The filter bubble, a term created by Eli Pariser (Jackson, 2017), refers to the situation when websites use algorithms to assume and deduce what information a user would be interested in and providing them with information based on this deduction and assumption (Pariser, 2011). Thus, a filter bubble can lead to users becoming insulated from information and data that contradicts their points of view, successfully isolating them in their personal ideological, intellectual and cultural “bubbles” (Pariser, 2011). The filter bubble can be used to various domains of a person’s online life, such as the feeds of their social media platforms, the results of their Google search (Bohannon, 2015), showing users personalized and customized information depending on their online activity (Holone, 2016). Most of the users are not aware of the presence of the filter bubble (Brinkmann, 2018) and since the number of online users keeps on increasing (Chaffey, 2018), the preponderance of the filter bubble grows as well (Jackson, 2017).

There have been arguments that the filter bubble takes away people’s control (Rowland, 2011). According to Kaushik (2011), deciding and choosing the relevant and useful information through algorithms, social media platforms can show customized and captivating user content. Regardless of that, research indicates that this process generates the echo chamber effect, referring to the idea that online users are “more likely to engage with people and media sources that share their political beliefs” (Chesire, 2017; Sunstein, 2001). As Flaxman et al (2016) state, as a consequence the filter bubble and the echo chamber effect can lead to the expansion of online segregation. This seems to take place in the expansion of political announcements among individuals on Facebook that are given significant information from millennials and sources that have the same political opinions (Mitchell et al., 2015). Hence, indicating that the filter bubble can lead to particular political exposure, which could cause political attitude polarization (Dylko et al., 2017).

Since many users are not informed about the existence of the filter bubble and its consequences, they tend to assume that they receive online information and data from a wide range of different sources, rather than becoming and being isolated to their personal interests (Lumb, 2015). It turns out that the filter bubble influences and affects the better connected users more than the average users (Gottron and Schwagereit, 2016). Moreover, the filter bubble is useful and needed to create better and easier online content for users (Pothier, 2017). However, Holly Green (2011) argues that people should be able to control the filters and the chosen and selected information that they receive online.

Since the effects and consequences of the filter bubble have been noticed and observed and have become important in the media and the academic literature, it is expected and believed that online users will take action and get rid of the filter bubble to escape from becoming a victim and from getting affected by their personal biases (Adee, 2016; El-Bermawy, 2016). To achieve this goal, before challenging the content shown, the individuals need to acknowledge the existence of the filter bubble and the fact that they are being influenced by it. However, the reality indicates that online users will keep on using platforms that have algorithms with their own information to experience and obtain content that agrees with their personal viewpoints (Hempel, 2017).

Bibliography

Adee, S., 2016, How can Facebook and its users burst the ‘filter bubble’? [Online] New Scientist, Available at: <https://www.newscientist.com/article/2113246-how-can-facebook-and-its-users-burst-the-filter-bubble/> [Accessed 9^th January 2019]

Bohannon, J., 2015, Is Facebook keeping you in a political bubble? [Online] Science, Available at: <https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/05/facebook-keeping-you-political-bubble> [Accessed 9^th January 2019]

Brinkmann, M., 2018, Study: Google puts logged out users in a filter bubble, too[Online] Ghacks.net, Available at: <https://www.ghacks.net/2018/12/06/study-google-puts-logged-out-users-in-a-filter-bubble-too/> [Accessed 10^th January 2019]

Chaffey, D., 2018, Our compilation of the latest social media statistics of consumer adoption and usage [Online] Smart Insights, Available at: <https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/> [Accessed 10^th January 2019]

Chesire, T., 2017, Social media ‘echo chamber’ causing political tunnel vision, study finds [Online] Sky News, Available at: <https://news.sky.com/story/social-media-echo-chamber-causing-political-tunnel-vision-study-finds-10755219> [Accessed 10^th January 2019]

Dylko, I., Dolgov, I., Hoffman, W., Eckhart, N., Molina, M., Aaziz, O., 2017, Impact of Customizability Technology on Political Polarization, Journal of Information Technology & Politics, Vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 19-33

