How Facebook And Google Are Changing The Way We Use Internet?

Now, everyone these days use Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking site to connect with their friends, family and outside world. Also we use  Google, Yahoo as a search tool for searching for the information we need. You might be knowing that Facebook is the #1 social networking website and Google is the #1 search engine in the world. These are the two giant who are ruling the internet these days.

While using the Facebook you might see that your news feed contains only stories that you liked or clicked most. You might be having lots of friends on Facebook but you aren't getting updates from everyone, you get updates or notifications from the friends with whom or who interacted recently with you.You will not see your "Best Friends" with whom you interacted in the past(when you joined Facebook for the first time) anymore. Facebook has separated them from you without consulting with you or without your knowledge. Similarly, you might see page suggestions or ads of similar type you liked or clicked on.

Do you know that Facebook and Google and other websites like Yahoo, Netflix etc. are tracking all your activities, whatever you do on the internet.? Yes, they are tracking each and every single thing you do inside your browser and also things you don't do. Further more, Facebook is now tracking you outside of the Facebook, even when you logged out.

Once Mark Zuckerberg said "A Squirrel dying front of your house may be more relevant to your interest right now than the people dying in Africa". And This is the idea of relevancy that today's web is based on.

Similarly, with Google, even when you sign out of all of your Google account Google is still tracking you and collecting information about where you are, which browser you are on, which computer your are using etc. There are 57 signal Google looks at.

All these tracking is done to provide you with the personalized experience on their website which is a good thing i.e. whatever you are interested in, you will see more like this. So that you will get what you want or what you like and  stay engaged on their website.

This was all about what we like and what we want, but what about the things that are important, necessary and helpful to us, what about the things that are good for our society, things that are challenging, things that are not relevant but happened near by us, in our society.

This is the idea that Eli Pariser, chief executive of Upworthy, a website for "meaningful" viral content, came up with in 2011. But still lots of people don't know about it. And that's why I wrote this post about his idea to let people, who uses internet, know that they are being tracked and spied upon by these internet giants. Watch the video below to know what he want to say about the "Online Filter Bubbles".

I don't own this video, it taken from YouTube as it is. It was on of the TED Talks' video. But the idea he came up with is awesome. And you should think about it. What do you think about it? and what should be done about this? Comment your opinions in the comments below.
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