I found this image, or artifact, interesting because it shows how Facebook can explode someone's ego. Someone's ego isn't the only thing that can be affected by Facebook or social media in general, but it can create an "echo chamber" that gives the user the impression that they are always right. An echo chamber is a metaphorical term relating to a situation in which beliefs are amplified or strengthened by communication and repetition within a closed system. How Facebook and Instagram work is that they both show you posts that are similar to previous posts you've liked. Now that Facebook is 14 years old it has two billion members. Facebook controls what content you see based on algorithms and commercial interests. Most of the time the people you are friends with on Facebook are people you have some sort of connection with in real life. These people will most likely share the same interests as you. The algorithm within Facebook knows who in the network you are most likely to interact with and then narrows your view to the same people who see that world as you do. For example, if you're friends with someone who always posts outrageous content, but you always ignore them and don't like them, share them, or anything, they'll start disappearing from your timeline. This is not a good thing because it can be manipulated by news agencies or journalists. If a news agency wants to acquire viewers, it can push to publish content on the timeline from people who agree with certain content. For example, since Fox News is more for Republicans than Democrats, you can expect to find the Republican Facebook feed filled with more Fox News than CNN. If a person only sees stories related to their own prejudices, they will become single-minded and only see things their own way. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Echo Chambers can be harmful to the way one may think or see the world. Although echo chambers can be useful for shopping or researching a topic. Over the past decade, echo chambers have become the backbone of presidential campaigns. Of course social media is not the only new source to have some sort of ideological bias, newspapers and news agencies have always catered to their audience. As the Knight Center noted in 2016, “…through social media, professional and other qualified news is mixed with uncontrolled information and opinion. Rumors and gossip creep into the stream.” It was also noted that people may lose the ability to distinguish information from opinion. This happens because of our dependence on Internet giants who have an interest in rewarding us with what we like to see. Everything from our Facebook news feeds and our Google searches is customized to keep us engaged and generate profits for internet giants. We humans are much more homogeneous than we think, because we tend to interact more with people who echo our ideas. I mean, why would you want to be with someone who is always the opposite of you. As the article states, “these findings will probably not be overly surprising to psychologists, who have long been aware of the human tendency toward confirmation bias.” A 2015 study published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) found that misinformation thrives online because users form communities of interest that reinforce and foster confirmation bias, segregation, and polarization. In the previous article that I just described to you I agree one hundred percent with what he has to say.