Filter bubble and polarization

When thinking about my own social media websites I would say I notice the personalized information tailored to my feed pretty often. Sometimes it’s not always political, but it could even be displaying shoes or a product I googled the day before. I don’t usually pay too much attention to these things on my feed, mostly because I am interested in what they’re showing so I don’t mind. When I’m on websites like facebook or twitter I often see opinions other than my own on my news feed. I more closely relate to the conservative mindset, however, I am friends with a lot of people who would consider themselves more liberal. To be honest I will often see something one of my liberal friends has posted and agree with them or acknowledge that I respect their opinion. I do not post anything political on social media just because I think things can get misinterpreted and I don’t want one of my friends feeling a certain way about me for my opinion on politics (something I don’t follow all that much). I do not follow or unfollow people based on their ideological leanings. The only time I unfollow someone is if the way they’re posting is degrading to other opinions. I have to be honest that some of the drama that comes from these posts can be pretty entertaining and I do like to read comments on extreme political posts.

I absolutely agree that the decline in dissoi logoi is responsible for the increase in polarization. Most times there are two sides to every story, and not hearing the other side to how you feel really takes away from how knowledgeable you could be on an issue. The best way to find out how you truly feel about something is to know both sides so you can decide which you relate to most. I think that the polarization is problematic and I don’t see any advantages to it. Using politics as an example, one thing I find most upsetting today is how divided the right and left side are. There are a lot of people who probably fall much more in the middle of the spectrum or feel differently about different topics. However, when you aren’t seeing the other side you never get to discover how you feel and that’s what leads to the division we see today. People should be much more informed on both sides from credible sources. Some actions that I did take to engage in dissoi logoi was asking my friends how they felt about the election and listening to their concerns. Instead of trying to convince them of my opinion, I just listened to their own and tried to think about it from a different perspective. I also like to read articles or posts from people with different ideas than my own; I think it really opens my mind up when I take time to do this. Other actions that I could take would be watching news channels that are more biased in a differing opinion than my own. I like having to come up with good reasoning for my own thoughts and opinions. Doing this strengthens my reasoning even more because I’ve thought about both sides before arguing how I feel.