What you don't see won't hurt you, right?

(source: Harvard Business Review)

A large majority of recent class time and independent readings have been based on how your own searches and history are influencing what you see despite what you really should be seeing overall.

Or a biased feed one would say. Places like Google, Facebook, twitter, now even Instagram all consist of algorithms that determine what you see based off of people you follow, what is shared among followers, what you search for, people of people you follow, or how often something or popular a certain post is. With this information people have determined that this is a problem responsible for biased information, otherwise people who may search for some information may only see information regarding that topic rather than seeing information from both perspectives or a perspective contrasting theirs.

(source: Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal)

For instance, Google uses an auto-complete algorithm that gives you search options based off of your history or what other people have typed in as you are typing in your search topic. This is an issue when you type in "Why do w..." and search options like "Why do white people..." comes up. Even though it may not have any relation to what you were typing curiosity sets in or even just seeing the question/statement might spark a stereotype. This was originally constructed in order to somehow make typing up your topic in the search bar easier. However, seems to be encouraging stereotypes among all races, genders, ethnicities, etc.

Now, in social media aspects places like Twitter and Instagram have algorithms that increase the visual traffic of popular posts. Although, what is popular might not be politically correct or in your best interest. Popularity does not mean that it is really what you "need" to be seeing. "Information balance" vs "information junk food" so to speak. You only really see or pay attention to what you want to see. This now follows news topics. Why do people only engage in searches that share their personal view? Is it intentional or is it just viewing what your search algorithm gives you? Can you even search for something you don't even know is happening? However, places like Twitter is mostly a rapid fire display of information making it harder to filter out what you want to see while still only showing what people are talking about based off of whom you follow. Instagram shows the most

(source: www.exintra.com)

popular posts based on who you follow. Facebook on the other hand only shows you what it thinks you want to see based off of likes or shares or even what you click on. I mean, how much of all 500 of your Facebook friends do you actually see rather than what you see of your 10 friends that you keep up with?

Bias in algorithms is an issue. Being aware of an issue itself let alone being able to visually see all perspectives of an issue is crucial. I think when forming an opinion about something, there is only so much credibility you can get when you only get your information off of Facebook and/or Huffington post.