The filter bubbles and homophily

            Personalization algorithms, especially those that factor in our friends’ preferences, have a way of clumping us into ever more homogeneous and like-minded groups. That’s one of the central ideas of The Filter Bubble. But, as Eli freely admits, online personalization is not the only force filtering out diversity and sieving in homogeneity. We humans are very good at sorting ourselves into groups that look and think much like ourselves – without the help of algorithms.
            The power of homophily, the sociological term for our self-sorting tendencies, hardly needs scholarly backing ; just glancing around any college cafeteria should be enough to convince that we flock to birds of similar feathers. But that doesn’t stop academics from supplying hundreds of studies for evidence.
             People always looking for others that similar to themselves to build relationships. It limits the oppourtunity for people to know new information because you might already know what your friends know. The social networking also blocks the way that you use to get important information. Such as Google, it will show only the prefered results based on what people click the most times when researching. The research tool filters out the information that might be important or challenging to people. People will see different results when researching the same topic. Although the research tool might bring you the information that you need more convenently, friends can tell you what you want to know based on their understandings of you. We still need to know the complete information in order to understand and make the right choice.

Obama campaign's use of social networking tools

                A fundamental understanding of communication has always been at the center of a politician's arsenal, but a firm grasp on the future of communication can be the secret weapon that wins the war. For Franklin D. Roosevelt, it was radio. For John F. Kennedy, it was television. And for Barack Obama, it is social media.
                The first rule of social media marketing is to put yourself and/or your product out there. A few ways to do that include becoming an active blogger, establishing a presence on the major social networks, and embracing new forms of communication. Obama has over 1.5 million friends on Myspace and Facebook, and he currently has over 45,000 followers on Twitter. This personal activity in social networks allows him to quickly get the word out across multiple platforms.
                Barack Obama has done a great job of making sure his speeches sound as good on YouTube in their entirety as they do on the evening news with just a clip. He's also gambled on YouTube's audience by creating a strong presence on the website. Historically, young voters have been high on enthusiasm but low on voter turnout. But Obama has been able to utilize social media to buck that trend. He uses the tools of social networking to win the presidency.

PBS presentation

            

            Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace allow you to find and connect with just about anyone as long as he or she uses theses sites. Browsing these sites can make you feel connected to a larger community, but such easy, casual connection in an electronic environment can also have its downside.
            According to the discussions and vedio resources from the PBS, social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media. By focusing so much of our time and psychic energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most important connections will be weaken.
           The immediacy provided by social media is available to predators as well as friends. Kids especially are vulnerable to the practice of cyber-bullying in which the perpetrators, anonymously or even posing as people their victims trust, terrorize individuals in front of their peers. The devastation of these online attacks can continue the bullying from the real world and leave deep mental scars. In several well-publicized cases found on the PBS, victims have even been driven to suicide. The anonymity afforded online can bring out dark impulses that might otherwise be suppressed. Cyber-bullying has spread widely among youth, with 42% reporting that they have been victims, according to a 2010 CBS News report.
            Social networking sites encourage people to be more public about their personal lives. Because intimate details of our lives can be posted so easily, users are prone to bypass the filters they might normally employ when talking about their private lives. What's more, the things they post remain available indefinitely. While at one moment a photo of friends doing shots at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less attractive in the context of an employer doing a background check. While most sites allow their users to control who sees the things they've posted, such limitations are often forgotten, can be difficult to control or don't work as well as advertised.