Oh, man it’s been ages. I’m talking being in high school and having teachers talk to me about this. And then being in uni and having it be a thing people argued about.

I do not have any of the papers on hand or even remember the authors or names. The idea that algorithmic searches would create a bubble of self-selected media and erode a sense of shared reality isn’t new, though. We’re talking mid-90s here. People were arguing this about Altavista.

Sherry Turkle’s book “Life on the Screen” was an amazing read back in 1997

The blurb:

Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet is a book not about computers, but about people and how computers are causing us to reevaluate our identities in the age of the Internet. We are using life on the screen to engage in new ways of thinking about evolution, relationships, politics, sex, and the self. Life on the Screen traces a set of boundary negotiations, telling the story of the changing impact of the computer on our psychological lives and our evolving ideas about minds, bodies, and machines. What is emerging, Turkle says, is a new sense of identity—as decentered and multiple. She describes trends in computer design, in artificial intelligence, and in people’s experiences of virtual environments that confirm a dramatic shift in our notions of self, other, machine, and world. The computer emerges as an object that brings postmodernism down to earth.

A good look at the sociology and psychology of the early internet and how it has potential to impact in both positive and negative ways.

I wasn’t around back then, but people like Oscar Gandy and Dan Schiller were open critics of personal data and centralization. Maybe that gives you a good lead.