Am I A Number?

     Am I a number? The answer is yes. Is everyone else that uses the internet a number? Once again, the answer is yes. Although it's not quite that simple. Each one of us is more of an algorithm. During one of his talks (http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html You can either watch the video before or after reading this), Ted talks about how the internet, not just Google and Facebook, monitor your activity and personalize everything you see. Then he brings up the concept of a "filter bubble." Today I'm going to talk about how those filter bubbles and data mining applies to me personally.

     It's fascinating to think that there is no standard Google. How, regardless of if you're not signed in you won't get the same thing as someone else. I also find it irritating. Now, if you know me well, you'll know that I love to learn, and like Ted, I like to hear other peoples opinions and thoughts. I also like to hear about things that are going on that may not have anything to do with me. These filter bubbles are, honestly, a good concept. I love having Google personalize my searching, so when I search for something, say, a computer term, I won't get a ton of links that have absolutely nothing to do with what I'm searching for. Although, we do need to have some control over it though, or, at the very, very least, some exceptions to these extremely strict algorithms. Instead of having only links, or statuses (Facebook), that are only what the computer thinks the user wants to see, I think there needs to be other links that aren't exactly what the computer thinks we want to see. For example, knowing that I love to learn and, like everyone else, like to be distracted from things I have to do, when I am looking for information on Google, I want to see things that I may not be looking for directly but it would be nice to see other things. 

     Now, data mining affects everyone. There are ways to prevent some of it from certain sites or from using cookies, but as long as you use the internet someone, well some machine, will be tracking you and/or your data. Instead of delving into what data mining is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_mining) and whatnot, I'm going to talk about what I think of it and how it pertains to me, similarly to the previous paragraph about the filter bubble. In order to form this filter bubble, companies have to gather information. Most common is the links that are clicked on, such as after searching through Google or on your news feed on Facebook. Like everyone else my links are tracked and everything is personalized. Also, like I said earlier, I think it's a good idea it just needs to be altered in a few small but key ways.

     When someone says that everyone is just a number on the internet, you can now say that they're more of an algorithm that specifies what you see and what you don't see, regardless of what you want. The internet has changed from what I, and others, thought it would be but it can get much better.