Escape the Filter Bubble

Last updated Mar. 2025

I hope you are here because you know generally what a "filter bubble" is, and you want to do more than just being aware of the problem. You should want to pop your own personal filter bubbles. This page will get you started.

If Nothing Else, Turn It Off

You might not always have the time, knowledge, or energy to engage critically with the algorithmically-run feeds in your life. In these times, turn them off. Don't use the feed when you are uncritical. Put the phone down. Close the laptop. Touch grass, or sit and stare at a wall. Commit to it. Don't use the device. Don't put it in charge. Do not touch it, if you are not prepared to be in charge.

"Turn it off" works at many levels; it covers a lot of what it means to be in charge of your device. Don't allow it to do more than you are wanting it to do:

  • Need to type something out quickly, just to get it out of your mind? Turn the wifi off. Use a text document.
  • Need to search something on the internet? Choose one of the search providers that doesn't have a personal, "just for you" algorithm driven experience.
  • Need to contact a friend? Do it somewhere else, not on those big social media platforms.
  • Want to follow a specific online content creator? Bookmark their page and check it manually, or learn to use a tool you control.

Everyone has to "turn it off" sometimes. You may not (yet) have the complete set of academic or technical skills to get online outside your bubble. Your available time and energy may be too small. In the end, "turn it off" is the common resting place for responsible geeks and responsible laypeople alike. It can always be turned off.

It can always be turned off - but you don't always control the power switch. Your spouse, neighbors, coworkers, etc. are all themselves the targets of extensive invisibly-custom-crafted auto-propaganada machines which spin narratives designed above all to keep them coming back to the feeds that sell them those narratives. You can't turn people off for being filter-bubble-unsavvy, but you can learn to mistrust their claims and opinions. Don't trust them.


Use the Older Tools

Read. Read books. Find out which books to read from sources that aren't algorithmically driven:

  • Worthwhile non-fiction generally has footnotes. A book doesn't have to be taken standing alone - it can tell you the setting and background for specific claims, and you can go verify it. You don't have to trust a book with footnotes. If an author fabricates footnotes, the footnotes themselves make it fairly easy to catch them. You can go "upstream" from a book with footnotes.

  • Worthwhile non-fiction almost always has a bibliography and/or recommended sources list. The book is telling you what is going on around the book. Take note. When two books that disagree reference the same source, you might want to know what is happening in that source. Bibliography lets you do this. If footnotes tell you what is "upstream," bibliography tells you the whole landscape. If you start comparing and checking bibliographies, it doesn't take long to catch the pretenders - people who only include their side, or a few "token" sources of the other side, or are just bundling lists of books they clearly haven't read, or aren't dealing with. Bibliography makes it hard to get away with bibliographic crimes.

  • Worthwhile non-fiction has always been read by someone else who knows more than you about something relevant. There are professional publications and tools dedicated to helping you find commentary, book reviews, and rebuttals. Even your favorite political commentator might need to be taken to task by a real historian for their misuse of historical evidence. Even a savvy businessman might need to be sharply corrected on claims about the technical aspects of something he works with every day.

  • Books are older than you. Books last across generations, and they let you make an end run around today's narratives or censorship. Go deeper. Go older.
Not everything good is printed, but worthwhile non-print (non-fiction) imitates print:
  • Does a blog provide links to back up their claims? Do the links actually back them up?

  • Does a social media commentator tell you where they saw a claim? Do they show their work on their own attempt to verify the specific claims?

  • Does a Youtuber tell you specific places you can go for the background to what they discuss, or do they just make references to "the way things are" or "what has been happening lately" or similar hand-waving phrases?

  • Does a community make efforts to archive and referene core videos, posts, etc. and go back to those throughout a conflict, or do they just heap up reactions to reactions on top of reactions?

