Review: Confirmed Biased

Review of the Paper draft by Confirmed Biased:

Opening quote from Johannessen gives a solid start, but straight after the quote it gets more difficult to follow. The bullet points are not self-explanatory:

-We are all living in bubbles online and offline:

-Definition of a bubble

-Online bubbles are starting to influence us more

These bullet points could be explained in more detail to give the reader a solid understanding.

Problem itself: Well introduced problem, even though the terminology is somewhat difficult, i.e, the algorithm-imposed confirmation bias or the frontal lobes of the myriad quanta of the issue at hand. Could the more or less difficult concepts be translated into general purpose language?

Different perspectives of the societal problem are again not so easy to understand:

Psychology and individual behaviour

-Selection bias

But what does and doesn’t this Selection bias mean?

To finalise the report we encourage Confirmed biased to open their concepts and introduce them in a more understandable way. So far the draft consist of only text, but some relevant pictures would support the message. The solution provided could be visualised and its attractiveness could be evaluated by gathering user data. To prove the concept, we highly recommend to create a narrative-style video, which explains the problem and the solution with concrete examples. Background information are very relevant and supports the theory of the problem, but not the solution. Might there be also research on the proposed solution? Does unknown profiles really matter?

Final report, Draft Template

Final report: First draft

The polarization of opinions

Polarization of opinions is an important societal problem because the facebook shows the user content that he/she has liked and will start filtering the content for the user. If the user happens to like once of some special website for news (for example MV-magazine) , Facebook starts showing more content similar to that. It can be sometimes difficult to see what is true and what is not true in social media. Especially when the user will be shown similar news repeatedly, it can make it hard to distinguish the reality and the user’s opinion may polarize. There has been a lot of discussion about how much people trust on different sources in internet and in social media.

According to YLE [1] only 1% of receivers find these special news websites trustworthy. It isn’t a huge percentage but it doesn’t mean that it is always easy to figure out what information or news is trustworthy in different medias. For example 19% of the receivers said that they find YouTube trustworthy. Anyone can publish a video in YouTube and say almost anything there. Of course, some of the videos are very good and trustworthy but it’s up to the user what to believe. The user of social media needs high media literacy skills and ability to think critically. According to the research conducted by YLE, 8% of the recipients didn’t know in which media to trust. It means that 8% of the teenagers struggle to find the trustworthy media.

Concept and value proposition

Our end goal is to have Facebook present opposing views to news people are reading. Currently, after user reads an article, Facebook shows them three different articles that might interest the user. Our aim is to add one more article to the list. This new article would present the opposing view to the matter instead of showing more of the same. Closing eyes to contradictory thoughts will create conflicts in the long run and people tend to get blinded by the bubble they live in.

Facebook will not make this change unless it is in their interest. Facebook wants people to use Facebook more and keep Facebook as their center of surfing the web. To prove that presenting opposite views could be beneficial for Facebook, we need to show that people would read those opposing views more often than they would read similar articles placed on same slot as the opposing article. To validate this assumption we are planning to create a browser extension that will present articles with opposing views after user has read some article from Facebook.

For the user we promise that by using our browser extension, they could widen their perspective on different matters and really understand what the other side is thinking and why they are thinking like that. This would give the users basis to their interaction between people outside their own bubble. By understanding different perspectives they could present their own arguments in a more efficient way and connect with the other side. Finding and understanding opposing views is as easy as it gets with our browser extension.

References:

[1] http://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2016/02/15/valheenpaljastaja-sosiaalinen-media-sumentaa-lahdekritiikin

Group Work Nightmare

Confirmed biased – http://confirmed-biased.tumblr.com/

• Only thing that gives at least a little clue what the service does are the words: “See what they see, peek into their feed”. That is bit too vague to really explain the service.
• Mentioning Facebook and/or other services that are part of looking glass’s focus would be good
• Using famous paintings is an interesting idea, but that is too disconnected from the reality. Using some pictures that might actually be in someone’s feed would be a better solution.
• The picture gives a feeling that with looking glass your own view would be changed. Not to someone else’s view but like a filter on my view. The switch could be presented more clearly.
• “Join the movement” What is this movement? Could you show some # or some other way how to check it outside your own web site?

