Day: May 26, 2022

You’re thumbing through your Facebook newsfeed when a post from an acquaintance you completely forgot about jolts you mid-scroll. Maybe it’s a shared meme poking fun at your preferred political candidate, or an opposing proclamation on a touchy subject like gun control, or maybe it’s just a picture of them wearing or doing something that elicits a breathy scoff.

You think to yourself, “How’d this person escape my last purge…?” and then go to their page and, without a second thought, click “unfriend.” And like that, a feeling of contentment sets in as you resume scrolling through your curated feed of like-minded friends and highly targeted advertisements.

Why social media reinforcement bubbles exist

Without even realizing it, you have just made moves to strengthen your reinforcement bubble. But while we are partly to blame for our highly curated feeds — it’s not all our fault. The social media reinforcement bubble