The Echo Chamber Effect: When Democracy Becomes Algorithmic

 


Algorithms on social media create an environment where all you will find are things that validate your views so you will engage with it.

Because of this you don't come into contact with differing opinions. Any differing opinion seems like a rant from someone who is either angry at you for your views or someone who is just plain crazy. The reason for this is that the differing opinion comes from an extreme community that the algorithm found when it was searching for "opinion" in relation to your views.

This leads to Affective Polarization: a growing intolerance for opposing political identities.

Social media algorithms reward anger and certainly over anything else. For example, the post that causes outrage gets more views than the post that explains how a bill works. So, the algorithms show the loud voices, not the best-informed voices.

The Digital Divide has now moved from Left-Right to Us-Them.

To break through the echo chamber, we need to intentionally learn Media Literacy skills such as looking for multiple sources, reading past the headline, and learning which Fact Checking Organizations are reliable.

References

  • Sunstein, C. R. #Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media. Princeton University Press, 2017.

  • Pariser, E. The Filter Bubble. Penguin, 2011.

  • Barberá, P. “How Social Media Reduces Mass Political Polarization.” PNAS, 2015.

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