more crass and humiliating than our own (as in the anti-hero fiction), but with a mighty spirit strong enough to overcome a plague of limitations. “Affliction fiction” is ragingly popular, stories that take readers into the angst-ridden souls of outcasts of every flavor. Whether these characters must overcome a diminutive stature, a troubling disease, or an ill-developed brain, chances are they will do so with irrepressible moxie. This genre tends to slather on the sap, but some offerings can be delightful, such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon—which wins the Killer Albino for BEST PORTRAYAL OF A SPECIAL PERSON.

Then again, sometimes talent and sap can exist in one man. Mitch Albom takes the SURPRISE TALENT AWARD for his heartwarming crop of mega-sellers, Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and For One More Day. You might not care for Albom’s trademark sentimental undertones, but don’t be too mean—the man actually writes well. Can you blame the guy for knowing his audience?

Some surprises are not so pleasant, however—like the realization that millions of men believe what John Gray says about women in Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. But, while a bit sad, the amazing success of the Mars-Venus books is not too shocking. The hit that really blows our minds, thus winning the YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME AWARD, is Embraced by the Light by Betty J. Eadie. In this book, Eadie describes her long near-death experience and visit to heaven. She sends messages of love and peace, but still—what a racket! More than six million people bought her book, however, paving the way for the recent success of 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper, which has already sold over 1.4 million copies in just two years. Man, if only we weren’t so ethical, we know what our next book would be!

Finally, there are plenty of authors that earn their spots on the bestseller lists with great skill and powerful storytelling—the ones that deserve to be there not because they tapped into some trend or zeitgeist, but simply because they write wonderful books. Even they, however, rarely make it without serious luck and serious help. Oprah Winfrey—does anyone else have such power?—can even take a book that goes against America’s tastes and make it a top-seller. Thus our final Killer Albino, the LUCKIEST BASTARD AWARD, goes to Andre Dubus III for his wonderful book House of Sand and Fog. This novel has everything that America tends to shun: unsympathetic characters, moral grays, and undiluted tragedy. Yet Oprah loved it, and made it the success it deserves to be. Bravo, Andre! And bravo, Oprah!