In August 2016, in the middle of the U.S. presidential campaign, there was a rumor that the candidate Hillary Clinton was so poor in health that she would not be fit for the presidency. The news spread very quickly through…
Myth 4: Algorithms leave users helplessly exposed to filter bubbles.
Filter bubbles are created by algorithms that search engines, message aggregators, and social networking platforms use to personalize and customize information for each user. When taking information and opinion diversity as a democratic ideal, thus, filter bubbles could represent a…
Myth 3: Online echo chambers are responsible for contemporary political extremism
Why are online echo chambers, that is, spaces in which social media users are surrounded by like-minded others, a threat to democratic systems? One response to this question often is: Groups in which individuals mutually reinforce their opinions are most…
Myth 2: On social media, everybody is exposed solely to information and opinions that reinforce his/her political stance.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube rely on people expressing themselves freely on topics such as politics, sports, and everyday life. Since the term echo chamber has become subject to public debates, many assumptions and potentially detrimental effects have…
Myth 1: Ever since there are social media, people are trapped inside echo chambers
When addressing echo chambers, we may particularly deal with two different matters: Echo chambers and their effects (such as attitude polarization) on the one hand and mechanisms and antecedents (such as selective user behavior) that potentially lead to the formation…
Addressing Myths on Echo Chambers and Filter Bubbles in Online Networks
Welcome to our research group’s first blog entry! As the junior research group “Digital Citizenship in Network Technologies” consisting of computer scientists, psychologists, and communication scholars at the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany), we are interested in how opinion homogeneity forms…
