The Decline of Dissoi Logoi

Today in class we discussed how dissoi logoi, or in other words the argumentative examination of multiple perspectives on a topic, has declined with the rise of social media. This has come about due to information and media being tailored on the internet to specific users based on searches they make, pages that they view, things that they click on, etc. This means that when a person uses the internet, often times many of the differing viewpoints that are espoused by many others will not be visible, simply for the reason that that person does not agree with them. Many believe that this is a major contributing factor in the increasing political polarization in the United States. The term "filter bubble" is used to describe the online personal realm in which the information deemed relevant to a specific person's interests exists.

Reflecting on my own personal experience regarding the concept of the filter bubble and the decline of dissoi logoi, I have found much of it to be true. It would be very interesting to compare my search results with others considering that I have a Google account that I use quite often for a variety of different things, including social media, and also given that I have experienced this kind of filtering through my use of social media. One case of this in particular that I have observed is through Facebook, and I found the realization to be very interesting. For the past year or two, it has come to my attention that most of the posts in my Facebook feed actually promote positions that I disagree with. For the most part I assumed that it just meant that I held unconventional views when compared to my Facebook friends, but after reflecting on what we covered in class, I realized that this very well may be because I am more inclined to click on links and posts that I do not agree with in order to either try to prove them wrong or to try to reassure myself that that my position is the right one to take. This may not bet the case for most people, or maybe even for myself regarding other websites and social media outlets, but I think that it brings to light an interesting perspective on the subject. That being that in certain instances digital media can actually promote the broadening of perspectives and decrease polarization in certain areas of the web. I think that in order for digital media to promote dissoi logoi, we must collectively change our perspective on how we go about viewing information on the web. By encouraging people to broaden their horizons when it comes to what they view on the internet and how they view it, we can combat the growing polarization in our society.