Hilariously it wasn’t easy finding a source that wasn’t bias or factually off.

  • EndOfLine@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I would think that providing an echo chamber for an existing belief would make somebody less inclined to consider alternative view points. Further, I would suspect social media could sway people still undecided on issues. We’ve already seen reports on how Facebook deliberately manipulated the feeds for certain people to encourage either positive or negative emotional responses to a subject.

    Couldn’t those impacts be seen as fueling division and polarization?

  • zombuey@lemmy.worldOP
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    11 months ago

    I kind of get it though social media boosts confidence in bias beliefs but those bias beliefs are already there people just weren’t as loud about them or inclined to act on them like they are now.

    • maegul
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      11 months ago

      Yea it kinda tracks right. It’s not the internet being a problem per se, but maybe it actually delivering on its promise: connecting people and providing and distributing information faster and wider than ever before. Except, garbage in, garbage out.

      Something I’ve been saying for a while is that there could a slightly different timeline in which we get mass education “right” before we get the internet and TV. And by “right” I mean we move past the sort of basic academic stuff that school covers and actually try to equip people to be thoughtful and informed and functional citizens. The economy, the governmental system and the crafts of persuasion, communication and the difficulties of politics etc … cover all of those in such a way that young people can actually navigate how the world works. And, do so before TV, internet and mass social media. Maybe things turn out different?