SkillsTree – Share and light your skills! – https://someeducation4all.wordpress.com/

• Check the grammar
• You should present a link to your web site. Now it seems like the customers have to find you in some complicated way. Through Facebook? The qr code?
• If you are not limited to languages, communication and computer skills, show it in the text. Someone might be interested in mathematics, but it seems that your service won’t answer to that need.
• In what way you are different from the many competitors like Khan Academy or Future Learn?
• It might be good to show the name of the service in bigger font or logo

Ethical Publishing – http://ethicalpublishing.tumblr.com/

• Three different fonts seem too much. Or maybe the font on the picture could be used on the same hashtag in the text part to connect those two parts more together?
• The text is good, but it could be more relatable if it was more personal towards the reader. Asking how did you feel when someone posted an embarrassing photo of you might work. Those who are often embarrassed by photos of themselves aren’t probably part of your ideal target group, but they might be the ones that start the “movement” the easiest.
• Try to find a more compact way to present your thoughts in text. Cutting away few words here and there would make the ad easier and faster to read making it more likely that people actually read the text.
• On top of shortening the texts, try to push people toward actions even more with stricter wording. “Make a difference: Join our Facebook profile campaign! Encourage people to: #thinkaboutothers”
• Using red text to highlight the most important parts of the text is a good idea. But the words you chose aren’t the best. If I read only the words written with red, I should have some idea about your service. Now it would tell me “Dont, how they felt”

Constant connectivity – http://itssocialmediathings.tumblr.com/

• It is not clear what kind of product you are selling. Is it an app? Tell it.
• If the product is an app, links to app stores should be visible. Perhaps with little “available on iOS and Android” text.
• Telling the benefits the user potentially could have with your app in the headline(s) would be useful. Now the three headlines over the phone are too vague to let the reader know what to expect from your product.
• Only call to action is in the third headline: “Try silenc.io!”. It might be good to add another call to action at the bottom of the longer text on the phone.
• Assuming that the app silences social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, you could use the logos or names of those services in the ad instead of generic “social media” or “social networks”.

The Echo – http://the-happy-echo.blogspot.fi/

• There should be some comment on which social media sites this product offers a solution to. Just Facebook? Or perhaps many others also?
• The curtains almost make it feel like those are closing and not opening. Making it seem that those problems are fading away could be better accomplished with a better picture. This is a prototype, but on the real version this matter should be considered carefully.
• There should be another direct call to action somewhere, not just the find more information. Tell the reader to download the app, extension or whatever your service is.
• The curtains are so heavy with color that those steal focus from the headline. This makes the reader’s eyes jump up and down and this probably isn’t the order you want customers to see your ad.
• Show the positive results you make possible more clearly. Now the negative steals much of the focus and leaves no room to get excited about the service you are offering.

Politics is boring – http://politicsisboring.tumblr.com/

• The ad tells nothing about the service you are offering. What is Nolitics? Is it a service or just a Youtube channel?
• Without the name of the site, it would have been clear that you talk about politics. “Nolitics” alone is not enough to convey meaning. “Politics” has to mentioned somewhere to understand the pun.
• The focus of the ad is divided. It feels like there is two products advertised, the Nolitics and Tume.
• The ad should tell some more reasons, why the reader should open that Youtube link. Now the only reason seems to be that if they feel bored, they should open it.
• The “OR” text blends into the design of the background. That makes your message feel even more unclear and if user sees it later, you still have missed the chance for a better first impression.

Some-kurssi 2016 – http://somekurssi2016.tumblr.com/

• The ad really doesn’t tell how the user/reader could benefit from your solution. Even if they relate to the matter, there is no solution to be seen except more time on social media.
• “Tired of being tired?” is quite good slogan, but there could be better ones. Try some other options instead of repetition.
• The picture shows the reason behind the problem you are trying to solve, but that’s not enough. The picture you have chosen seems almost positive and you need to relate me to a negative feeling of being tired. Now only the text reminds me of being tired and I’m not that connected to your cause as I could be with a picture. There’s two options: 1) Replacing the current picture 2) Keeping the current picture and adding another picture into the mix.
• The longer text at the bottom doesn’t feel very inspiring. Cut the sentence shorter and use more powerful wording to call to action. “No more night time scrolling! No more sleep disturbances! Join us and fight against…” Or something other more inspiring.
• Using colors to make message more powerful might be good. The ad looks good in black and white, but some strategical color in little amounts could work. Perhaps the hashtag could be bright red (and even glow) to make it capture the reader’s focus.

