Are we filtering ourselves into an internet ghetto?

Byline: David Tebbutt

Are we filtering ourselves into an internet ghetto?

David Tebbutt

Is all this clever RSS aggregator, search and filtering software pushing us into funnels of narrow interest? It's all very well to respond to a user's request for information, but is it so good when we start to do it to ourselves?

The question was prompted by Tony Rucinski of the University of Wales during the Cilip/Talis Re-imagining the Library conference. Following a session on the cultural shifts and user expectations wrought by the advent of social software, he asked whether it was healthy to be able to filter out anything that didn't conform to our own worldview.

We risk surrounding ourselves with like-minded online friends, visiting only those websites that conform to our views and filtering out stuff we don't want to hear. Thank goodness the technology is imperfect; otherwise web habituA[c]s would never break out of their self-imposed mental prisons.

This is not just an issue for the individuals themselves; it's potentially an issue for society. Inhabitants of digital ghettos are likely to be less tolerant of conflicting viewpoints. We see it sometimes in the echo-chamber effect of the blogosphere.