 | This article needs to beupdated. The reason given is: The examples of personalized news sources provided in the last paragraph are out of date (Zite, for example, shut down in 2015), and there are more recent/current examples that could be added.. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2021) |
Daily Me is a term that describes a virtual daily newspaper customized for an individual's tastes. This term was popularized byMIT Media Lab founderNicholas Negroponte. The term has also been associated with the phenomenon of individuals customizing and personalizing their news feeds, resulting in their being exposed only to content they are already inclined to agree with.
TheDaily Me is a term popularized by MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte to describe a virtual daily newspaper customized for an individual's tastes. Negroponte discusses it in his 1995 book,Being Digital, referencing a project under way at the Media Lab,Fishwrap. Designed byPascal Chesnais andWalter Bender and implemented by Media Lab students, the system allowed a greater deal of customization than commercially available systems in 1997.[1]
Fred Hapgood, in a 1995 article inWired, credited the concept and phrase to Negroponte's thinking in the 1970s.[2]
InSteven Johnson's bookEmergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software, which concernsemergent properties, Johnson addresses some of Negroponte's fears with homeostasis and feedback systems in mind.[citation needed] He argues that a newspaper tailored to the tastes of a person on a given day will lead to too muchpositive feedback in that direction, and people's choices for one day would permanently affect their viewings for the rest of their lives. Since the book's release, in 2001, many customer-oriented websites, such asAmazon.com andHalf.com, regularly utilize a customer's past views and purchases to determine what merchandise they believe will entice the customer's interest.[citation needed]
The term has also been associated with the phenomenon of individuals customizing and personalizing their news feeds, resulting in their being exposed only to content they are already inclined to agree with. The Daily Me can thus be a critical component of the"echo chamber" effect, defined in an article inSalon byDavid Weinberger as "those Internet spaces where like-minded people listen only to those people who already agree with them."[3]
Cass Sunstein, a law professor at theUniversity of Chicago, analyzes the implications of the Daily Me in his bookRepublic.com.[citation needed] Daily me andecho chambers have been suggested as one of the extremes of society induced by technology, the other beingTyranny of the majority.[4]
Zite was a popular application that was similar to the Daily Me concept. It was available oniOS,Android, andWindows Phone. FeedSavvy.com is a similar service available on the web for PC and Mac users.noosfeer is addressing this issue by letting the users explore subjects with a wider range in the results, avoiding the filter bubble effect.