Beat the Bubble at Its Own Game































First: Turn It Off

  1. Understand: You are being surveilled.
    Several of the largest and wealthiest companies in the world rely on highly invasive surveillance of as many people as possible. Governments follow roughly the same playbook, and countless smaller corporations, special interest groups, and criminal organizations follow it too. They do it because it works. Information about people can be used in a shocking number of ways to control, exploit, or defraud them or those they are connected to.
    Privacy issues are involved in nearly every digital safety problem there is, from identity theft to propaganda. You might not understand yet how "your data" can be weaponized against you. Do not let this stop you from taking steps to protect yourself and your loved ones. Privacy is a pillar of safety.
    . . .
  2. Understand: Knowledge is power, and convenience is a trap.
    The best antidote to surveillance technologies is knowledge about what the devices around you are doing - and how and why they do it. Be suspicious of shiny prepackaged "solutions" that don't encourage you to look under the hood. As you learn the way things work and migrate away from things that work against you, you will find yourself more able to make things work for you.
    . . .
  3. Understand: You can make a difference.
    Perfect security is not possible, and perfect privacy is not the goal. Different people face different risks and dangers. You don't need to learn all the risks and solutions before you take real, beneficial action. No matter who you are, thoughtful, serious, incremental steps will reduce risk and make you more safe.
    . . .
  4. Act: On your computer, install and use Mozilla Firefox as your main web browser. There are other options that prioritize your privacy and your control of your devices (and you might want of those later on). Firefox even has its own weaknesses, but it is still the "old reliable" option, and the most accessible way to deal with the big problems Come back to this webpage in Firefox to continue.
    . . .
  5. Act: Inside of Firefox, change your default search engine to DuckDuckGo. Here is a guide.
    Why: "Personalized" internet search engines are one of the major tools for surveillance and one of the most powerful tools for manipulating your online behavior. You need to be able to filter online content down to just what you care about, but you need it to happen in a way you can see, understand, control, and occasionally turn off.
    . . .
  6. Act: Inside of Firefox, install the Privacy Badger extension.
    Yes, there are alternatives, but this is the gold-standard anti-surveillance browser addon. (If you have the time, read their FAQ. For now, don't worry about what you don't understand.)
    . . .
  7. Act: Inside of Firefox, install the uBlock Origin extension.
    As of 2025, this is the gold-standard general purpose ad-blocker.
    Why: You've already taken the most basic anti-tracking steps to reduce the largest , but ads are also one of the major carriers of malware and other objectionable content. Use the uBlock Origin settings themselves to selectively 'pause' the adblocker on trustworthy sites - and turn the adblocker back on if your trust is violated.
    . . .

Stage 2 - Getting Started On Mobile

  1. Understand: Your mobile phone is much worse than your home computer.
    Your phone has a wide range of built-in sensors, and much more access to your life than desktop or even a laptop. Your phone is also much harder for you to control, both in a technical who-is-giving-orders-to-this-software way and in a personal excercising-self-control sort of way. These surveillance treasure troves are exploited constantly by a dizzying range of bad actors. Use your phone as little as possible, and for as few things as possible.
    . . .
  2. Act: Delete apps you don't need, and consider if you really need the ones you think you do. Many of the most used mobile apps are a thin veneer of some useful functionality on top of different primary functionality. This real purpose is the detailed surveillance that you "agreed" to in some vague part of an enormous and unreadable Terms Of Service. doc. Google and Apple deal with this situation by occasionally squashing criminal or controversial offenders and by aggressively squashing or undermining security tools that would threaten their own ability to collect your sensitive data.
    . . .
  3. Act: On your mobile phone, install Signal.
    Clicking this link on your phone should open the installer.
    Why: You should not trust the confidentiality of messages or phone calls that are not end-to-end-encrypted, so use Signal (or an adequate substitute, once you have learned enough) wherever possible, and don't send anything particularly sensitive without first making it possible to use end-to-end-encryption, i.e., by getting the person you are messaging to also install Signal. (We will need to deal with email and other things later).
    . . .

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Trying to go farther? See our collection of "other places to start."