Take a look at the Facebook feeds you DON’T see

Facebook has been in the news for intentionally warping the results in its “trending” section.  Intentional slanting of this kind is bad enough, but as Facebook become a major news source an unintentional but more insidious effect of their algorithms is becoming obvious as well.  Tailoring news to individuals, feeding us the stories we’re “interested” in, means we’re not seeing the whole world.  We create our own echo chambers where facts are cherry picked to reinforce our opinion.  If a Lefty can’t understand the world view of a Righty, part of the reason might be because they’re both working from different sets of facts.  Fortunately, there’s a cure…

The cure for bad information is good information.  If we live in our own bubbles, then the answer is to break out of the bubble and see the rest of the world.  Most people might not realize how insular their bubble can be, but the Wall Street Journal came up with a great way to show us all.  Their site “Blue Feed, Red Feed” compares the news selections from Facebook on a variety of issues from Obama, Hillary, and Trump to guns, abortion, and transgender rights.  Click on a topic and you’ll see the “Liberal” and “Conservative” Facebook feeds compared side-by-side.  Take a look through the eyes of your wacky uncle or your hippie neighbor, and even if you don’t see the world their way, you won’t see it in the same way again!

Digging Deeper…

Blue Feed, Red Feed–  See Liberal Facebook and Conservative Facebook Side-by-side, the Wall Street Journal, May 2016

Facebook’s Troubling One-Way Mirror, Jim Rutenberg in The New York Times, May 2016