Netflix Documentary, The Social Dilemma... how we are being polarized and divided by big tech.

[iamwhatiseem]

A simple test to show how big tech effects and forms opinions for us was to simply type "climate change is" into Google.
What search options Google provided was different depending on where you live, and more so on your search habits and political persuasion Google knows you have.
Now take that simple phrase, and expand that to virtually anything you type. The response you get, is not what everyone else sees for a great many search queries. Particularly political. This is called "the rabbit hole effect". Google/Facebook/Instagram/Twitter.... everything you do on these sites are all very carefully cataloged and studied. All of these companies priority #1 is to get you to go to their sites as much as possible, and stay as long as possible when you do go there. So if you are conservative, they know you are more likely to click on and view a story or video supporting your views than not. Same for liberal of course. So no matter what you search for, the information you will get back will ALWAYS be in line with your already proven beliefs. Thus the rabbit hole.
So if a liberal Googles something they heard about Trump, Google will respond back with stories that came from liberal sources...and whalaa!! "I knew it!"... consequently if a conservative Googles the exact same query - they will get back stories from conservative views... and they have the same whallaa! "I knew it wasn't true!"
Take that and the fact that fake news stories spread 6 times faster, viewed more and stay up longer than true news does. And you have the makings of a whole lot of people's opinions and views being directly persuade by tech giants.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

A simple test to show how big tech effects and forms opinions for us was to simply type "climate change is" into Google.
What search options Google provided was different depending on where you live, and more so on your search habits and political persuasion Google knows you have.
Now take that simple phrase, and expand that to virtually anything you type. The response you get, is not what everyone else sees for a great many search queries. Particularly political. This is called "the rabbit hole effect". Google/Facebook/Instagram/Twitter.... everything you do on these sites are all very carefully cataloged and studied. All of these companies priority #1 is to get you to go to their sites as much as possible, and stay as long as possible when you do go there. So if you are conservative, they know you are more likely to click on and view a story or video supporting your views than not. Same for liberal of course. So no matter what you search for, the information you will get back will ALWAYS be in line with your already proven beliefs. Thus the rabbit hole.
So if a liberal Googles something they heard about Trump, Google will respond back with stories that came from liberal sources...and whalaa!! "I knew it!"... consequently if a conservative Googles the exact same query - they will get back stories from conservative views... and they have the same whallaa! "I knew it wasn't true!"
Take that and the fact that fake news stories spread 6 times faster, viewed more and stay up longer than true news does. And you have the makings of a whole lot of people's opinions and views being directly persuade by tech giants.

DuckDuckGo...much better search engine and it does not store data or track your searches.

 

[LordBrownTrout]

A simple test to show how big tech effects and forms opinions for us was to simply type "climate change is" into Google.
What search options Google provided was different depending on where you live, and more so on your search habits and political persuasion Google knows you have.
Now take that simple phrase, and expand that to virtually anything you type. The response you get, is not what everyone else sees for a great many search queries. Particularly political. This is called "the rabbit hole effect". Google/Facebook/Instagram/Twitter.... everything you do on these sites are all very carefully cataloged and studied. All of these companies priority #1 is to get you to go to their sites as much as possible, and stay as long as possible when you do go there. So if you are conservative, they know you are more likely to click on and view a story or video supporting your views than not. Same for liberal of course. So no matter what you search for, the information you will get back will ALWAYS be in line with your already proven beliefs. Thus the rabbit hole.
So if a liberal Googles something they heard about Trump, Google will respond back with stories that came from liberal sources...and whalaa!! "I knew it!"... consequently if a conservative Googles the exact same query - they will get back stories from conservative views... and they have the same whallaa! "I knew it wasn't true!"
Take that and the fact that fake news stories spread 6 times faster, viewed more and stay up longer than true news does. And you have the makings of a whole lot of people's opinions and views being directly persuade by tech giants.

DuckDuckGo...much better search engine and it does not store data or track your searches.

I use that one as my main one now.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

A simple test to show how big tech effects and forms opinions for us was to simply type "climate change is" into Google.
What search options Google provided was different depending on where you live, and more so on your search habits and political persuasion Google knows you have.
Now take that simple phrase, and expand that to virtually anything you type. The response you get, is not what everyone else sees for a great many search queries. Particularly political. This is called "the rabbit hole effect". Google/Facebook/Instagram/Twitter.... everything you do on these sites are all very carefully cataloged and studied. All of these companies priority #1 is to get you to go to their sites as much as possible, and stay as long as possible when you do go there. So if you are conservative, they know you are more likely to click on and view a story or video supporting your views than not. Same for liberal of course. So no matter what you search for, the information you will get back will ALWAYS be in line with your already proven beliefs. Thus the rabbit hole.
So if a liberal Googles something they heard about Trump, Google will respond back with stories that came from liberal sources...and whalaa!! "I knew it!"... consequently if a conservative Googles the exact same query - they will get back stories from conservative views... and they have the same whallaa! "I knew it wasn't true!"
Take that and the fact that fake news stories spread 6 times faster, viewed more and stay up longer than true news does. And you have the makings of a whole lot of people's opinions and views being directly persuade by tech giants.

DuckDuckGo...much better search engine and it does not store data or track your searches.

What I do is almost always when using Google I open up a Private Tor window. That way, Google does not know who I am, so my results are less likely to be influenced by the data they have on me.