The Filtered Home

Yang Zhang

"The overload and variety of network information urge many social media to adopt various algorithms for providing their users with more personalized and palatable news. For example, Spotify analyzed the user's preferences for music with a collaborative filtering algorithm. “The filter bubble”, a word coined by Eli Pariser in 2011, refers to the phenomenon that Internet users are living in an increasingly personalized information environment under the influence of algorithm editing. At the same time, the emerging Internet companies, as the promoter of a new round industrial development, commonly believe that smart home is the networking of household appliances which could automatically form a system. Smart home industry has taken a transition from an expensive whole-house integration system in its initial phase to the current connected gadgets of lower cost. It takes on a learning function that users are accustomed to by calculating their status in different scenarios. Smart home and the filter bubble seemingly belong to two separate areas. However, we can find their shared features: they both driven by artificial intelligence and provide users with personalized recommendation. The diversified ecosystem is intertwined and collided with a fresh new market structure, thus highlighting the demands for integration-oriented smart home services. Looking back into the changes, I assume that we should take a new look at its application and innovation direction. The original intention of my project was to break this kind of network bubbles, but then I realized that rather than get them broken, it is wiser to regard them as a mirror for understanding ourselves and informing our “smart home assistants”. This reinforces their preferences and creates an information bubble. In the context of future smart devices, this project explores how the future fridge might also become part of the filter bubble. What if the algorithms that shape our online behaviour start to shape our domestic life? I would like to take smart refrigerator for example in an easy-to-understand way. Inside the refrigerator are three shelves equipped with an LCD display for food items recommendation. On its touch screen, which displays our information bubbles in a certain period on five platforms--political inclinations, search engines, social media, streaming media services and activities. Below each section is a representative term entry based on your preference, behind which are those choices made by people in the same bubble with you. After the comparison between item-based and user-based filtering, would you feel it more persuasive if your choices are equally made by people who have the same taste in music and Netflix with you? Because as we know, “Your identity shapes your media…Media also shape identity. And as a result, these services may end up creating a good fit between you and your media by changing ... you” (Eli Pariser, 2011) I want to leave the audience thinking. If we live in algorithm bubbles, will smart home know us better and get smarter as we expect?"

yangzhang0328@hotmail.com