El-Bermawy, M., 2016, Your filter bubble is destroying democracy [Online] Wired, Available at: <https://www.wired.com/2016/11/filter-bubble-destroying-democracy/> [Accessed 10^th January 2019]

Flaxman, S., Goel, S., Rao, J., 2016, Filter Bubbles, Echo Chambers, and Online News Consumption, Public Opinion Quarterly, 80(S1), pp.298-320

Gottron, T., Schwagereit, F., 2016, The Impact of the Filter Bubble—A Simulation Based Framework for Measuring Personalisation Macro Effects in Online Communities, Social and Information Networks, pp. 1-9

Green, H., 2011, Breaking Out of Your Internet Filter Bubble [Online] Forbes, Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2011/08/29/breaking-out-of-your-internet-filter-bubble/#1ca40eff43ac> [Accessed 10^th January 2019]

Hempel, J., 2017, Eli Pariser predicted the future. Now he can’t escape it [Online] Wired, Available at: <https://www.wired.com/2017/05/eli-pariser-predicted-the-future-now-he-cant-escape-it/> [Accessed 11^th January 2019]

Holone, H., 2016, The filter bubble and its effect on online personal health information, Croatian Medical Journal, 57(3), pp. 298-301

Jackson, J., 2017, Eli Pariser: activist whose filter bubble warnings presaged Trump and Brexit [Online] The Guardian, Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jan/08/eli-pariser-activist-whose-filter-bubble-warnings-presaged-trump-and-brexit> [Accessed 9^th January 2019]

Kaushik, P., 2011, Have You Been Trapped In The Filter Bubble? [Online] Business Insider, Available at: <https://www.businessinsider.com/have-you-been-trapped-in-the-filter-bubble-2011-11?IR=T> [Accessed 10^th January 2019]

Lumb, D., 2015, Why scientists are upset about the Facebook filter bubble study [Online] Fast Company, Available at: <https://www.fastcompany.com/3046111/why-scientists-are-upset-over-the-facebook-filter-bubble-study> [Accessed 10^th January 2019]

Mitchell, A., Gottfried, J., Matsa, K., 2015, Facebook Top Source for Political News Among Millennials [Online] Pew Research Center, Available at: <http://www.journalism.org/2015/06/01/facebook-top-source-for-political-news-among-millennials/> [Accessed 10^th January 2019]

Pariser, E., 2011, The Filter Bubble: What The Internet Is Hiding From You, London: Penguin Books, pp.1-304.

Pothier, B., 2017, Better Decisions:Advanced strategic thinking arises when we acknowledge that no one sees the world perfectly. Use these 4 strategies to make better decisions and influence more people [Online] Inc, Available at: <https://www.inc.com/partners-in-leadership/4-strategies-to-burst-your-filter-bubble-and-influence-others.html> [Accessed 10^th January 2019]

Rowland, F., 2011, The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You (review). Library and Information Science, 11(4), pp.1009-1011

Sunstein, C., R., 2001, Republic.com, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 753-766

Crowdfunding is the process of funding a business venture or a project through raising and acquiring money from a multitude of individuals on the Internet (Prive, 2012). This operation is usually done using “an online platform that allows the fundraiser to set up a public campaign for accepting donations” (Danielewicz-Betz, 2016, p. 41). According to Calic and Mosakowski (2016), the usage of crowdfunding increased remarkably since the financial crisis from 2008 and it has become an important and famous technique to earn capital as a substitute to the traditional sources of money (Hendricks, 2014).

Crowdfunding’s objective is to produce funds on the online platforms using the networks and crowds’ power (Berg et al., 2018), thus turning social media websites into an important factor when it comes to making crowdfunding campaigns popular (Barnett, 2013). The social media platforms that are usually used for crowdfunding are: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube (Jules, 2017). The reason these networks are famous and used for this process is because they can easily spread the campaigns and messages over the internet and to the desired audience, leading to increased and expanded economic value for crowdfunding (Mollick, 2014).

