My Internet Filter Bubble

                I have always been pretty conservative when adding people into my social media account. Growing up getting looked down upon, my choice of friends was pretty similar. Thus, my filter bubble mostly consist of people who are most or less in-line to my own ideology and ethics, up till a couple of years ago that is. However, as people change so does their personal ideology. As a person who practices mediation on a daily basis, the change in views and ideas is welcomed. As of now, my social bubble consist of people with varying ideas and opinions of just about anything. Funny thing is, even though sites like Facebook and Twitter implemented the “most relevant” function, I have never been one to use it. I’ve always chosen in the settings to have my feed display chronologically. As such, I’ve always been able see things that are not always align with my own. Granted, I do avoid posting in social media often and as such maybe the algorithm has not fully caught on my ideas yet.

                As for my news sites, I use reddit.com as my information site. This site allows for customized feed that is both moderated by “editors” while also by the viewers like myself. Every user is to upvote (equivalent to a like of Facebook) or downvote on each post and its comments made by viewers. This allows for users to know that for post with high upvotes, its most probably correct to some degree while also being relevent to the topic instead of being a “troll” post. On the flip side, posts that are downvoted are deemed to be troll or un-contributing to the feed and thus ignored by most users. Posts that are both highly upvoted and downvoted however are shown as controversial topics thus giving a heads up to users that it might not be what they thing or expect it to be. This site, with these options allows me to be subscribed to feeds of my choice which may or may not be aligned with my own ideas but regardless of their relevance, they are displayed numerically to the number of upvotes it has thus every post has an equal chance of being displayed on my feed.

                Decline of dissoi logoi may have a bead on increase in polarization. Clashing of ideas often allows for the practice of mediation but there is also a chance of it to result in extreme polarization too. Incorrect representation or presentation of a viewpoint may lead to the other mistrusting and thus promotes polarization with that viewpoint in the future. Imagine a feed with the other viewpoint lashing out their ideas like a maniac, most people would be frustrated and be less willing to understand their viewpoint. However, no exposure does also promote polarization as the individual is not getting enough information to reconsider their viewpoints while also getting reinforcement about their viewpoint.

                To engage in dissoi logoi more, one can be more active in seeking out information about views opposing theirs. In my case, reading up in reddit the top upvoted posts on the specific feed that contradicts my own ideas allows me to considers the opinions of other people about a central idea that most of that idea agree on.

Most social sites provide the tools to change the user’s feed. Though it may not be apparent in the interface at first, the choice for chronological arrangement does allow for posts to be shown regardless of content by chronological order thus allowing us to view them without being filtered away. I think?