A New Threat to Democracy: "Beware Online Filter Bubbles"

 While browsing through TED talks, I couldn't help but notice the following video and its relevance to our ongoing conversation on responsibilities of a citizen.  In the video, Eli Parjser identifies a new blockade of information: invisible filtering of content.  As social media outlets such as Facebook have worked to become more profitable by data-mining and monitoring user interests, what shows up in one's newsfeed is now tailored by algorithims.  While this may aid in convenience by cutting down on unwanted content it also narrows our scope of the world.

For example, there is now no longer any standard google search.  This is dangerous because as of now it is not clear to citizens how content is being filtered--many are not aware that it is happening at all.  If we allow our content to be filtered according just to our interests, we can inadvertently become isolated and more ignorant.