A popular topic of concern regarding crowdfunding is how the obtained funds are distributedand divided and how donorscan check how money is spent, especially the ones that have contributed with significant amounts of money (Picardo, 2015). This issue represents a massive problem to sponsors that are thinking about investing capital in a crowdfunding campaign, since they have to handle and accept the idea of non-refundable donations in case they become victims in scandals (O’Brien, 2018). Even if these risks cannot be removed, actions and solutions to decrease and avoid these dangers exist in order for donors to be informed about risks (Prive, 2016).

Even though crowdfunding gives opportunities for small businesses to charitable purposes, there are problems regarding the idea of how the raised money is being used and for what, how the issue with the individuals that do not use the money correctly is handled and how the additional capital acquired is being spent (Blanding, 2017). Padgett and Rolston (2014) suggested that in order to solve the over-funding problem, firms should not receive extra donations. Yet, this task seems impossible to achieve since crowdfunding businesses usually take advantage of these campaigns and of the funds (Funds Europe, 2016).     Crowdfunding can motivate and inspire unwanted donors that are not fully informed about companies (Logan, 2014). Since any individual can establish a crowdfunding campaign in order to earn money for their projects, any person can contribute with capital as well, thus getting involved without being aware of the possible risks (Adrian, 2015). Because the crowdfunding businesses have not informed people about the risks of these campaigns, they are not aware of the problems that could occur (Adrian, 2015).

Bibliography:

Adrian, 2015, 14 potential Issues with Crowdfunding and How to Solve Them [Online] Cleverism, Available at: <https://www.cleverism.com/14-potential-issues-with-crowdfunding-how-solve-them/> [Accessed 10^th January 2019]

Barnett, C., 2014, Top 10 Crowdfunding Sites For Fundraising [Online] Forbes, Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/chancebarnett/2013/05/08/top-10-crowdfunding-sites-for-fundraising/#3d8d98438506> [Accessed 9^th January 2019]

Berg, N., Grissom, T., Snedeker, B., 2018, How to Use Crowdfunding for Small Business [Online] InfusionSoft, Available at: <https://www.infusionsoft.com/business-success-blog/growth/planning-strategy/crowdfunding-for-small-business> [Accessed 9^th January 2019]

Blanding, M., 2017, The Problems and Promises of Crowdfunding [Online] Forbes, Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2013/07/01/the-problems-and-promises-of-crowdfunding/#69be669e4f1a> [Accessed 9^th January 2019]

Calic, G., Mosakowski, E., 2016, Kicking Off Social Entrepreneurship: How A Sustainability Orientation Influences Crowdfunding Success, Journal of Management Studies, 53(5), p.738

Danielewicz-Betz, A., 2016, Communicating in Digital Age Corporations, 1^st edn., Palgrave Macmillan, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Germany

Funds Europe, 2016, Crowdfunding: A great steal [Online] Funds Europe, Available at: <http://www.funds-europe.com/september-2016/crowdfunding-a-great-steal> [Accessed 9^th January 2019]

Hendricks, D., 2014, 5 Reasons Why Crowdfunding Is The Next Big Investing Trend [Online] Forbes, Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhendricks/2014/08/27/5-reasons-why-crowdfunding-is-the-next-big-investing-trend/#5521e25b6c0a> [Accessed 9^th January 2019]

Jules, 2017, Leverage on social media to achieve your crowdfunding goals [Online] Easyship, Available at: <https://blog.easyship.com/leverage-on-social-media-to-achieve-your-crowdfunding-goals> [Accessed 9^th January 2019]

Logan, L., 2014, The trouble with crowdfunding the next big tech gadget [Online] Smithsonian, Available at: <https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/trouble-crowdfunding-next-big-tech-gadget-180951754/> [Accessed 10^th January 2019]

Mollick, E., 2014, The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study, Journal of Business Venturing, 29(1), p.8

O’Brien, C., 2018, Is equity crowdfunding too good to be true? [Online] Irish times, Available at: <https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/is-equity-crowdfunding-too-good-to-be-true-1.3512522> [Accessed 9^th January 2019]

