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In his new book, “Rewire,” former Berkman Fellow Ethan Zuckerman challenges the digital world to connect with others, using tools to overcome people’s “flocking” instincts.
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"In an age of fast-paced globalization, society does a great job moving people and products across borders, author Ethan Zuckerman said Tuesday during a discussion sponsored by Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, “but we’re less good at moving bits across borders.”
A former Berkman Fellow and now director of the MIT Center for Civic Media, Zuckerman said the single biggest obstacle to global connectivity is that “Human beings flock; we tend to seek out people like us.”
Digital tools actually encourage flocking (called “homophily” by social scientists), Zuckerman said. For instance, “Facebook is very good at connecting us with people we’re already connected with.” Zuckerman also mentioned Facebook’s search function, which personalizes results based on your “likes” and the preferences of your friends. “It’s kind of creepy,” said Zuckerman. “I’m not sure I want my friends pre-filtering for me.”
Whether in the real or virtual worlds, said Zuckerman, “We have a talent for finding people with the same socioeconomic background or racial background. But this tendency to flock may be keeping us from finding the information we need,” and the tools we’ve built for the Internet only enhance our flocking bias."