The Instagram battle between @progressively.petty and @dont.poke.the.elephant rages.
In epic bursts of anger, the two shoot comment after comment, firing after every new insult thrown. While these two perfectly punny handles are fabricated, the sentiment is not.
Previously a place of conversation and connection, for the past year, social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X have become war zones of heated arguments between angry commenters一the cause of it: “the algorithm.”
Social media algorithms are defined as a process of deciding which posts get viewed by consumers by analyzing individual likes and dislikes, working to
prioritize content that uses will interact with.“The algorithm” seems perfect一handpicking media perfected to your unique likes and dislikes. But in reality, it’s isolating users to one side of the platform, and pushing forward the idea of “selective exposure,” the practice of specifically choosing media sources that align with one’s own beliefs and focusing on a narrow perspective.
For a generation with 51% of its population
getting their news from social media, as stated in a World Press Institute report, the impact of the algorithm on teens’ political socialization is concerning. Consumers are often forced into an online “bubble” where their opinions are
reinforced by ideologically oriented programming, feeding the fire between an already polarized political landscape.
Algorithms often choose the media with the most likes, views and shares to present to users一but this media tends to be more opinionated, showing teens extremely left-wing or right-wing content which students use as their only source of political information. With media sources
sending extreme opinions to the top, moderate influencers and news tends to get pushed back, never reaching Americans.
“We have made it all but impossible for people to gain status for sharing and voicing the moderate views that many of us think our country needs right now,” said Chris Bail, founder of Duke University’s Polarization Lab in a...
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