Social Media Algorithms Warp How People Learn From Each Other, Research Shows

Social media algorithms identify our politics and then shepherd us into a hermetically sealed bubble, framing our worldview through a window of rage and extremism.

In a 2017 interview, Ev Williams (the founder of Twitter), said something that has stuck with me since: “the trouble with algorithms, is that it rewards extremes. Say you’re driving down the road and see a car crash. Of course you look. Everyone looks. The internet interprets behavior like this to mean everyone is asking for car crashes, so it trie... See more

It is alleged that social media fuels polarization, exploits human weaknesses and insecurities, and creates echo chambers where everyone gets their own slice of reality, eroding the public sphere and the understanding of common facts. And, worse still, this is all done intentionally in a relentless pursuit of profit.

The biases of Google and Facebook, whether algorithmic, datainduced, commercial or political dictate what version of the worldwe get to see. Reality becomes what the models we are fed depictit to be [24]. And a reality defined by Google’s search rankingalgorithm, is one that does not and cannot capture the intricaciesand variety of human knowledge ... See more