By making so much information so accessible, social media has drastically changed the way we consume information and form opinions in the modern era. The danger, however, is that social media creates an “echo chamber” that filters the information people receive so that it largely supports their existing opinions.
A recent study published in PNAS examines this phenomenon and finds that social-media users show marked focus in the types of news that interests them. These social-media participants tend to develop strong and well-defined communities around the news outlets they support, and they tend to make connections with like-minded people regardless of the geographic distance between them.
A FEW WEEKS AGO, CJR WROTE about a disturbance in the force caused by what was perceived as sudden and inexplicable changes in the Associated Press Stylebook’s hyphenation guidelines. Even though the guidelines were not sudden, and even though AP explained them thoroughly, people were upset. Source: AP hyphen outrage continues with guidance update –…
A robot has just moved into the cubicle next to you, and you’re wondering whether it will soon take your place. Experts say humans are better at jobs that require empathy, creativity or physical dexterity than our robot competitors. For instance, in the graphs above, empathetic nurses, creative CEOs and dextrous tree pruners are all on…
Simplifying teacher expertise is no big deal– heck, textbooks are an old tech version of that, saving us all from the trouble of coming up with our own materials. I actually have spent some time thinking about this, resulting in my decision a few years ago to stop using the grammar textbooks my school bought…
Source: A more helpful Chrome, throughout your workday Google is adding the ability to highlight text on a website when you create a link. I mentioned this ability before when using an add-on, but now it will be available without the add-on. The ability is not showing up for me in Chrome version 90 yet,…
Researcher have found that bullying has a lasting impact on the bullied. “Students who experienced more frequent peer victimization in fifth grade were more likely to have greater symptoms of depression in seventh grade, and a greater likelihood of using alcohol, marijuana or tobacco in tenth grade,” said the study’s leader, Valerie Earnshaw, a social…
In an era of national attention to what’s real and what isn’t, we asked educators to share their strategies for helping students sort out fact from fiction. Source: 5 Ways Teachers Are Fighting Fake News : NPR Ed : NPR The definition of fake news has been very distorted since the election. Now, it seems…
