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Thursday, July 20, 2017

Filter Bubbles Skew Your World

"With the Internet, it has become possible to connect with people who share your own worldview and experience enormous reinforcement. It is also very easy to become ideologically isolated online with search engines silently adapting to your search behavior and showing you material that the search engine algorithm has predicted that you want to see. This is ultimately done to monetize the preferences of individuals, but has the disturbing side effect of reducing the amount of divergent information that a person will see. It is like a form of technological confirmation bias. On social media, you also get to decide who you follow and who to block, further strengthening ideological isolation. Technological and social filter bubbles skew their world."

"So you have now realized that you are trapped in an ideological filter bubble. What can you do about it? You start by understanding that they exist. You cannot solve a problem if you do not know (or even deny) that it exists. You also need to accept that it is not just something other people have, but that you might be just as affected by it as your ideological opponents. Finally, you must take many active steps to prevent, lessen or eliminate the technological filter bubbles that are being applied to you."

What to do:
Know that they exist....
Know that you have them too....
Use another search engine....
Make other social media accounts....
Expand diversity of sources....
Actively seek out disconfirming information....
Counter misinformation....
Consistent skepticism....

Read:
https://debunkingdenialism.com/2017/01/11/how-to-defeat-technological-filter-bubbles-that-skew-your-world/

https://debunkingdenialism.com/2017/07/05/why-bother-debunking-flat-earthers/

Also listen to "How common threats can make common ground":
https://youtu.be/v3o-F94S4FI