Padgett, B. and Rolston, C., 2014, Crowd Funding: A Case Study at the Intersection of Social Media and Business Ethics, Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies, 20(3), pp.61-66

Picardo, E., 2015, Invest through equity crowdfunding: risks and rewards (FB) [Online] Investopedia, Available at: <https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/102015/invest-through-equity-crowdfunding-risks-and-rewards.asp> [Accessed 9^th January 2019]

Prive, T., 2012, What Is Crowdfunding And How Does It Benefit The Economy [Online] Forbes, Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2012/11/27/what-is-crowdfunding-and-how-does-it-benefit-the-economy/#ae4787fbe63e> [Accessed 9^th January 2019]

Prive, T., 2016, Why equity crowdfunding could be dangerous for investors and entrepreneurs [Online] Fortune, Available at: <http://fortune.com/2016/05/06/equity-crowdfunding-could-be-dangerous/> [Accessed 9^th January 2019]

For the Gephi social network analysis, I have chosen to explore the facebook account of Topshop. Using the Gephi programme, I managed to create the analysis of the social network of Topshop’s Facebook page. As it can be seen in Figure 1, the company’s Facebook page like network consists of 78 nodes and 188 edges, making it the main point of all the nodes by being in the center. The color and size of the nodes are ranked based on central betweenness. The nodes that are darker, bigger and larger represent the ones that have the highest central betweenness. Figure 1 illustrates that the highest and prominent central betweenness belongs to Topshop’s principal Facebook page. This conveys that the business is in control of the network due to the passing of significant quantities of information through the nodes. Furthermore, this implies that Topshop is utilizing their high value of betweenness centrality in order to keep control of the networks by a large amount of influence. However, it could also imply that the organization has been unsuccessful when it comes to developing group interconnections. Besides Topshop’s node, Vogue and Teen Vogue are also nodes with high central betweenness, indicating that they have a remarkable amount of influence because they connect nodes within a wide range of groups. Moreover, the figure below shows that Topshop could profit from better connectivity from their network. This would allow them to further enlarge their network, grow their sales and raise brand recognition.

The Social media, Networks and Business course was very useful and it helped me to deepen and broaden my knowledge and understanding about social media and social networks. I have expanded my comprehension, especially when it comes to personal online privacy and the filter bubble, which I was not aware of. I have also acquired a knowledge of the way social networks have evolved over time and how they will keep on developing in the future, being helped rapidly developing technology.

The lecture that attracted and interested me the most was Lecture 5: Ties and Bubbles in a small world, because it had a lot of information that I found captivating and because it included the Filter Bubble, a topic I was not informed about. This topic helped me acknowledge how the content of the social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat control and influence millennials’ perspectives and lives. Not only did this topic teach me the filter bubble’s advantages and drawbacks, but it also helped me gain an understanding of the content that people are exposed to on the online platforms. Moreover, it made me analyse and consider how much the filter bubble affects me and what kind of consequences it may have on my personal life and opinions.

Another lecture that I found interesting was Lecture 7: Social contagion, because it was the first time that I had heard of this type of social influence. Ever since I have become aware of it, I started noticing its presence in my life. I think this topic is fascinating and useful, because it can make individuals understand the effects of social interactions and relations on people, groups performance and behaviors.

Lecture 9: Social Media – the good, the bad, and the ugly is another one that captured my attention, because it contains information about the topic Social Media and Privacy. I was aware of the online privacy issue and this topic is crucial to me since it affects every person and myself as well. This subject was captivating because not only did it take into account the privacy of social media users, but it also focused on the effects that the online privacy’s uncertainty may have on the social media platforms, sites and how they could be solved.

I consider that the information that has been provided during this course will be very useful and will help me professionally, personally and academically. I think that the gained skills, abilities and knowledge about the Gephi programme, Wiki programme and WordPress system will be beneficial for my future job and career. With all the information, knowledge and capabilities that I have acquired, I plan to further develop my skills, practice more and apply them to my Curriculum Vitae.