Filter and label your email

Filter labels and the resulting echo chambers they create are have become a commonality within the sphere of online media consumption and enternainment. These echo chambers are obviously problematic in that they prevent the occurance of discourse which may aid in well-rounding the consumer. However, the article How Filter Bubbles Distort Reality: Everything You Need to Know conjectures that many of us are uninformed about or uninterested in the forces affecting what we see online". I argue that individuals, as consumers of online content, are informed about the forces that affect what they see online – they might not necessarily care, but I believe most proficient digital media users are aware of why they see the type of media that they do. When signing up for a social media site, the user is asked to curate their content by selecting their interests. On Reddit, this manifests itself in selecting subreddits, channels on Reddit that engage in very specific and often niche content. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter operate in similar ways. The type of content you see, before any algorithims affect your account, is a result of your specific choices in curating your content. After following these initial accounts, these companies will begin to use algorithims to predict what you want to see, but those algorithims mostly show you similar information to what you've previously asked to see. If I follow many scuba-diving accounts on Instagram, it's of no suprise to me to see a plethora of scuba accounts recommended for me to follow. I agree in that filter labels can be pervasive but I challenge the notion that individuals are uninformed on why they're seeing the type of content that they see online. I think the bigger issue is making people realize why they should consume different sources, because it should be on the individual to decide to expand their well-roundedness. If users complained that their filter labels were too pervasive and they wanted to see more differing content, people would complain far more that they're seeing content they don't want to see. It's not social media's problem to remedy biases within their community, albeit many digital theorists thinking so.