The internet had helped people for decades to find answers to their endless questions. This massive connectivity helps us to grow as individuals and as educators as it pushes us to help our students explore new horizons, as Henry Jenkins advocates in this video below.
[Henry Jenkins: Media Scholar Henry Jenkins on Participatory Culture and Civic Engagement. Access URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgZ4ph3dSmY%5D
But like everything else, it is a two-sided sword. You might already know that the internet customizes most of what you see, from Google’s inquiry responses to Facebook feed. Pariser calls this phenomenon: “Filter bubble” (Pariser, 2011), which refers to how the internet keeps learning to exclude channels that contradicts your thinking. While this concept is not particularly new, what I came to learn is that our brains make a different layer of filtering out information (Gee, 2013). What happens is when we read information that is not consistent with our own, our brains find a way to justify why it should ignore it (Gee, p.2). This is true if we reflect on how we process information. in other words, whatever we think is not true is what we question the accuracy of its evidence. In his book, Gee calls this brain reaction a “confirmation bias”.
Reflecting on my own way to find and process information proves my own “confirmation bias”, as Gee calls it. On all my social media accounts, I make sure to follow my own role-models, my best news networks that I trust and agree with most of the time, and people who share my beliefs. Not only that, I continuously block accounts that provide information on the extreme end out of my comfort zone. Professionally speaking, I try to also surround myself with leaders with new ideas and approaches and I try to avoid traditional practitioners. I notice this trend not only in my online life, but offline too.
On Twitter, we often see the phrase “Retweet does not equal endorsement” on profiles pages. I always wondered “why would someone ever retweet something they disagree with anyways?”. It is understandable if one would quote to respond to that tweet, or if a news channel retweets unhappy pieces of information. Otherwise, it did not make sense to me why would people retweet posts they disagree with. After reflecting this week on how we must confront other views and take the effort to search for what is out of our bubble, I think it is a genius idea to retweet opposing thoughts. This helps not only the account user but all her followers to expand their views.
On an experiment to exit my affinity group, I took a step forward to include new sources to my social media (i.e. Twitter) that I do not necessarily agree with. Yet I think it is necessary to see outside my bias bubble and understand the problem of education from new perspectives.
A Twitter List by 7ananiah https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
References
Gee, J. P. (2013). The anti-education era: Creating smarter students through digital learning. St. Martin’s Press.
Pariser, E. (2011). The filter bubble: What the Internet is hiding from you. Penguin UK.
Hanan Alshikh 
Hi Hanan! I enjoyed reading your blog post on your info diet! Like you, I favored following people on Twitter who confirmed my teaching beliefs. I am a high school Spanish teacher, and there are two views on teaching a second language. “Traditional” teachers emphasize the memorization of vocabulary words and drilling grammar practice. The modern way to approach the subject is to focus on interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational communication. Students learn by reading/listening to authentic texts. I strive to teach like the innovators of Spanish education. Although I feel like it is important to still teach vocab and grammar, communicating effectively is my major focus. As a result, I began following like-minded educators. My feed became filled with other teachers posting and retweeting the same ideas. I never stopped to consider the problem of not seeing differing opinions.
You picked some great new sources to expand your thinking on Twitter. I also chose to follow The College Board since standardized testing and AP classes are so prevalent at my school. I liked reading the articles that @AFTunion shared because they posted a wide variety of articles related to issues of education. If you like their tweets, I would recommend following @educationweek. I added them to my info diet last week, and I have enjoyed seeing the range of articles they share. I am sure you will find some interesting opinions posted by Modern Homeschooling, too. In addition, I added the US Department of Education (@usedgov) and @BetsyDeVosED hoping to expand my thinking.
Thank you for your comment!
I will definitely follow these suggestions 🙂
Hi there,
Our posts share many of the same sentiments in regards to who we now incorporate in our PLNs and follow on Twitter.This week’s lesson was enlightening and gave me a lot to reflect on.
I never paid attention to Twitter profiles with the re-tweets don’t necessarily endorse disclaimer. Hmmm… maybe I should add that to my profile especially since I too have learned the value of stepping outside of my affinity space and filter bubble.
-Dijah