The Filter Bubble

To understand what a filter bubble is, let's consider our social life. We surround ourselves with the people we like. We share almost similar opinions & nobody refutes our beliefs or actions. Why? because we have a mutual consensus of beliefs. Similar is the case with our social media. Here we follow & are being followed by the people who share similar beliefs, ideas and comprehensions. It is as if we've created our own bubble, a bubble which contains people with same or similar mindset. Knowingly or unknowingly we keep on expanding & filling this bubble with people who have views & opinions similar to ours.

We're unaware of the fact that there are other bubbles too. Apparently, we believe that the world is governed by the single bubble that we reside in. We think we're correct and nobody can object to our opinion or beliefs. We're in an illusion that the world complies with our thoughts. We feel appreciated for whatever we do, similarly, we appreciate other residents of our bubble. When we find that somebody from outside our bubble - that we fail to realise - has beliefs very different from us, we tend to pull them down by thinking that he or she's wrong and we're right. We feel supported by our bubble and then we feel as if we're at the top of the world.

This bubble is also created by the modern day algorithms used by various search engines, social media & websites like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Quora etc. We seem to lack the bigger picture. Evidently, we're then devoid of intellectual development. We need to understand the existence of these bubbles & shape our opinions accordingly. If we remain inside our bubble throughout, we may lose our ability to be rational and make wise decisions.

With that being said, let's think of other bubbles too before judging or shaping our opinions from next time. This will not only empower us intellectually but also cater to our overall development as human beings living in a society of humans.