Boobs or paper? https://somecse.wordpress.com/

• The photo is thought-provoking – that’s great! However, the link between “boobs or paper” thought and distinguishing fact from fiction isn’t very clear – think about how to create that link
• The fonts could be clearer. The smallest white font on the black background is a bit tricky to read
• I would somehow think how to link the emotion provoked to action. The photo succeeds in provoking action. However, the linkage to the action isn’t so clear and I guess this is linked to the following point on how the service really works
• It’s not very clear from the consumer perspective how the service really works. Maybe you could include an example / screenshot in order to help them understand?
• Is the solution fact based? In the era of information warfare it’s not clear that people trust peer reviewed truth

protectYOU https://privacyandsnss.wordpress.com/2016/11/13/protectyou/

• I like the protectYOU brand. However, I thought whether you should develop the graphics to be more continuous?
• Privacy is a very hot topic and thus your ad succeeds in gaining the attention. Could you still include what it means that the service provides centralized control?
• As said, privacy is a hot topic, but why your service the one which should be used?
• I like the photo but however I think you could come up with even more inspirational photo to generate emotion
• I like the simple look in the ad and wouldn’t change that

Misinformed http://social-media-misinformation.tumblr.com/

• This kind of service doesn’t exist at least that I know of.
• The advertisement states clearly that the plug-in tells the user what is a hoax and what is true.
• Important nowadays when there are so many fake articles or trolling in the social media
• The language is clear but I think the frase ‘Do not fall on hoaxes and save time’ sounds a bit like ‘Do not …. save time’ which is a bit confusing.
• I find the advertisement funny and it catches my eye. I think it gives a clear message that you shouldn’t believe everything that you read or see in the internet.
• The topic and advertisement is relevant and the advertisement stands out because of the funny picture.
• The advertisement doesn’t clearly address a societal problem but the motivation to make such plug-in is societal. The news aren’t always real and there are websites that make fake news for fun. Sometimes people just read the headline and share it in social media as a real news.
• After seeing the advertisement the user can download the plug in and also maybe think a bit more critically him/herself. The plug-in is made easy to download because of the QR-code and there is also a link to the webpage.

Save A click http://cs-e5610.tumblr.com/

• There is a clicksaver already excisting https://klikinsaastaja.fi/
• The advertisement tells clearly what the plug in or application does, but the advertisement itself is a bit too cluttered.
• The language in the advertisement is clear.
• The advertisement doesn’t generate emotion but it makes the user to agree that there are many obvious articles which have a scandalous headline.
• The advertisement is fact based (everybody knows this problem). It’s hard to tell which service would be better Klikinsäästäjä or Save A Click.
• The service idea is clearly presented in the advertisement but the graphical execution could be a bit more clear.
• The person seeing the ad could download the app or download the plugin. To make the action even easier there could be a link to download the application.

Advertisement

Social understanding

Needs

There exists a major demand in the main social media channels to guide the users towards more understanding and solidary humanity. At the moment the polarization of attitudes, spirit and extremities in the society is increasing the fright and hate speech. We believe that human being is originally an adaptive and positive, which contradicts with all the violence, disagreement and antagonism.

Approach

We propose the biggest social media, for example Facebook, to change their feed algorithms towards such that people learn about the different opinions of the subject being discussed. It is fatal to show such related material, that one’s ideology is only being supported. Instead of suggesting the user more same stuff as he/she has previously liked, we want to make possible the understanding of different cultures and ideologies. Another approach is to provide the facts about the discussion, for example in a case of a refugee situation in Finland, the debate is so emotional that the users tend to forget about the facts. Facebook, or similar platform, could easily detect the subject of the debate and provide the latest facts and studies.

