Filter bubbles are in. Blue sky and mastodon show that people want to self segregate. Even people remaining on Twitter are happy with the exodus.
Facebook is explicitly pro filter bubble. The community notes will come from your ingroup.
One irony is that diversity in online spaces leads to division. People no matter their politics and interests prefer people similar to them.
One way to look at this is by geography. Think of how a group of non English speaking Africans would talk together.
The other irony is that groups of people view the other groups as not similar to them and want to change them. It's always the outgroup that needs it's filter bubble bursting. It's always the other that is brainwashed.
So the downside of filter bubbles remain: more division, more separation between different people.
For me the major breaking change on social media is the forcing of non linear timelines. They're required to increase engagement and promoting content but thats the crux of the issue.
I liked the way early twitter worked, I have my bubble being the people I follow and I can see glimpses of the outside from the trending topics and what comes in as retweets, news, etc. Being able to see a thread without being logged in. Seeing analysis of people from the firehose showing different ways to see conversations and the bubbles.
I miss the fact that old tweets died, things had to be relevant to humans to be rekindled, meaning someone had to retweet to keep it alive instead of an algorithm deciding whats important for me based on how outrageous it is.
Bubbles are unavoidable, bubbles decided by algorithms are the worse of all alternatives.
Isn't there a difference between self-segregation and filter bubbles and how they're perceived?
If I go to a woodworking class, I won't be surprised to see people who like woodworking. If I go to the supermarket and everyone is talking about and liking woodworking, I start thinking that everyone likes woodworking.
A user explicitly signing up to specific topics are opting into a discussion. Filter bubbles are implicit.
Facebook is explicitly pro filter bubble. The community notes will come from your ingroup.
One irony is that diversity in online spaces leads to division. People no matter their politics and interests prefer people similar to them.
One way to look at this is by geography. Think of how a group of non English speaking Africans would talk together.
The other irony is that groups of people view the other groups as not similar to them and want to change them. It's always the outgroup that needs it's filter bubble bursting. It's always the other that is brainwashed.
So the downside of filter bubbles remain: more division, more separation between different people.