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Delete, Block, Unfriend: Do Internet Users Create Homogeneous Networks Online?

Sat, May 26, 9:30 to 10:45, Hilton Prague, Floor: M, Yoga Room (Cybex Health Club)

Abstract

Concerns about filter bubbles and echo chambers lead to widespread assumptions that social media users surround themselves with like-minded others and with information that confirms their beliefs. However, the extent to which people encounter differing views and the extent to which they tailor their social networks by “unfriending” or “blocking” contacts with differing views is not fully known. Based on data from a comprehensive survey study on how people use various information sources to find political information—the Quello Search Project—this paper explores to what extent internet users in Germany and the US tailor their social networks to make them more similar to their own. The results show that diverse views in online social networks are more common and that the practice of deleting or blocking social contacts with dissenting views is less prominent than previously assumed, challenging common assumptions about echo chambers and filter bubbles.

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