Not all of us can travel by bubble. At this current moment in time, this practice has yet to be proven possible, even with the power of science. However, many of us already do travel by bubble in a figurative sense. As Pariser states in his Ted Talks performance, many people are unconsciously travelling within what he calls a “filter bubble”, a carefully edited set of links and information that is geared towards what the individual’s own unique needs and desires. Search engines work with a mechanical precision that simply sweeps aside anything that the viewer would not automatically seek out on their own. Don’t like anything to do with racism? No problem, your search engine will show you a world where racism doesn’t even exist. Radically religious? Well, dear viewer, the glowing world of your computer screen discriminates and denies all religions that are not your own. Social media sites carefully analyze your internet psychology in order to produce the perfect internet experience you, filling your timeline with all your favourite gossip and tidbits.

I can not say that I’ve had a world of experience with Facebook, Twitter, or even Instagram. Composing a message in the 140 characters of a tweet causes more stress than a final exam. Tumblr and Youtube are more down my alley. Hours can be spent scrolling down a Tumblr feed composed of fanart, cats, and food porn and even as I renew that feed for the 10th time, I am travelling through the world in a bubble.

Pariser focuses on the Internet’s role in the growth of a filter bubble when most individual’s seem to be perfectly content within that bubble, and oftentimes aid in its birth. Tumblr is of particular interest. The website provides no annoying ads for the user, aside from the small window at the right-hand side of the feed. All the information that is shown has been hand-picked by the user and is of interest to them. It’s like a buffet of chefs, all specialized in particular kinds of information, and all the user has to is is pick out the chefs that they like and they will be guaranteed an endless flow of happy scrolling. On the odd occasion that they dislike the information, just press the “J” key and skip right past. They don’t even need to see what they don’t want to. I fully admit to skipping a great deal of feed whenever something distressing happens in the world. As far as I’m concerned, I just need to know the basic components of whatever’s happening and move on with my life. Whatever happens just doesn’t grab my attention as much as that post about puppies in the snow.

The very same concept goes for the user’s own page and the information they present to their followers. We crave approval, attention, for people to contact us and be delighted when we reply, almost as though we were internet celebrities. Tumblr users often operate in the darkness of anonymity, waiting for the moment their follower number increases as though they are the leaders of some twisted cult specializing in cat admiration. A tumblr-er’s activity on a particular topic rises and wanes according to just how popular it is with the internet community at the topic’s time of existence. Take cat-shaming for example. Everyone on the internet loves cats. It’s even better when they’re doing things that we humans imagine as being cute as a button. A classic example of a blog that will always be followed because its content is timeless. The blog curries to its followers’ favours by showing them something utterly mindless that they can coo over for a second before forgetting entirely.

Humans are mobile, animate and hopefully not mindless. The algorithmic coding that occurs behind the flashing screen of our computer is relatively simpler. They may be creating a filter bubble but we were the deciding factor in that bubble’s creation.