Echo Chambers and Information Diffusion in Social Media
The diffusion of information across social groups is crucial to dialogue, and to enabling information transfer and discussion to arise into productive and thoughtful dialogue of opposing views. As such, information flow via social media and other communication mediums offer the potential for enhanced dialogue through quicker communication across much larger groups of people than before the existence of these platforms. Given this, when these platforms are structured effectively, social media platforms serve to enhance diffusion across networks by enabling better communication between close networks, and facilitating communication between weak ties as well. Moreover, open diffusion enables for important dialogues to be had with regards to many facets of society, and most obviously, politics. One area of interest is the topic of echo chambers, in which “beliefs are amplified or reinforced by communication and repetition inside a closed system and insulated from rebuttal.” These echo chambers generally have a negative connotation and can be very damaging, as a lack of information and opposing viewpoints in a topic can result in very polarized and oftentimes close-minded viewpoints.
Subsequently, many individuals have qualms with the way certain social media platforms are structured. Moreover, the impact of social media platforms such as Facebook has gotten the attention of not only users, but also US Congress. Specifically, while many social media platforms have been studied and demonstrate that they enable users to gain access to a wider range of news sources, Facebook tends to polarize users, especially those of the conservative party, namely up to 30% more conservative than on average online browsing.
This behavior is largely based on Facebook’s algorithm, which relies heavily on engagement to recommend content. As such, inflammatory content tends to drive the most engagement, and so users will tend to be exposed repeatedly to inflammatory content that they support and engage with. This effect was also present for liberals, but conservatives faced this in an exacerbated manner due to the tendency for these users to reject mainstream media and opt for more “right-leaning sites.” The implications and negative impact on political dialogue is clear from these echo chambers, however, it is unclear whether social media platforms will update their algorithms on their own, or if governments may need to get involved. Meanwhile, Facebook and other social media platforms continue to have an impact on the flow of information, and as such, our political dialogue and society.
Source: https://news.virginia.edu/content/study-how-facebook-pushes-users-especially-conservative-users-echo-chambers