On Breaking Free from Echo Chambers and Filter Bubbles.

For every new online info source I follow, I add a second that is different from the first.

The internet and social media are my main info sources these days. I don’t even have to search for news anymore — stories, articles and very important ‘updates’ are delivered to my pocket 24/7.

Falling into an echo chamber is easy. Floating in a filter bubble is no effort.

But easy isn’t always best.

To avoid the algorithm-induced filter bubbles I choose my info sources (or at least I believe so). I choose to get info from friends (i.e. people I know), strangers (people I don’t know personally) and curated publications released by traditional media and organisations.

I don’t want to live in an echo chamber so I mix up my info stream with different opinions, ideas and perspectives. In mid-2018 I decided to take a more scientific approach to assess if I was bouncing around in my own echo chamber.

I started with a dive into Facebook, my go-to social site with people I personally know. I drew up a spreadsheet and listed my friends down one side and added columns for features such as age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity, profession, residential country…