--- title: 'How Social Filters Impact an Educated Response' date: 2016-11-18 categories: - 'General Education' tags: - education --- One of the hallmarks of the well-educated person is, I think, the ability and willingness to explore all sides of an issue before making a decision. Unfortunately, it seems that few people, even those who are, in fact, well-educated, truly take the time to explore an issue before taking a stance on it. And, to a large extent, I get it. It’s hard to do. It’s hard, not only because it takes time and effort, but because we are bombarded by so much information from so many different sources and on so many different topics that it is difficult to winnow out the wheat from the chaff. What is important? What should I be concerned with? What issues can I reasonably relegate to secondary or tertiary concern and on which should I focus my attention? Two truly modern factors make it even more difficult to view the world through an educated lens. First, there is a great deal of fake news out there. Recent news articles have focused on this phenomenon 1,2. Some sites, such as Onion.com are deliberately fake in an effort to satirize current events. This is to be expected and is, in its own way, a means for highlighting problems in news reporting, as well as in the systems (such as the political system) it targets. More concerning, however, are those sites that pose as legitimate news sources while promulgating false information as “news”. Both Facebook and Google have fallen prey to this type of ‘reporting’ and it doesn’t help that sites like Yahoo.com intersperse advertisements disguised as news articles within the listings of legitimate news. Figuring out whether news is truly valid is becoming harder and harder to do. And, as the difficulty rises, the willingness to expend the energy to figure out what is valid declines. The result? Pe ople make decisions based on questionable information. The second factor is equally concerning. As people rely increasingly on the internet and social media for their news, the algorithms used on those sites provides a lopsided view of the world 3. We all know that Amazon, Google, and a host of other sites tailor ads to meet your interests. Those same algorithms are used to to tailor the news you see. As El-Bermawy notes in his _wired_ opinion piece, the result of this tailored news is that you are only reading news that conforms to your interests. Thus, if you’re against some issue (abortion, for example) you’ll only see news that reflects that perspective. On the one hand, that seems reasonable. Certainly, if I am interested in solar power having my news filtered to show me articles on that topic is quite useful. On the other hand, if I’m interested in some controversial topic the filters help to ensure that I only see articles that support my view. That’s not so good. In a democratic society in which the people have a substantial say in the shaping of policy it is important that the people have a good understanding of the issues. This means that they need to understand both the pros and the cons. Filtered news, as El-Barmawy notes, creates a situation in which the reader isn’t given the opportunity to learn about the varying perspectives; they only get their own perspective reinforced. In effect, there is a confirmation bias in the news they receive. Perhaps most concerning of all is that most people will not realize that they’re not being given the whole news. It isn’t obvious that their news has been filtered to fit their perspectives. It wasn’t a choice they made consciously but is the result of algorithms reacting to their prior activities. The result is that their store of knowledge — and their understanding of the issues — is trapped in a silo that protects them from alternative views. And exactly those alternative views are essential to a complete understanding of an issue and an appropriate decision regarding those issues in a democratic society. 1. Log In – New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/technology/google-will-ban-websites-that-host-fake-news-from-using-its-ad-service.html. Accessed November 18, 2016. 2. Stelter B. The plague of fake news is getting worse — here’s how to protect yourself. CNNMoney. http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/30/media/facebook-fake-news-plague/index.html. Accessed November 18, 2016. 3. M. El-Bermawy Mostafa. Your Filter Bubble is Destroying Democracy. WIRED. https://www.wired.com/2016/11/filter-bubble-destroying-democracy/. Published November 18, 2016. Accessed November 18, 2016.