Among the many harmful impacts that social media has on young people, its impact on their thinking is one of the most troubling. The very platforms that were designed to connect younger people discourage critical thinking and narrow perspectives.
According to Inside Higher Ed, three out of four students surveyed said social media is their main source of news, and that’s only the ones willing to admit it. May others either don’t realize it or don’t want to acknowledge it. And if I had to guess, chances are you, as a reader, get most of your news from social media as well.
Universities are meant to be places where we develop independent thinking. Yet instead of exploring new perspectives, we’re often pushed deeper into the beliefs we already hold. We’re supposed to be critical thinkers—constantly learning, but also questioning what we’re told. Instead, we’re often stuck in a cycle where the content reinforces what we already believe.
We all know how algorithms work: they show us things they know we’ll like, just to keep us on the app longer. TIME explains how Facebook does this—every post gets assigned a score based on the types of engagement it might get, multiplied by the likelihood that you’ll interact with it. By the time you see a post, Facebook has already predicted how much you’ll enjoy or agree with it. Their goal isn’t to inform you, it’s to keep you hooked. And the same is true for Instagram.
It’s just entertainment, right? You’re just taking a break from studying, letting your brain relax for a second. But at the same time, you’re being subconsciously spoon-fed specific perspectives. Over and over, we see the same type of content, the same viewpoints, and very little from other perspectives. This creates echo chambers, where all we hear are our own opinions bouncing back at us.
A simple analogy is Spotify, although it’s not exactly a social media platform, its algorithm may seem like it’s helping you find new music catered to your personal music taste, but it groups listeners into narrow lanes. For instance, if you engage with certain genres, your song or artist radios will keep drawing from the same pool of music. Before long, you and others are all listening to the same songs, while ignoring music from outside that pool.
It’s the same with perspectives, where people fall into internet spaces where they’re only exposed to their own “genre” of opinions, isolated from other groups. While you may agree with some viewpoints or like a given song, the lack of variety means you aren’t really shaping your own opinions or music taste; they’re being curated for you.
In addition, with the decline of media literacy, opinions are also being shaped subconsciously. Even if you think you’re smart enough to avoid the influence of unchecked facts, the repetition might get to you. This is known as the illusory truth effect; the more often we hear something, the more likely we’re to believe it’s true, even if it isn’t.
This effect is happening to millions of young people, heavily dividing us. Students are more likely to group themselves based on ideology, identity or political belief than in the past. Being drawn into connection with like-minded communities by algorithms that are responding to our individual predispositions pulls us away from alternative perspectives.
We approach conversations as if the other side has nothing valuable to say, when we should be approaching them with curiosity to at least hear another side. This makes us less open-minded and empathetic and less prepared to handle the complex discussions and relationships after university.
Don’t get me wrong, social media has allowed us to be more aware of the world now than young people in previous generations ever were. The problem isn’t a lack of information; it’s that we don’t always know how to separate quality from quantity.
I’m not suggesting everyone abandon social media completely (although that’s what I’m trying to do). It’s not realistic or necessary for everyone. We just need to be more conscious of what we’re consuming and find other ways to educate ourselves simultaneously.
Students need to seek out information from a wide range of sources, including ones they may not agree with, just to see other perspectives. We need to approach information with more skepticism and then act upon that to find the full story.
Apps like Ground News let you see how stories are covered across different sources, ranking their bias and credibility, and can be a useful tool for breaking out of echo chambers.
Being connected isn’t the same as being informed. Social media connects us to each other but also divides us into narrow perspectives. We’re capable of being critical thinkers, and we need to take responsibility for forming our own opinions. Unless we start using these connections in a productive way, we’ll only become more divided.
Eve Morrison is a third-year Biotech student.
Tags
Echo Chamber, Facebook, instagram, Social media, truth
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