Can games burst the filter bubble?

A new kind of political debate is shaping up on YouTube, luringpeople in with the promise of a game. YouTube Town Hall pits twomembers of Congress against each other. Stripped of their partyidentity, the politicians have two minutes to talk about a specificissue. Viewers vote on which plan they agree with most. Thepoliticians state their name and their state, but only after awinner is selected is their conservative or liberal slant revealed.

I supported an energy plan outlined by a Massachusetts Democrat,then sided with a North Carolina Republican on her education ideas.

I'll admit: I'm more likely to click on a kitten video than asenator's speech, but the uncertainty of which party line I'd crosskept me engaged.

The whole idea makes me think of a parent who, weary from tryingto make the kids eat vegetables, slips pureed carrots into thebrownie batter. YouTube Town Hall is an attempt to sneak informationvegetables into an information dessert.

This very idea came up in a recent TED speech by Eli Pariser, thefounder of the liberal get-out-the-vote organization MoveOn.org.Pariser spoke about the increasing danger of the personalization ofthe Web, a topic he addresses in his.new book, "The Filter Bubble."

As social media sites, news organizations and advertisers all tryto better target users with personalized content, we are losing theexposure to new ideas that allow us to be fully informed citizens ofthe world.

An early user of the Web to motivate large groups of people,Pariser once saw the Internet as a way toward a more democraticfuture, as information flowed unhindered to everyone without mediagatekeepers. Ten years after starting MoveOn, he noticed theopposite was happening: Walls were being erected around commonbeliefs and interests.

More and more sites rely on algorithmic data that use cluespeople leave in their browser history to filter their search resultsin smaller, more specific ways. Pariser cites an example of a friendinvolved in journalism and a friend who worked in a different field.During the Egyptian revolution, when they would type the word"Egypt" into the search browser, the journalist would see news itemsabout the uprising; the other would see Wikipedia and tourism sites.

In Facebook, the friends you interact with more - includingclicking on their news links - get a higher rating in your newsfeed.

Jonathan Kay, author of the book "Among the Truthers," blamesthis siphoning off of information as one reason for the rise ofconspiracy theorists in the United States. "From the very instantthey first boot up their computer in the morning, their in-boxescomprise an unbroken catalog of outrage stories ideologicallytailored to their pre-existing obsessions," Kay writes.

People can make some changes to defend themselves againstmachines tailoring their online experience, like erasing cookiehistories under your browser's settings. However, Pariser believesthe onus lies with technology companies to help people understandhow results are being filtered and to provide ways of expandingfilters.

Enter YouTube Town Hall and other games.

"When you walk into a game environment, you're stepping into theshoes of a character, and you don't know what you're going toencounter," said Mallika Dutt, founder of Breakthrough Games. Duttjust launched America 2049 on Facebook. The game asks people to huntthrough a futuristic Portland in search of an escaped quarantinevictim. It walks you through the history of human rights issues inthe United States but in the guise of a spy saga. Games allow"people to enter into alternative realities, to change their way ofthinking," Dutt said.

Such games may not be enough to tear down online walls, butthey're letting a little light shine through.