ALEKS KROTOSKI

Algorithms have turned the online world into an echo chamber. Let’s welcome back diversity, critical thinking and a sense of community

Worried about algorithms turning your online world into an echo chamber? There are ways to stop it happening, but only if we exercise some discretion and actively seek out diversity.

“Critical thinking is more robust than anything a computer can come up with”

Since the Czech playwright -arel éaRek invented the word nrobot’ 00 years ago, we’ve been anticiRating machines taking over our lives. That’s now haRRened.

1ur functional lives are ruled by machines, whether it’s the card readers we use to Ray for our food or the microwaves we use to heat it. $ut after 2020’s lockdowns, machines became the intermediaries in our emotional lives too s allowing us to see and sReak to family, friends and colleagues via

)iven the ubiquity of machines, it’s no surRrise there are concerns that our actions, and increasingly our thoughts, are at the mercy of algorithms. To avoid this we have to evolve our relationshiR with machines, and the next 2 months gives us a chance to do that in two imRortant ways.

“(irst, we must develoR ways to survive in the artificial emotional environment we’re in. 9hen we become conscious of the fact that we’re Rart machine and Rart organic entity, we become aware that it’s Rossible to be emotionally maniRulated by a machine.”

That last RaragraRh was written by an artificial intelligence. #+s are evolving at such a rate that, with the click of a mouse, they can sRin uR ,000 websites, a (acebook Rage and a ;ouTube channel, and RoRulate them with videos and Rosts that Lustify and reinforce a message that someone wants you to believe. +t could be about the health benefits of wearing masks, or it could be about 3#non.

+t’s our Lob to look at what we’re consuming online and determine whether it’s using our words to mimic us and sRread misinformation. 9e have the tool to do this we learned it at school. +t’s critical thinking and it’s more robust than anything a comRuter can come uR with.

The second way is to find and RoRulate sRaces that welcome a diversity of voices. Some believe the internet has made this harder s ironic, given its original intention. ;et such sRaces are there to be found.

9e live among intelligent technology that thinks it knows what we want and gives it to us. The outcome, as 'li 2ariser wrote in his book The Filter Bubble, is the soma we need to fill our Rsychological haRRy Rlaces with stuff that confirms our beliefs instead of challenging them.

Too much of our technology builds walls, instead of bridges. ;et growing quietly are sites that have been designed to insRire visitors to leave their ideologies at the door. 0ot unlike Rarks, libraries or city streets, they encourage diversity because no one owns them, yet ReoRle want to be in them. 2ariser’s %ivic Signals RroLect civicsignals.org is one.

9e need to give these RroLects the audiences they need. 2020 made the internet more mundane than ever. $ut 202 gives us the chance to change that by taking resRonsibility for our digital future.