Extreme filter bubbles seem to be rather rare  Studies that investigated what people actually  look at online or are shown by search engines,   found little evidence that you are ideologically  isolated. It is the exact opposite: Online you  
are constantly confronted with opinions  and world views that are not your own. It turns out the place where you are the most  ideologically isolated is your real life,   in the real world, with real people. Your  real world interactions with your friends,   family, colleagues and neighbors are  much less diverse than your online   bubble. The filter bubble exists  in your real life, not online. (View Highlight) #✂️

Whether you want it to or not, your brain  sorts people by world views and opinions,   into teams. This is not simply tribalism,   it goes further. Researchers have  called this process social sorting. On the digital town square you encounter people  that express opinions or share information   that clash with your worldview. But unlike your  neighbour, they don't root for your local sports  
club. You are missing the local social glue your  brain needs to align with them. For your brain,   the disagreement between yourself and them  becomes a central part of their identity.  And this makes it less likely that  you will seriously consider their   position or opinion in the future. (View Highlight) #✂️

The engagement driven social internet makes it  worse because it wants to keep you online as   long as possible. And the most engaging emotion  is, unfortunately: Anger. The more angry you get,  
the more likely you are to share and engage,  and this leads to social media amplifying the   most extreme and controversial opinions. It  optimises not only to show us disagreement,   but the worst disagreement possible. And because  your stupid brain is sorting people into teams,   whatever the worst opinions are, it assigns the  same opinions to everybody on the other team. (View Highlight) #✂️ #favorite

one solution to achieve less   social sorting may be extremely simple:  go back to smaller online communities. (View Highlight) #✂️

Extreme filter bubbles seem to be rather rare  Studies that investigated what people actually  look at online or are shown by search engines,   found little evidence that you are ideologically  isolated. It is the exact opposite: Online you  
are constantly confronted with opinions  and world views that are not your own. It turns out the place where you are the most  ideologically isolated is your real life,   in the real world, with real people. Your  real world interactions with your friends,   family, colleagues and neighbors are  much less diverse than your online   bubble. The filter bubble exists  in your real life, not online. (View Highlight) #✂️

Whether you want it to or not, your brain  sorts people by world views and opinions,   into teams. This is not simply tribalism,   it goes further. Researchers have  called this process social sorting. On the digital town square you encounter people  that express opinions or share information   that clash with your worldview. But unlike your  neighbour, they don't root for your local sports  
club. You are missing the local social glue your  brain needs to align with them. For your brain,   the disagreement between yourself and them  becomes a central part of their identity.  And this makes it less likely that  you will seriously consider their   position or opinion in the future. (View Highlight) #✂️

The engagement driven social internet makes it  worse because it wants to keep you online as   long as possible. And the most engaging emotion  is, unfortunately: Anger. The more angry you get,  
the more likely you are to share and engage,  and this leads to social media amplifying the   most extreme and controversial opinions. It  optimises not only to show us disagreement,   but the worst disagreement possible. And because  your stupid brain is sorting people into teams,   whatever the worst opinions are, it assigns the  same opinions to everybody on the other team. (View Highlight) #✂️ #favorite

one solution to achieve less   social sorting may be extremely simple:  go back to smaller online communities. (View Highlight) #✂️