The Filter Bubble: What The Internet Is Hiding From You

Pariser, Eli

Softcover

ISBN 10: 067092038X ISBN 13: 9780670920389

Publisher: Viking, 2011

Imagine a world where all the news you see is defined by your salary, where you live, and who your friends are. Imagine a world where you never discover new ideas. And where you can't have secrets.

Welcome to 2011.

Google and Facebook are already feeding you what they think you want to see. Advertisers are following your every click. Your computer monitor is becoming a one-way mirror, reflecting your interests and reinforcing your prejudices.

The internet is no longer a free, independent space. It is commercially controlled and ever more personalised. The Filter Bubble reveals how this hidden web is starting to control our lives - and shows what we can do about it.

Review:

Eli Pariser is worried. He cares deeply about our common social sphere and sees it in jeopardy. He has got me worried, too. A must-read (David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect)

Anyone who cares about the future of [humanity] in a digital landscape should read this book - especially if it is not showing up in your recommended reads on Amazon (Douglas Rushkoff, author of Life Inc)

If you feel that the Web is your wide open window on the world, you need to read this book to understand what you aren't seeing (Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget)

Internet firms increasingly show us less of the wide world, locating us in the neighborhood of the familiar. The risk, as Eli Pariser shows, is that each of us may unwittingly come to inhabit a ghetto of one (Clay Shirky, author Here Comes Everybody and Cognitive Surplus)

You spend half your life in Internet space, but trust me - you don't understand how it works. This book is a masterpiece of investigation and interpretation (Bill McKibben, author of Earth and founder of 350.org)

A must-read book about one of the central issues in contemporary culture: personalization (Caterina Fake, co-founder of flickr)

About the Author:

Eli Pariser is a pioneer in online campaigning. He helped start Avaaz.org, one of the world's largest citizen organizations, and is now President of the five-million member MoveOn.org. He's a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. He has written for the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.