Closed feedback loop

“What shows up on the Internet and cable television today is shaped by what we choose to click on and watch in the past” [link] 

I’m an information analyst. I study both computer and human information. Two systems that frequently dovetail on the Internet. That’s why I feel like my Internet experience is becoming increasingly shallow. Far from opening up possibilities, or sending me down information superhighways ..I’m being lead down increasingly narrow avenues that present me with only the most superficial hype. All I can figure is that I’ve entered a ‘closed feedback loop’. Simply put, a closed feedback loop narrows-down a range of activity based on feedback it receives about prior activity. On the Internet, activity means information. In other words, what rises to the foreground is determined by the things I paid attention to in the past while everything else recedes into the background. Robert Lewis Stevenson said it best “Attention to one thing is sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.” The Internet narrows it down beautifully. 

Sites like Google and Facebook are tuned to deliver information based on popular choice .. not credibility or merit. On the other hand, humans are hard-wired to receive and share information ..but not necessarily weigh its validity or merit. What we come away with is a feeling of familiarity based on prior experience. The Internet assures me I’ll get few surprises. That’s why the music I’m most likely to hear right now is from Rihanna or Jay Z ..when I know there’s so much more talent out there, it just doesn’t rise to the surface of ‘what’s trending’.