Category: Google

TMI 12/15/2023 – Is the Filter Bubble the Wrong Mechanism to Explain Social Media Toxicity?, How Trump’s Project 2025 is a Next Level Disaster for the Climate and more

Post author By Aldous Tyler, Admin
Post date December 15, 2023
No Comments on TMI 12/15/2023 – Is the Filter Bubble the Wrong Mechanism to Explain Social Media Toxicity?, How Trump’s Project 2025 is a Next Level Disaster for the Climate and more

We’ve reported here on TMI on Eli Pariser’s “Filter Bubble” concept since its debut in 2010 at his Ted talk: the idea that Google was selectively feeding results back to the user that the user agreed with, making it so that one person’s search results were often vastly different than another’s. Mr Pariser pointed out that by putting us all in these Filter Bubbles, we couldn’t agree on what was even factual. A new article published in the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) journal, however, says that is all wrong when applied to social media giants like Facebook, where they aim to increase your focus and time spent there by enhancing the chance of you getting made angry by what you see. We examine these competing concepts.

Then, we go over how the media is gleefully playing up any and all minutiae of Trump’s intentions for his second term except for one key part: how the Project 2025 plan that he’s assimilated is catastrophic for any chance we have to keep the environment from completely collapsing.

Finally, we present an update to a story we went over a few weeks back, putting a spotlight on how the EV infrastructure promised by Biden’s funding in 2021 is FINALLY starting to come to fruition. All this and more on TMI for Friday, December 15, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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TMI 10/27/2023 – Filter Bubble Redux: How Pariser’s Predictions Fell Short of the Real Outcome, Hurricane Otis Punctuates Release of New Climate Crisis Report, more

Back near the beginning of TMI with Aldous Tyler in 2010, we reported on Eli Pariser’s Ted Talk that introduced the world to the “Filter Bubble”. This phenomenon, he said, was caused by Google’s search algorithms, which would selectively feed you results similar to ones you had interacted with before. That would cause your Google searches to no longer match anyone else’s, and would feed you ideas you agreed with far more than those that would challenge your beliefs. Fast forward to today, and his predictions that this “echo chamber” effect could negatively impact society seem far too mild. We discuss how TikTok, Spotify, YouTube, Meta’s platforms and many others have stanched the flow of ideas and how to fight back.

Then, as I was preparing to tell you about the latest report from scientists on the climate, noting that we may very well have gone past several tipping points, Hurricane Otis became a demonstration of how we are in unknown territory by unprecedently ramping up from a weak tropical storm to a 165 MPH monster Category 5 hurricane in roughly 24 hours, slamming into the Acapulco area with no warning to evacuate the million-plus people there. We discuss how this alarming development might become the new normal. All that and more on TMI for Friday, October 27, 2023 – get YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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TMI 03/19/2021 – The More Perfect Union Project w/ Faiz Shakir, What it Will Take for Post-COVID “Normal”, Search Engines Spread Disinfo By Design

Weekends, employer-provided health coverage, overtime pay, a ban on child labor – these are all benefits to society as a whole thanks to unions. Faiz Shakir, formerly of the Bernie Sanders campaign, knows all too well about how unions have been falling in membership size and power, and seeks to restore them via the More Perfect Union project. We discuss.

Then, we look seriously at what it is going to take to return to a pre-COVID normal – or if that is even possible. Finally we take on disinformation at its most unlikely source: search engines! That’s right, the way Bing or Google serve you up answers also serves you up with topics you LIKE, not necessarily ones that are correct. All this and more on TMI for Friday, March 19, 2021! Listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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TMI 01/08/2021 – How the Capitol Attack Reverberated Elsewhere, Does the Climate Have a Finite Pool of Worry, Google Gets a Union, and some Truths 2020 Left Us With

On today’s episode of TMI:

The attack on the Capitol Building, spurred by noneother than Donald Trump himself, was a day of disaster in DC, but had consequences that reached far further. A friend in Connecticut sends in her striking tale of how events that transpired for her that same day, many miles away, were phantoms of the brutal riot happening in Washington.

Next, we examine how a study over how concerned people are about the Climate Crisis was able to serendipitously discover if something as worrisome as the pandemic can crowd out Climate worry. It’s a test of the Finite Pool of Worry theory, be sure to listen in!

Then, Google has had a Union form within its ranks, but there’s something different and frankly revolutionary about it – find out what.

Finally, we see that 2020, harsh a year as it was, has left us with several gems of insight that we need to carry with us from now on. All that and more on TMI for Friday, January 8th, 2021 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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TMI 10/24/2020 – Carl Gibson Packs the Courts, Same Words – Different Meaning, and Hey Google, What’s Antitrust?

On this episode of TMI:

Friend of the program Carl Gibson has a new piece out at the Independent called “The most democratic thing Joe Biden could do is pack the courts” – he joins us to discuss why this vilified idea is a good one.

Then, we talk about how the very same words often seem to have two completely different meanings depending on your political viewpoint – could Artificial Intelligence allow computers to help undo this language gridlock?

Finally, we break down the antitrust case being brought down on Google, and examine how other online giants like Amazon, Facebook and others may not be far behind. All this and more on TMI’s special Saturday edition for October 24, 2020 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!