Investigative Exercise 8: CURRENT AWARENESS POST

I found the video on "filter bubbles" to be very interesting. I'm always surprised when my Internet searches retrieve extremely accurate results. The fact that a piece of code is gathering so much information about me that it knows exactly what I want is highly disturbing when I really think about it. The thing is, though, it's really convenient- so convenient that I don't think about it. I just click on the link I want and continue on my way. 

I'm the sort of person that gets easily upset. War, disease, rape, child abuse- these are the sorts of things I don't really want to know about. It's not that I don't have strong feelings about them and wish I could help in some way, because I do. It's just easier sometimes not to know, to live in my safe little Internet bubble of amusing cats, fluffy romances and pretty celebrities. The problem? The stuff I don't want to know about intrudes into these supposedly safe spaces as well. Not every artist, writer or blogger bothers to tag for the stuff that makes me uncomfortable, and the state of tumblr these days means the Benedict Cumberbatch thigh appreciation blog I'm following is probably also filled with social commentary on the ethics of celebrity culture. 

The world probably would be a better place if the Internet allowed us to be challenged by things instead of shielding us from them like an overprotective parent. Maybe then, we could have a long hard think about why these things make us uncomfortable, and what we can do about them. 

We need someone to come along with a pin and pop the bubble. We need to have our view of the world shaken up a few times, otherwise how can we grow as human beings, and more than that, as a subculture?