Topic > Confirmation Bias on the Internet

Generally technologically incompetent people believe that social media and search engines are impartial. They believe that because the World Wide Web is easily accessible by anyone with Wi-Fi, these platforms only speed up the dissemination of information to the general public. It is a way to unite people with facts instead of limiting some groups to limited information, preventing them from seeing other perspectives and thus causing the world to polarize from different points of view. They give most people the same power to acquire knowledge and gather information from multiple sources that were previously inaccessible, geologically and politically. Additionally, where people get their daily dose of information is no longer limited to traditional media and government-controlled agencies. We now have access to small, independent journalists and citizens who gather and report news outside of mainstream media institutions thanks to the growth of social media and other similar platforms. This exposes us to a wide range of perspectives, allowing us to gain an understanding of others. In this light, social media and search engines only try to unite us by spreading the same information to the general public. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay While I admit that social media and search engines play a role in accelerating the spread of information to those who previously did not have access to them, thinking that this would only lead to the unity of humankind is simply superficial to look at the issue. I believe that social media and search engines make the world increasingly polarized by exacerbating confirmation bias through users' use of these platforms. Confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that causes a person to search for information to further affirm information they believe to be true. When subjects were administered the Wason test, more than half of them fell prey to confirmation bias. With the advent of social media and search engines, it's safe to assume that more than half of users will fall prey to confirmation bias while using these platforms. Using these platforms, they can follow people with similar beliefs, surfing websites that publish information that only serves to reinforce what we know. This, combined with the growing use of these platforms over the years, further exacerbates the problem of confirmation bias. While the amount of information we have access to today is critical compared to the past, if social media and search engine users only searched for information they are familiar with, it would only cause a growing divide between people with different perspectives. This is how, despite the potential increase in exposure to various challenging information offered by social media and search engines, it would ultimately lead to an increasingly polarized world if the potential is not fully utilized by users. Furthermore, the personalization algorithms built into social media sites and search engines will only make the problem of confirmation bias worse. These algorithms are designed to select the most engaging and relevant content for the user. It collects and analyzes data on how you react to certain information, and based on this data, users will be recommended more articles in line with their beliefs. This further limits the user's exposure and isolates them from different perspectives. Slowly, the learned algorithm will become so accurate that they will rarely be presented to the user.