"...The digital revolution is enabling us to live happily in our own worlds, and in the process closing down opportunities for originality
And there’s the rub.
The ubiquity of incredibly powerful algorithms designed to reinforce our interests also ensures that we see little of what’s new, different and unfamiliar.
The very things that are at the heart of learning, understanding and innovation.
Rather than taking us out of our comfort zone, the digital revolution is enabling each of us to live happily in our own worlds, and in the process closing down opportunities for originality, spontaneity and learning.
How do I know?
Because we flock to Amazon to buy what their algorithms say we should buy.
Because we read news that reinforces what we already believe.
And because we even rely on dating sites that specifically seek to match us with similar people.
Online retailers like Amazon offer us products based on our previous browsing habits – but that can add to the echo chamber
The consequences of living in our algorithm-enabled straightjackets are not trivial.
Intellectually and socially, we are paying a price.
Different Americans are living in different versions of the same country
Take, for example, the recent presidential election in the US.
The stark political polarisations became arguably more entrenched and increasingly evident here as the tendency of people to seek out confirmatory evidence to support their inherent beliefs or intuition became a self-reinforcing cycle.
Different Americans are living in different versions of the same country.
By limiting ourselves to certain news organisations and certain pundits, our curated analyses of current events begin to look spectacularly different to those of others with different outlooks and life experiences..."
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