Case ‘Facebook Opinions’

While scrolling down the feed the user face an interesting article from a well known news-paper. The article is, though, an opinion piece. User is encouraged to read the content that provides different opinions about the same subject.

Benefits

This will eventually create peace, as people understand each other better. Understanding is a key factor in forgiveness and adaptation.

Alternatives

At the moment we do not recognise any alternatives amongst the social media channels, but instead the best way to study and understand different cultures and ideologies (in Finland) is to attend school. Comprehensive school and also the other degrees offers the user (student and teacher) material that is based on science. Emotionally affected debates does not have such attributes as in the social media. In schools the hate speech basically does not exist, and if so, the teacher is supposed to control it and guide the students to understand each other.

Attention economy

Attention economy

We all know how our smartphones have always notifications if we haven’t checked them within the last half an hour. When we’re trying to study, the phone is beeping periodically and makes you want to check it. It’s really hard to resist the temptation, isn’t it? ’Person xx liked your picture’. ’Person xx has a birthday’. ’Person xx invited you to his event’. Sometimes it’s nice to know that people are interested in you in Social Media. But they’re not the only one who is interested in you and wants your attention.

The social media services get income from your attention. The more they get your attention, the more the service will profit. For example, Facebook gets income from advertisements and the more you spend time there, the more they profit from it. Facebook also uses advertisement targeting so that they can reach the target groups. And also, in order to advertise to the target group, the group needs to visit Facebook. The same thing is with Instagram. The more Instagram has users the broader audience they have, the more the advertisers want to advertise there. The more Ville Saarinen writes in his blogpost Attention Shoppers! [1] how our attention has become the economy. Our attention is a scarce source and we can’t give our attention more than certain amount in a day. [3][2]

Now you may think how this is related to polarization of opinions. The targeted advertising finds your interests based on how you use Facebook and other services that are in cooperation with Facebook. So the more you like pictures or groups related to specific topic, the more you get advertisements related to that topic. This may increase the polarization of opinions. You may think that everything is related to the topic you’re interested in and you may think that everyone that other people think the same way you think and that everyone sees the same advertisements. You may think it’s not that bad if it’s related to your hobby like mountain biking or ballet or something ‘innocent’. But if someone is getting into radical thinking and joins radical groups and also the advertising can change into that direction. It can be for example something related to clothing or violent games or movies.

So the next time the social media wants your attention, maybe think twice. The attention you give to the service can be away from something else; meeting with your friends, reading a book or studying. As Ville Saarinen writes in his blog post The value of attention [4], the demand for our attention is increasing every day when new services occur. So you need to think; Do you want to give your attention or not? Do you want to use part of your attention resource for it? If you don’t want to make the decision, you can just turn off the notifications and enjoy the silence!

References:

[1] https://www.wired.com/1997/12/es-attention/

[2] https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-ads-basics

[3] https://business.instagram.com/advertising#adFormats

[4] http://blog.saarinen.info/post/56891030212/the-value-of-attention

Groups

Polarization of opinions in Facebook: Relevant social groups

There are different ways to approach the social groups in this specific problem. However, covering almost everyone in Facebook it is necessary to point out the most critical groups. Also users in Facebook who haven’t liked or posted or connected to anything are the only group who are not affected by the polarisation effect. Although the service is designed so that the networking and connecting is inevitable.

There exists also numerous groups, who have radical ideologies or ways of behaviour, so it is not in our favour to name each and everyone of them. Examples here are Rajat Kiinni! (Close the Borders) and Aito Avioliitto (The Real Marriage). These kind of groups have been formed in Facebook to support their members and share the message. Individuals join the groups based on their values and interests, and so the bubble grows. After participating the network, individuals are surrounded by like-minded people and related content. Groups have a very strong way of expressing their ideologies, and often the rational and justifiable discussion ends up in shouting, radical generalisation or hate speech.

The issue is amongst these groups or networks, that their members end up interacting inside a bubble that strengthen the attitudes. Different point of views are not presented, or if so, they usually get crushed by the most loudest opinions.

Polarization of opinions in Facebook