Prime Time 4, Coursebook

The filter bubble Reading: Ally’s blog a) Read the blog post below. Have you ever noticed that, when you surf the internet, you always see ads for things you’re interested in? For example, I was looking for a new pair of headphones last week, and since that day I’ve only seen ads for headphones. Of course, that’s for a reason. Websites know a lot about you because they monitor how you use them. They place little files on your device called cookies. These cookies follow and remember what you do on the website. The next time you visit the site, it will personalise the content according to the information from your last visit. By showing us only things we’re interested in again and again, websites put us into a so-called filter bubble. Imagine I am a fan of the football team Leicester City. Some of my friends are also fans of Leicester City, but some of my friends support Liverpool. On my favourite social network I want to see all of my friends’ posts, of course. But I usually click more on the links that are posted by my friends who support Leicester City, like me. Just before the finals I notice that my friends who support Liverpool have almost disappeared from my newsfeed and I can only see the posts from my Leicester City friends. The social network has decided for me not to show me the posts from my Liverpool friends. Can you believe it? Sometimes, of course, this can be really helpful. Often we actually do want to see the information that we are more interested in. It can make online shopping easier, and it helps us to connect with people who like the same things as we do. But I feel a bit helpless if the internet offers to me only what it thinks I want to see. I feel I’m going to miss a lot of really interesting stuff. The question is: What can we do about it? Why don’t you leave me a comment and let me know what you think? b) Complete the sentences with not more than four words. 1. Ally describes how companies personalise online ads . 2. Cookies are little files that collect information about . 3. Being in a filter bubble means that we only see things . 4. The social network thinks you are interested in links if you . 5. Ally doesn’t want websites to decide . 6. Ally asks her readers to tell her . n46tz9 2 Home About me Topics In the bubble 5 10 15 20 56 7 Unit Play IT safe fifty-six Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv