Big data - hidden friend and snatch

I never forget the 2016 US election when I first witnessed my family members and other close relationships cancel their connection with each other on facebook, or quarrel with each other. emotional batch on the table because of dissent. American newspapers clearly divided wings. Who likes Trump reads Fox, National Review, Breitbart . where he appears mostly with aura. Who hates Trump, reads NY Times, CNN, and other left-wing newspapers. Election results go hand in hand with allegations toward a face-to-face jerk: Big Data - a big database.

One of the many Big Data applications relies on internet algorithms and makes what we click like, share, comment on, or even just open pages to read . become a predictor of Similar content automatically appears with higher frequency. Algorithm software immediately retrieves the data base of the information we just read, category, website address, residence location, computer type, total time we stopped in a web page, the e-book content we are reading, the words we mark, even when we turn pages . Based on hundreds of parameters obtained, the algorithms will automatically coordinate and send content to the personal computer with the same frequency. If you like and read beauty sites, your home facebook wall will quickly look like an avenue of beauty salons, and your email will soon be filled with invitations to try new products. Even when you go to a website that is not related to beauty, the ad column can also show the perfume that you are just thinking about in your head.

So is the US presidential election. If someone hates Mr. Trump, around that person will appear all postings that drove him to the bottom. For a person who supports him, the internet will provide all the articles, and images in which he appears as a savior. Our worldview is molded in the direction that the internet calculates that we will interact most. In other words, we are imprisoned in a fake, illusory, unbiased space, even lies. All for the purpose of stroking the fragile and vulnerable self and the desire to be with those who share our opinions.

So why do we have such easy tendencies?

Thien Kien confirmed

Human ancestors lived for millions of years in savannah grasslands with many dangers lurking, from wild animals to hostile tribes. That context makes logical argumentation unimportant by handling situations effectively and gaining the support of tribal people. A person with an objective mind, who considers things without letting the dominant emotions not lead the tribe effectively with a strong person, though not objective but knows how to use emotions to entice, though not There is evidence of truth but knowing how to reassure or agitate. Millions of years like this have led to the gradual inclination of humankind to follow what we believe to be true, not what has been proven to be correct (confirmation bias).

According to the principle of parallel evolution (culture-coevolution gene), our genes and brain structure will gradually change to fit the most beneficial cultural form for survival. Because the truth is not as important as belief, the image from the surrounding world will be screened before going to the brain's information processing center. In the upper part of the brain stem we have a bunch of nerves called Reticular Activating System (RAS). All information images of the world go through RAS to the brain. But if anything we pay attention to, the brain will overload, so RAS acts as a gatekeeper, only for important information to pass.

So what information does RAS think is important? Those are the information we consider ourselves essential. For example, when you walk in the middle of a crowded street, someone calls your name with a sound that is much smaller than the noise around, but why do you still recognize it. That's when the middle of the same layer overlaps, you can still see the back of a loving person. RAS is a screening system so that we can identify the information we want, even if the information is tiny, small, weak. RAS was the cause when I suddenly liked dyeing my hair purple - after thinking for three days - it seemed like every five girls in Sydney's street had a purple-haired girl. That's because before my RAS filtered out "purple hairs", but when purple hair is important to me, I will only see purple hair.

Thus, RAS provides us with what we want to see, we will receive what we expect. That's why "placebo" - placebo - works. If we tell the patient to take this medicine, it will relieve the fatigue, even if it is just a candy, the patient will report that they are less tired. That is because when they expect positive results, RAS will purify the information, focus the thoughts and actions of the patients on the information in accordance with the positive results they expect. RAS even distorts reality to fit our thinking. In an experiment by Stolier and Freeman, "happy" black faces were judged as "angry" and "angry" women faces were supposed to be happy. This is the result of social prejudice that women are always happy and black men are violent. In short, the RAS filter makes us look at life in a different lens, the prism of our own thoughts.

Realistic filter bubbles

Our modern life has a large part of internet experience and interaction. However, the technology revolution 4.0 does not connect different ideas, but with prejudice, we can easily connect with the same people as ourselves. Why? Because those who share the same thoughts, the same opinions, the same interests, the same thoughts will make us feel that our values ​​are more strongly affirmed.

Big Data and algorithms use this to act as an RAS outside the brain, taking care of filtering information, showing only images, events, and thoughts of the same frequency as us. enjoy. The result is true and the world around us becomes an incomplete version because it is screened even twice by RAS.

In his book (Filter Bubbles), Eli Pariser gives a good example when two different people search for the name of BP oil company and have different results. A person is invited to invest in BP, while the other person receives information about BP discharge to the sea. Scientists calculate that the difference in search results may change 20% of the results of a political election. This is the basis for many people to believe that Russia is fully capable of influencing Mr. Trump's election by driving Big Data.

Consequence

So what will happen if the world around us is full of what we agree, reassure and enjoy? First, we stop growing and becoming stagnant, just like a biological entity is lost when there is no new genetic source. The ease, comfort and self-love will quickly lead to cognitive poverty. Those who live in the bubble only see the whole person like me. As a result, many Clinton supporters are stunned by the voting results, in part because they cannot look out of their filter bubble on Facebook, on TV, and around them with all the information. draw the prospect that Clinton will win. After the election, this application of Big Data is said to be the cause of democratic killing because it eliminates the strength of difference.

This is the reason that logic and objective debate become important when humans abandon pasture life and build more advanced social forms. The brain is also "upgraded" to the cerebral cortex (neocortex), allowing us to think deeply and multidimensionally. However, RAS exists, because it is still useful, and because RAS is part of the history of brain development, it cannot be quickly eliminated, especially when modern history is only a very short period compared to the process of human development. However, electronic RAS of technology age 4.0 is new, and we are just beginning to see its weaknesses.

The second consequence of the actual filter bubble is that we will be transformed by the bubble itself. At the beginning, bubbles are created by us. But gradually, bubbles set up a new world order that makes us lose access to multidimensional information. The bubble constantly fosters and reinforces ideas and habits, connects us with the same frequency relationships, gradually forms a character, deepens faith, and drives our destiny. in a direction that we let go of the ability to master. Compare that with the steering wheel, but only one path is visible, while the other path is overshadowed by filter bubbles.

The third consequence of the actual filter bubble is the implications of the group think. When a kind of thinking and thinking is a crowd of supporters and believers, its power is multiplied. Individuals in the filter bubble lose their ability to see objectively and cannot accept other ideas. The tendency of the 4.0-period herd can do wonders, but it can also destroy destruction, such as right-wing or extreme left-wing groups.

Solution

Prohibition is almost never a radical solution. For example, China banned Facebook and Google from creating a new filter bubble. The best way is to compete healthy and improve understanding for people. In many developed countries, internet and social networking education has started to become popular. Children are taught how to access, use, and communicate online so they can both use the network effectively and protect themselves. As for adults, we must be knowledgeable and strong enough to face the diversity and complexity of the world. Here are some of the simplest methods:

1. When entering facebook, always click on the three horizontal icons on the right corner of the screen, then select "Most recent" - Latest news. Facebook defaults to "Top Stories" - Featured news, and so your wall will contain all the news that Facebook thinks you will like, not the messages that appear in the timeline. If you go to Facebook in a new way, you will meet friends who seem to have disappeared, the news you have never heard of, the events you think do not exist. This is the reality of life on your network.

2. Turn off the display of the pages you like on social networks. When you go online, use ad blocking software and software that allows you to access the internet (incognito). Regularly delete web browser history.

1. How to block ads when surfing the web

3. Before sharing any news, check.

4. Read a lot, from all sides, even pages that heard the name shuddered with hate. Boldly like like newspapers and social networking accounts that are contrary to you. My wall is like a battlefield for bloody. Every morning, I was surprised because of the sword. But that is the only way I can listen and access information from all sides. Many information channels have begun to provide functionality to help users get rid of filter bubbles, such as' Escape your bubble 'plug-in for Facebook,' Outside your bubble 'on BuzzFeed tabloid,' Today in Conservative Media 'on left-wing Slate page, or' With Friends like These 'on Crooked Media's political channel.

5. Choose to read information channels that are considered most objective by researchers. Of course, there is no absolutely objective channel because reporters are also conscious or unconsciously perceived by personal views.

6. Abolish the "entertainment" goal and actively choose the "educational" goal. Lazy laziness through facebook, informative apps and a few other newspapers turn us, as author Nicholas Carr remarked, "a bunch of lab rats kept running circles and biting the bars to get a bonus little cheese ". Instead, actively choose a topic and find multidimensional information on that topic instead of letting Big Data lead.

In summary, both RAS filters in the brain and RAS internet are effective but have the potential to 'brainwash' us with easy, one-way information. The most effective way for us to balance is to actively seek what we need, not what we want.

In other words, we must automatically 'brainwash' ourselves.

Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyen Phuong Mai
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands.

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