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Personnalisation, danger and opportunity
Algorithms sort the information presented to each user. But because there are “type 3” services, it is possible to personalize the advertising and non-advertising information that is presented to everyone.
As a result, each user is exposed to different information. And it is a vicious circle: the more we look at information, the more the same type of information will be put forward by algorithms, and the more we will look at this same type of information, thus locking ourselves in very comfortable “bubbles”, far from information that could call into question our own ideas. In some cases, recommendation algorithms lead to radicalization.
Of course, this phenomenon is only a mirror image of what users are looking for. Moreover, this phenomenon has always existed: didn’t people choose their diary and their friends according to their tastes? Hasn’t there always been (statistically again) a certain communitarian tendency to seek opinions similar to ours rather than confrontation with opposites?
But before, there were on the one hand a relatively limited number of sources of information, and on the other hand a certain locality of this information. A few television channels, a few radio stations, a few newspapers. Many of us, on a defined territory, shared a common “world map”.
Now this is no longer the case: each user is also a potential source of information for others (we talk about “friends” or “followers” on social networks). Even language is no longer a barrier given the ubiquity of English and the performance of automatic translators.
As a result, two neighbours may have very different “cards” from the world, and therefore their possibilities of exchanging information will be very limited. Each one locked in his “bubble” of information, which does not intersect the other’s “bubble”. On the other hand, people from the other side of the world may find themselves in a common “bubble” and have a lot to exchange.
At the same time as personalization poses problems of social cohesion and governance in a territory, it allows everyone to find affinities all over the world, creating bridges of understanding and reducing the risk of conflict.