Two related topics of search engine bubbling and our addiction to Facebook and friend’s mantra of ‘staying connected’, where ‘connected’ is used fairly indiscriminately.

Does the {I}nternet control our minds? | Brain Study

Escape your search engine Filter Bubble! An illustrated guide by DuckDuckGo.com

When the Internet Thinks It Knows You | NYT

Even though I have no e-mail notifications, my phone doesn’t make any sound when I receive a text (unless I’m expecting something important so I enable it) and I don’t use social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook (well not properly), I still feel this effect with new e-mails etc. or when a notification slips through.

And on bubbling—well, this is only going to get worse as people write search engines to think for us, which is fine for preferences over food and films, but I worry that people at Google and Facebook aren’t necessarily capable of making the distinction between preference and opinion.