We had a preview of what was to come in the early 90's right before the Internet went mainstream (though I'll argue the Internet was not truly mainstream until a little after 2000 when broadband connections were widely available).

At least where I lived at the time, it seemed like the number of channels on cable TV quadrupled, and the number of radio stations catering to different genres also increased. So people's attention was already being chopped up and "bubbled". I feel the "fractioning" effect of streaming whereby everyone is in their own personal bubble is simply a later stage of a trend that was underway in the early 90's.

Regarding an algorithm picking what is visible to you, it's not very much different than a TV or radio broadcaster selecting programs that he/she will think will sell advertisements. It's simply faster, more efficient, and outside some legal liabilities because it's done by software and not human beings.

It's a shame that so much is going into making the Internet obey the one-direction broadcast-and-corporate-controlled TV model, though. The Internet was supposed to be for end-user freedom and control.

But Facebook and Twitter, for example, shows that when you give a bit of that capability to large numbers of people, you don't get fantastic results (but the owners will make a lot of money). Most people seem content to take a mostly passive relationship with their screens, participating in their tribes' regularly scheduled outrages, regardless of the size or technology behind them.

I don't think things will ever change too much for most people. Same town, pay taxes to a different king. It's mostly about companies figuring out how to sidestep existing companies and regulations.