The Two Browser Challenge
By
Staten Island, NY Posted: 12/26/2016 1:00:00 AM
The web is biased... but not the way you think.
You may not realize it, but most of what you see online is biased, and it's not some vast right or left wing conspiracy. It's a direct result of an algorithm specifically designed to feed you content that you already like.
At the heart of this is a simple premise. Advertisers are willing to pay more money for targeted content. The more targeted it is, the more they're willing to pay for ads, so search engines and social media sites do everything they can to pin down all your likes and dislikes. Unfortunately, this means most of the content you see online is filtered to fit your pre-existing likes and dislikes, so you'll see fewer and fewer items from an opposing side.
An even bigger problem is the snowball effect. Each time you like, share, or comment on liberal or conservative content, you'll be spoon feed even more of the same kinds of content, giving you increasingly more conservative or liberal content, until you eventually see nothing but ultra-conservative of liberal content.
The Two Browser Challenge is a way to see this bias in action.
Here's how it works. Take two different browsers such as Chrome and FireFox, and clear your history so that both browsers know nothing about who you are, or what your interests are.
Next, make a point of using one browser, such as Google Chrome to visit nothing but conservative websites, and use the second browser, such as FireFox to visit liberal sites. Within a day or two you'll notice that the content you see in each browser will be completely different, even when you aren't visiting conservative or liberal sites.
Some of the differences will be subtle, like ads for products that aren't necessarily considered liberal or conservative, but the sponsors may want to target to one group over the other. Some of the differences will be much more obvious, like ads for political organizations and filtered news articles.
Whether you try it or not, the point of all this is to at least make you aware that there IS a bias, and that YOUR bias may or may not be the same as your friends or neighbors.
If nothing else, it may help you realize why this country is so polarized. For a lot of people, it's because they rarely hear an opposing side to any issues.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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