Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Casting Early Presidential Vote Through Facebook by Clicking ‘Unfollow’ - NYTimes.com

Political cyberpolarization

"With the presidential race heating up, a torrent of politically charged commentary has flooded Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site, with some users deploying their “unfollow” buttons like a television remote to silence distasteful political views. Coupled with the algorithm now powering Facebook’s news feed, the unfollowing is creating a more homogenized political experience of like-minded users, resulting in the kind of polarization more often associated with MSNBC or Fox News. And it may ultimately deflate a central promise of the Internet: Instead of offering people a diverse marketplace of challenging ideas, the web is becoming just another self-perpetuating echo chamber."
Casting Early Presidential Vote Through Facebook by Clicking ‘Unfollow’ - NYTimes.com

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