Bubble filter: in your hand is that your social networks are an ideological cell (or not)

"They have the capacity to spread incorrect information or the most far-fetched theories, [...] which has accelerated the polarization of society and the electorate." Barack Obama speaks in an interview with The New Yorker, shortly before handing over the keys of the White House to Donald Trump.Social networks are not only grounds for hoaxes and fake news, but they allow us to hear only what we want to hear.Our social networks are an ideological bubble and we are taking time to prick it.

A camera to listen to our echo

Let's be honest.Most of us don't like to be contradicted.Much less than being told that we have a lifetime wrong.That's why we like those who see the world like us .Objectivity matters as much as we believe, we prefer to think that we are right.Okay, it is not always the case, but to a greater or lesser extent, it happens to us all a little bit. Related

If you define yourself as a progressive, your Facebook profile is probably not full of news from conservative newspapers or follow on Twitter to representatives of right-wing parties.A study published in Nature in 2015, conducted by Eytan Bakshy, Solomon Messing and Lada Adamic, Facebook's social scientists, already noted that only one in five users who identified themselves as progressive consulted links that challenged their thinking .On the conservative side, the same.

So we begin to build our bubble, a closed room in which we like to hear the echo of our own thoughts .But maybe the fault is not just ours.The content positioning algorithms in the social networks and marketing and advertising techniques also have their share of responsibility.

Personalization and hyper-segmentation do not help

Facebook, Instragram, YouTube and company have become strong, in part, thanks to their great capacity for recommendation.Why enter YouTube if you are not interested in the videos that you propose? Why spend your time on Facebook if you don't find content and events that motivate you?

Thus, the algorithms get to work .With their differences between platforms, they scan everything your network of contacts publishes, the users you follow or the contents with which you interact to give yourself more of the same.Well, right? The problem is that, where it is necessary to strengthen critical thinking and receive different points of view, these algorithms skate (for now).

This phenomenon is what is known as the bubble filter, described by the cyber-activist Eli Pariser in his book The bubble filter.As the network decides what we read and what we think.Basically, what Pariser says is that The Internet has hyper-segmented information in such a way , for the sake of personalization, which has created bubbles in which only have items that match our preferences .

Bubble filter: in your hand is that your social networks are an ideological cell (or not)

The power of opinion

Most articles, posts and videos shared on social networks do not receive just likes.Very few are shared by a large majority of users.Challenging many of the rules of online marketing, there only seems to be a recipe for virality: controversial opinions .Come on, that, if the typical debate of "Y tu mas..." is generated, better than better.

The MOZ agency analyzed at the end of 2015 more than a million articles to put numbers to that of engagement.They wanted to know how people reacted to each post. Half of the articles shared had less than four likes .Those that exceeded 1,000 shares were a small fraction.Curiously, among those that reached virality, many were opinion pieces from prestigious publications such as The New York Times or The Atlantic.

The study does not enter into the ideology of each text, but it highlights that the pieces or posts that generate debate triumph among the audience.Yes, the polemic articles, hyper-segmented or not, have won the please from community managers and SEO experts.

Are we better than before?

The ideological bubble that surrounds each of us is a fact.There are very critical opinions about it, such as Eli Pariser's or Bill Gates's, and other more positive ones, like Zuckerberg's, but almost no one doubts its existence .Precisely the founder of Facebook, in the Building a Global Community manifesto, published last year, points out the need to puncture the bubble filters.

"Social networks provide more varied points of view than traditional media.Compared to watching the news on two or three TV channels or reading the same newspaper every day, Facebook presents us with a greater diversity of content," says Zuckerberg "Even so, our goal should be to show as complete a picture of the world as possible , not just an alternation of perspectives."

Bubble filter: in your hand is that your social networks are an ideological cell (or not)

Sounds good.The eternal dream of an Internet that becomes a tool to strengthen democracy and transparency in our society.But, what if we are so comfortable in the bubble that we do not want to get our heads out to see what what's out?

It's not you, Facebook, it's me

The debate about filters and bubbles in social networks is open.Society, especially around certain thorny issues, seems to be increasingly polarized.Some have wanted to blame Facebook, Twitter and their bubbles for it. As we always receive the same type of ideological input, the blocks, the sides, are consolidated .

However, a study from last year published by Levi Boxell and Matthew Gentzkow, from Stanford University, and Jesse M.Shapiro from Brown University, leaves the door open to doubt.Perhaps the tendency towards polarization and the comfort of the bubble were real before social networks.Maybe they are also encouraged by other factors.

According to his research, the ideological polarization in the United States, of which Obama blamed social networks, had been much greater in the last decade among age groups who barely used them, such as those over 65 years of age.? Other cross-cutting factors, such as rising poverty and unemployment , were behind this phenomenon.

Even so, the researchers acknowledge that they lack data to support their new hypotheses .That is, they believe that cannot blame only the networks of the ideological polarization of the world .

Bubble filter: in your hand is that your social networks are an ideological cell (or not)

So you prick a bubble

We live in times of polarization, of debates that only seek to consolidate our opinion, of discussions in which there is no room for "Hey, you are right" .We do not promise you that it will be easy, but The world needs people (the more the better) who dares to leave the bubble.After all, it is there where our societies are built.

So, finally, in case you are considering pricking your bubble, here are some quick tips, signed by British journalist Amelia Tait (The Guardian, New Statesman), to get out of your comfort zone.

Like pages you don't agree with
Prepare to read information that makes you uncomfortable
Try to check the articles before sharing them, finish with the bulos
Try creating alternative accounts on Twitter or lists of people with whom you disagree, so you can see what they publish only when you feel strong, without filling your timeline with their opinions
Retrieve those contacts you deleted because you didn't like how they thought .We don't say it's okay to be racist or macho, but observing and understanding other points of view can be useful
Check the articles again, this time the ones that share your ego, you may find things that surprise you
If you want to deepen, you can use Reddit to follow communities that you would never be a part of , such as the defenders of Donald Trump, the land planners or any of the extremes of the Catalan conflict
Debate and challenge the points of view of others, always with respect.Among all we can make ourselves think a little more critically

Images: iStock, Pixabay

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