For many on the left, the election win of Donald Trump came as a supreme shock. In the last few days, experts have tried to explain this, and a narrative – outside of the errors made by pollsters – has emerged.
According to popular opinion, we are now living in a “filter bubble” on social media that shelters us from views outside of our own. We connect with people with similar views, and block, delete, or ignore those who are different, whilst social media’s own algorithms make sure we repeatedly see only what we want to see.
Whether or not this bubble in some way caused the election of Trump is up for debate. What is clear, however, is that it made many of us blind to the world around us. We first became aware of this after Brexit, but now it is clearer than ever before. Social media allows unprecented access to millions of viewpoints, yet we are not taking advantage of this. It is easier than ever to know your enemy, and in order for democracy to thrive, it is important that we pop our filter bubbles now. Here’s how.
Hide your Facebook Activity Log
You may have noticed that Facebook often tells you what your Friends have recently “Liked”. This is unfortunate because it invites judgement from others. In order to see more conservative news on your Timeline, you might have to “Like” certain pages or stories that you don’t actually agree with. To avoid causing a false representation of yourself, you can stop Facebook from showing your friends what you’ve Liked by hiding your Activity Log. Unfortunately, when it comes to stories you’ve Liked, you will have to do this on a post-by-post basis, but you can hide Pages you’ve Liked using this tutorial.
“Like” Pages you don’t agree with
Now that you’ve protected your public persona, go ahead and Like the news sites you don’t normally get your news from – including those which surface fake news. If you are particularly sensitive to things popping up on your Timeline that you don’t agree with, you can use the Wall Street Journal’s Blue Feed, Red Feed to get a general perspective on what is happening on the conservative side of Facebook.
Be prepared to get uncomfortable
There is no point proceeding any further with popping your bubble if you are not prepared to see things you don’t want to see and ask questions you don’t want to ask. But remember: just because you see and acknowledge both sides of an argument doesn’t mean you are giving them equal weight. For example, over the last few days, liberals will have seen a video of white children shouting “Build the wall”, whilst conservatives saw a video of a group of people attacking a Trump supporter (warning: graphic). Acknowledging that the latter exists doesn’t mean buying into a simplistic, “We’re both as bad as each other narrative”, it just means understanding the world around you better.
Fact-check everything before you share it
When it comes to the fake news that has been disseminated around the election, conservatives get a lot of the heat. However, many liberals have shared an false Trump quote, claiming he said, “If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country” in 1998. It takes a single moment to Google something like this before you share it. When it comes to videos, we often believe that because we can see something happening, it is true, but Snopes is an excellent source for verifying the real stories behind footage.
For images, read our guide to identifying fake images online.
Create an “alt-account”
Twitter users can create a second, anonymous account in order to follow users or pages which they disagree with, and therefore avoid cluttering up their own feeds or putting themselves in danger. You can also create Lists of people so you don’t have to follow them but can still see what they are saying.
Re-add your racist Friends
Over the course of the presidential election, many people have been blocking or unfriending one another on social media. Resist the urge. If someone is disgustingly racist or sexist and it distresses you to see them on your feed, you can hide them from your timeline but check into their page every so often to see what they are saying. On Twitter, you can use the quality filter to avoid abusive messages, but – if you are up to it – you can search your own handle in the searchbar to see what people are saying about you. If you aren’t sensitive about seeing things, don’t block or unfriend anyone just because their political views are different from yours. It’s sort of not what democracy is about.
Do not fall prey to the ad-hominem fallacy
Just because something has been shared by Jimmy, the three-toothed racist from your primary school, doesn’t mean it is immediately wrong. Investigate and fact check everything you see, and don’t just dismiss it because of the source it comes from.
Visit r/the_donald
This subreddit is one of the largest bases of Trump supporters on the internet, and can provide you with interesting insights into others’ thoughts and plans. For example, the writer Siyanda Mohutsiwa realised that Trump supporters were telling one another to hide their affiliations, therefore blinding the left to the reality of Trump’s support.
Subscribe to an array of subreddits
Reddit is the self-described “front page of the internet” and you really can find anything and everything on there. Subscribe to r/Labour and r/UnitedKingdom to keep up to date, but also subscribe (or check in on) the anti-feminist r/TheRedPill and r/The_Donald.
Visit 4Chan’s /pol/ board
If you thought The Donald subreddit was the worst place on the internet, boy, oh boy, you thought wrong. The forum 4Chan’s /pol/ – politically incorrect – board is a hub of the most vile racist, sexist, and every-other-ist perspectives on the internet. If you can handle it, it’s worth a look.
Challenge your Friends and Followers
And not in the traditional Holier-Than-Thou way. Tell people if something they’ve shared is fake, let people know if their 140 take has simplified an issue, and be prepared to admit that issues are much, much more nuanced than statuses and tweets allow room for. Admit when you don’t know what you’re talking about. Be a lone voice against popular opinion. Make each other think. Perhaps this is the hardest of all the steps, but it is undoubtedly the most valuable. Above all, be prepared to admit when you are wrong.
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