Chris Glushko says, “Remember when the internet was viewed as the great equalizer in media? You know the story. News and entertainment were dominated far too long by those who owned the means for production and distribution — TV studios, radio stations, newspapers and so on. But the World Wide Web was going to change all that. Everyday people could build their own mini media “empires” for less money than their monthly cable subscription. All they needed was an idea and a little digital elbow grease.

And it happened. Voices and viewpoints exploded in the form of websites, podcasts, YouTube channels and more. The long tail of the internet delivered on its promise of true diversity in media.

Through the power of ad networks, many of these new media companies transformed from hobbies to real businesses, and they did it all without the need of sales teams or even relationships with advertisers. Down with big media. Power to the people. Good stuff, right? Well, not exactly.

Enter the ‘filter bubble’

It’s been six years since Upworthy co-founder Eli Pariser gave his popular TED Talk on internet “filter bubbles.” For those unfamiliar with the concept, Pariser posited that the constant personalization of digital content would isolate people from information that doesn’t match up with their profiles”.

Pop the personalization filter bubbles and preserve online diversity

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