Perceptions and Online Behavior

During the course of this MOOC we’ve learned how bias influences our information seeking behaviors, how to recognize and search for authoritative sources, and how to find factual, timely information. We finish with a final discussion on how news is packaged, presented, and disseminated, and how that affects our perceptions.

Check out this video from Alisa Miller and see how U.S. news coverage skews our worldviews: 

A world of algorithms and clickbait

Our own online behavior can heavily influence the type of information we find in the course of our daily online viewing habits. The items that appear in your Facebook newsfeed are the result of complex algorithms that scan the posting habits of you and your friends to determine the types of content you might be interested in. This means that the more you interact with certain types of content, the more you’ll see it. In theory, this means that you’ll see more posts about things that interest you.

Enter clickbait

Of course, things don’t always work out the way they’re intended. A new and burgeoning form of online content known as “clickbait Links to an external site.” (and its cousin, “sharebait Links to an external site.”) want your views, even if you’re not particularly interested in what they’re trying to sell. The creators of clickbait and sharebait utilize sensationalist stories, headlines with hooks, and Facebook’s own algorithm to get your views. Once you’ve viewed or liked a clickbait item, you’ll see more and more of it. One user tested this by "liking" everything that appeared in his newsfeed over a 48-hour period. The results weren't pretty.  Links to an external site.

The effect

The overall effect of newsfeed algorithms and our own social network bubbles is one of magnification. Trivial stories and issues that might not be important or relevant to us end up monopolizing our feeds and attention due to the online activities of our friends and loved ones. A single share or like may prompt a deluge of similar posts and ads, leading us to perceive that something is more popular, more important, and more newsworthy than it really is.