![]() From there click on Ads, then Your Information and Your Categories. (If you’re curious, this exercise can shed partial light: Head to your Facebook feed, click the downward arrow on the right, and then go to Settings. This enables the giants to control or manipulate the price of advertising, and to even go as far as publishing their own ads or narrative if they wish.” The biggest is by gathering data that we, the users, provide willingly or unknowingly. “We do know that there are several methods in which ads are configured and displayed. ![]() “ are purposefully complicated to ensure the average person doesn’t figure them out,” says Lisa Strohman, a licensed clinical psychologist and founder of Digital Citizen Academy, an organization dedicated to helping people find balance between their lives and modern technology. Social media giants - including Google, Facebook and Twitter - use algorithms that are ever-changing and top secret, which ultimately create these filter bubbles. Regarding the former, we have a natural tendency to surround ourselves with like-minded people. The social media reinforcement bubble has two primary contributing factors: self-perpetuated bubbles a la the illustration above, and digitally perpetuated bubbles that are out of our control. But while we are partly to blame for our highly curated feeds - it's not all our fault. Without even realizing it, you have just made moves to strengthen your reinforcement bubble. Why social media reinforcement bubbles exist You think to yourself, “How’d this person escape my last purge…?” and then go to their page and, without a second thought, click “unfriend.” And like that, a feeling of contentment sets in as you resume scrolling through your curated feed of like-minded friends and highly targeted advertisements. Maybe it’s a shared meme poking fun at your preferred political candidate, or an opposing proclamation on a touchy subject like gun control, or maybe it’s just a picture of them wearing or doing something that elicits a breathy scoff. You’re thumbing through your Facebook newsfeed when a post from an acquaintance you completely forgot about jolts you mid-scroll.
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