My Filter Bubble

I get on social media daily and see different posts pop up constantly.  I tried to filter through what I want to see and what I don’t care for.  While creating my filter bubble, my parents and friends had an impact on this.  What my friends and family think does play a part in what I read or believe, but at the same time there are some friends and family that I don’t agree with.  There were many instances during the election where I saw friends or family posts about the candidates, many times I would just ignore their post and keep moving to something that I wanted to read about.  This also happens when there is a school shooting as some of my friends disagree with the gun laws in the United States.  Even though I don’t agree with these people, I have never unfollowed or defriended anybody.  Many times, when it comes down to it, it’s family and close friends that I want to stay in touch with and we just have disagreements.  I try to filter what I read or listen to as I am strolling through the social media or just on TV by skipping a channel or post.  These family members and friends have helped me really create this filter bubble as they made it easy to ignore a post or watch a video online.

I also filter which sports channels I watch as some of them are becoming harder and harder to enjoy.  I don’t get frustrated with them because of some of the political statements they push but more because I am not a huge fan of talk shows.  Many times, these talk shows on the radio and TV get out of hand and can become hard to watch or understand, as people argue over the dumbest ideas.  This filter in my life, has helped me find shows that I enjoy daily and watch without getting frustrated.

I would agree that polarization has become more relevant as news channels only broadcast certain news based on their company’s beliefs.  This has created a decrease in Dissoi Logoi, as these news channels only argue one side of the spectrum and don’t try to give an understanding to the other side.  This happens on both sides of spectrum, as they try to convince people that what they are doing and believe in is the right way to go about life.  I feel that this can be very problematic, people are starting to go to the extreme of each side of the spectrum and you don’t find many people anymore that are close to the middle of the two sides.  By far left or far right can cause many more issues in the country than if people were one side or the other, but still being close to the middle of the spectrum.  By polarizing each side of the spectrum, we have created a society where people get involved with violence to show their support and create harm to the people opposing them.

One way that I try to engage with Dissoi Logoi is by having conversations with friends, not family, about their views and why.  This has helped me create an understanding of what they are thinking and why.  These conversations have helped me give my friends an understanding of why my views are the way they are as well.  It has helped create an environment that allows my friends and I to have arguments about situations while still understanding the other side and arguing for or against their points as well.