Post by Admin on Feb 2, 2017 15:00:33 GMT -4
Here’s Why Spending Time On Facebook Can Leave You Isolated And Narrow-Minded
REGI GEORGE JENARIUS FEBRUARY 02, 2017
On the face of it, social media sites, such as Facebook, seem like they exist to expand our horizons — connecting us to people and ideas that are otherwise out of our proximity. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, claimed the exact opposite. It states that in reality, social media isolates us — creating echo chambers and facilitating confirmation biases that relay information in a repetitive loop.
The findings revealed that people usually tend to select and share content related to a particular narrative and ignore the rest. Social homogeneity was shown to be the primary driver of content diffusion and often resulted in the formation of homogeneous, polarised clusters, concluded the paper.
What does say about our behaviour on the net?
What that essentially means is that you and your friends share similar feeds because your thoughts are aligned with one another. Collectively the cohesiveness of your ideas does not allow for any other thought to encroach your mind.
"So instead of sharing information or ideas to challenge or inform, social media users are more likely to share an idea already commonly accepted in their social groups for the purpose of reinforcement or agreement," adds Alessandro Bessi, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern California, said.
Our instinct leads to fake news that spreads without any distillation
Bessi states that the point of the study was to examine how and why this sort of misinformed information spreads online. The research team latched on to the thought after the World Economic Forum listed the spread of unreliable digital misinformation going viral as a fundamental threat to modern society.
The team of researchers from Italy used data modelling behind the study traced the spread of two of the key types of content: conspiracy theories and scientific information. “This meant that two well-shaped, highly segregated, and mostly non-interacting communities exist around scientific and conspiracy-like topics,” states Bessi.
“Users tend to search for, interpret and recall information based on their pre-existing beliefs. This creates what is called a confirmation bias, and it forms the basis of the motivation behind sharing content in the first place,” confirms Bessi.
REGI GEORGE JENARIUS FEBRUARY 02, 2017
On the face of it, social media sites, such as Facebook, seem like they exist to expand our horizons — connecting us to people and ideas that are otherwise out of our proximity. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, claimed the exact opposite. It states that in reality, social media isolates us — creating echo chambers and facilitating confirmation biases that relay information in a repetitive loop.
The findings revealed that people usually tend to select and share content related to a particular narrative and ignore the rest. Social homogeneity was shown to be the primary driver of content diffusion and often resulted in the formation of homogeneous, polarised clusters, concluded the paper.
What does say about our behaviour on the net?
What that essentially means is that you and your friends share similar feeds because your thoughts are aligned with one another. Collectively the cohesiveness of your ideas does not allow for any other thought to encroach your mind.
"So instead of sharing information or ideas to challenge or inform, social media users are more likely to share an idea already commonly accepted in their social groups for the purpose of reinforcement or agreement," adds Alessandro Bessi, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern California, said.
Our instinct leads to fake news that spreads without any distillation
Bessi states that the point of the study was to examine how and why this sort of misinformed information spreads online. The research team latched on to the thought after the World Economic Forum listed the spread of unreliable digital misinformation going viral as a fundamental threat to modern society.
The team of researchers from Italy used data modelling behind the study traced the spread of two of the key types of content: conspiracy theories and scientific information. “This meant that two well-shaped, highly segregated, and mostly non-interacting communities exist around scientific and conspiracy-like topics,” states Bessi.
“Users tend to search for, interpret and recall information based on their pre-existing beliefs. This creates what is called a confirmation bias, and it forms the basis of the motivation behind sharing content in the first place,” confirms Bessi.
