I question the hypothesis that the internet is uniquely responsible for the formation of filter bubbles – "cultural or ideological bubbles" can be formed a variety of ways, and have been forming for all of human history. Having said that, technology may accelerate this process, or lower the barriers required to connect with like-minded people, for better or worse.
So you agree with the article that "[...] the Internet isn’t the main culprit (the trend began in the 1960s), [...]"?
I would argue that even if the internet didn't start the trend, online communication has been an enormously more efficient technology for one-dimensional community.
I completely agree, but is it really the point being argued? Perhaps the issue is not that there are bubbles at all, but that where there were previously larger bubbles shared by multiple people, there now tends to be one bubble per person, nucleated around the work of an external entity (a search engine's statistical analysis) poorly understood by the individuals it's affecting. Not that I would concede that it's a worse situation than preceded it, just that it may be the qualitative difference of the bubbles being personal that people are referring to.
If anything, it seems like a better situation overall, and I'd rather emphasize the fact that large-scale telecommunications has made it much more possible to escape the "filter bubble" of the people you live and interact with on a daily basis. Even if you're just escaping into a new bubble of your own, that bubble is naturally much more permeable due to its smaller size and greater number of neighbor-bubbles, leading to more effective diffusion of ideas throughout the foam as a whole. I speculate that this is an important positive long-term effect but comes with a lot of short-term pains.
I question the hypothesis that the internet is uniquely responsible for the formation of filter bubbles – "cultural or ideological bubbles" can be formed a variety of ways, and have been forming for all of human history. Having said that, technology may accelerate this process, or lower the barriers required to connect with like-minded people, for better or worse.