Social media sites are breeding
grounds for uncensored and unregulated posts regarding important political
issues and significant events in our cultures history. Websites like Facebook
are popular among millions looking towards connecting to people online with
similar values. People are friended for many reasons, possibly because they
have a mutual friend, the people could be acquaintances, coworkers, etc. However
a prominent reason people are being unfriended online is because of the
increase in online political rants and ideological wars on controversial topics
faced today. Social media is a commonplace for freedom of speech and
expression; these virtual grounds possess easy gateways for fake news outlets,
and algorithmic advertising to promote false or biased articles towards the
users. In order for “us” to better understand our personal values and stances
on these issues; we unknowingly filter out the viewpoints and posts of the
opposition.
The process above is known as the “filter
bubble” that everyone possesses when identifying rhetoric. It’s the person’s
way of self-organizing and making judgements on topics that the public’s
divided on; therefore an individual will primarily refute or entirely ignore
opposing viewpoints. A “filter bubble” is common on on websites like Facebook,
because the users have full control of the people they friend and the pages
they like. This all leads to profiles that are individually tailored towards
these users, which removes nearly all opposing ideologies because people don’t
normally want to follow news sources that they disagree with. The “filter
bubble” many people have unknowingly is the cause for the rapid spread and
popularity among fake news sources. With a dominant political group on a user’s
timeline, it would be easy to influence an individual to believe fake stories
and negative articles on the opposite political party.
Speaking from my personal experience
on websites like Facebook, I’m exposed to the political wars between friends
and political advertisements labeled on the side of my laptop. The approach to
these topics that I try my best to utilize is avoiding the conflicts as much as
possible. I do not post my feelings towards specific candidates or
organizations, regardless of my opinion on them. In order to fight this “filter
bubble” I believe it’s necessary to filter out ALL the negative aspects of political campaigns online. Posting a
political rant on sites like Facebook only adds fuel to the inevitable fire
which is the controversy surrounding the government. In my opinion status’ and
posts are great for organizing peaceful protests and finding friends with
similar values; however I believe it’s more harmful as it leads to negative
comment wars and in-fighting between Facebook users. The important question to
ask before posting a political rant on social media is, is it really worth it? Are
you trying to seek attention? In my experience looking at both the two major
party (Democrat & Republican) supporters online post negative comments
towards the other side, never actually achieves anything, nor does it lead to
positive criticism. Only comment wars and frustrated people on both sides of
the spectrum; therefore I try my best to encourage others not to post about
political criticism.
The “filter bubble” is found NOT
online, but rather inside ourselves because we only pay attention to the
stories and news that we WANT to hear. That’s why it’s important to maintain
friendships with people who may have different political ideologies than
oneself. It’s dangerous to our culture, the sense of unity which we share as Americans
and us as individuals. How could we expect to become less politically
intolerant? If all we do is identify and search for one side of the political
spectrum. The “filter bubble” is growing and it’s up us as a society to stress
the importance of political knowledge and tolerance.
Here are a few links regarding the importance of popping this "Filter Bubble"
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/11/how-facebook-and-the-filter-bubble-pushed-trump-to-victory.html
Here's a link to an interesting Ted talk about the dangers of being in a "Filter Bubble" by Eli Pariser
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