When using the internet, people generally get a very personalized experience. Most social media sources and search engines track users’ product usage, and utilize algorithms to give users personalized content. This personalized content, content that the user would wish to encounter, causes the user to increase their usage level of the product, giving technology companies more money. However, when people only encounter content they’d necessarily like, they are not made aware of others’ views and end up being encased in their own filter bubble. The American public should pressure companies to stop the filter bubble from causing a harmful effect that prevents people from taking part in community dialogue.
First, people become trapped in a “filter bubble” because they only encounter news that conforms with their confirmation bias. When someone hears or reads something that is easily compatible with their previous views on the topic, it corresponds to what is called their “confirmation bias.” This confirmation bias strongly inclines someone to believe something is true, regardless of logic or source credibility. However, to form reputable opinions and grow intellectually, they must go through a process called “cognitive dissonance.” During the cognitive dissonance process, a person
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For example, Eli Pariser, in a TED talk, compares coming in contact with the right news to eating a healthy diet. He remarks, “the challenge with these kind of algorithmic filters, these personalized filters, is that because they’re mainly looking at what you click on first, it can throw off that balance, and instead of a balanced information diet, you can end up surrounded by information junk food.” The American public should view the filter bubble and the fake news people encounter through it as a problem similar to nutrition, and strive for, so to say, “a healthy