Personalisation – The Internet Filter Bubble and Facebook

This Ted Talk came from Carole reminding me of a blog I wrote for the Big Bible site about Theological Ghettos.  The way the internet works at the moment disturbs me as it edits out the things it believes I don’t want to see.  Google shows me what I want to see.  An algorithm decides what my world should look like.  Google essentially feeds me pictures of Mother Theresa, Desmond Tutu and Eddie Van Halen.  That kind of thing.  Give the people what they want!  And why not?

Facebook recently introduced a change to the way it works.  It has started to push content to your friends when you click “like” or comment upon a post.  I assume this means that every time I click like on a Star Wars meme is is pushed through to some of my friends.  As they are friends with me they must clearly be interested in the same things as I am – this is the logic that Facebook is employing.

This has shattered my internet filter bubble.  The world now looks a little different than before.  In the past week I have discovered that a “friend” of a “friend” likes the EDL.  I’ve seen numerous racist memes.  I’ve discovered that there is a more unpleasant underbelly to the society I am part of.  A less pleasant world that I was happily living without.  No doubt my friends have discovered that I talk about ‘vicar things’ a lot more than they thought previously.

It won’t come as a surprise to you to discover that I am “politically liberal” and so are a large proportion of my friends.  However, Facebook has just let everyone’s guard down.  Everyone is now less able to hide “the real you” from the world of Facebook unless they choose not to engage with it.  Every click potentially outs you as the person who “likes” pictures of fluffy kittens.  Alternatively you may find your more sinister side on display for the world to see as you are “outed” as a secret Belieber.

An Exercise in Collaboration – Daniel

On Tuesday Fr Simon posted on Facebook that he needed lots of different voices reading from Daniel.

I plugged a mic in to pro tools, grabbed a bible and read.  Dropped it into dropbox.  Lots of other people did the same and Simon did the rest.  Social media in action to create resources for God’s church.

 

Guest Post

This month my guest post over at bigbible.org.uk has the word “Cathedral” in the title. This took me by surprise as much as everyone else.

If you want to know why I would be mentioning a Cathedral in a post, why not check it out.

Christmas in 50 Words

This is a beautifully done look at the nativity.

Again this is from Igniter Media who aren’t very open source with their resources.  If you would like a version that doesn’t have a watermark you will have to pay the piper.

A Social Media Christmas

I’ve a few videos to share with you before your christmas services.

If you remember last year there was a social media video of the nativity.  This one is more poignant than the comedy one.

They are both from Igniter Media.  Sadly they aren’t very open source with their resources.  If you would like a version that doesn’t have a watermark you will have to pay the piper.

Twitter Resurrection

I stumbled upon this video.

The Internet – A Basic Human Right?

I was reading an interesting article from the BBC entitled “The myth of free wi-fi”.  I am a tech savvy guy with more computers and iStuff floating around my house than it is possible to use.  To be honest I’m surprised my fridge isn’t wi-fi enabled – perhaps that is my next step.  My thoughts on social media and faith are well documented.  I believe that the internet a shift in the way information flows that is as significant as the invention of the printing press.  So reading an article on open source public wi-fi was right up my street.  However, what caught my attention was this quote from Sam Churchill:

“But it’s a basic requirement these days, just like water and power in a civilised society, that helps people communicate and keep informed.”

We live in a world of serious inequality.  I struggle to reconcile this quote with the picture above.  Having wi-fi in public spaces is a ‘basic requirement’?  If there is one thing that the article has inspired me to do it is “donate some money to water aid“.

Every 60 Seconds on the Internet

Hat Tip @Jesterstudio

Google+

To be honest, I’m not sure how Google+ is going to pan out.  I have made some comments about it in blog posts and I can see some merits and weaknesses. 

I do intend to update my profile on the blog (many of my pages seem to be a little out of date, sorry) but for now, if you want to find me on Google+ I am here.

The Google Minus Project

This video is an interesting take on the circles that google+’s social networking site has introduced us to.  It was shared in the comments on my guest blog at BigBible.  For those of you who have not looked at google+ yet, it allows you to place people into different circles or categories.  This means that in theory you don’t have to share everything with everybody publicly and you don’t necessarily need to have different accounts for different purposes.

The video likens this to excluding people at school.  The reality of life is that we don’t operate in one giant social circle.  We don’t share every aspect of our lives with everybody.  As you would expect, there are things that I say to my wife that I don’t say to my bishop.  There are conversations I have with the members of my band that I don’t need to have with my parents watching.  They don’t care about the tonal differences between a single coil pickup vs a humbucker.  In all likelihood, neither do you – hence my point.