Information Cascades, Social Media, and Voter Turnouts
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/donald-trump-president-social-media-echo-chamber-hypernormalisation-adam-curtis-protests-blame-a7409481.html
The outcome of the presidential election came as a nasty shock to many, who have expressed immense dissatisfaction over our new president-elect. It would be interesting to analyze where this shock originates, and also consider just why it seems so prevalent when the majority of our country voted for Trump over Clinton. Considering the statistics of the outcome, it should hardly come as a surprise.
Many blogs and articles have gone over the effects of echo-chambers, a phenomenon that is particularly common on social media websites where algorithms work to deliver content on your newsfeed that matches what you’ve liked in the past or what your friends are looking at. In a way, it has created a bubble in which we are encased, unaware of opinions outside of this sphere that are different or even challenge our own. This relates to and is similar to the topic of information cascades, which “occurs when a person observes the actions of others and then – despite possible contradiction sin his/her own private information signals – engages in the same acts.” Are we liking these articles, these posts because we are truly passionate about the perspectives they touch upon? Or is it because we are surrounded by a majority who supports this content, and thus we feel pressured to like and share the same content? Social media at times can be loud, but does it address a silent majority, one we were unaware of all along? The voter turnout – the number of people who supported Trump and the vast percentage of Americans who did not vote can shed some light on this matter.