How Does Social Media Influences People's Perception Of Reality?

In this day and age, the news is constantly being changed in the way they are being presented. Back when there weren't social media, televisions or newspapers, there wasn't a way to find out news in the appropriate amount time. Throughout the century, new technologies are allowing for the uses to spread news faster than ever. Before it would take days or week to find out some news but now once it is reported, people are able to find out in a matter of minutes. The news is a big source that influences the people's perception of reality; when skewed it can lead to very damaging consequences. With faster access to information on social media like facebook, it can have both a positive and negative effects.
Buzzfeed recently published an article called, "This Is How Facebook Is Radicalizing You" by Ryan Broderick, where it dives into the power that facebook has on influencing people. In the article, the author talks about the result of facebook and more specifically the …show more content…
So when facebook decided to implement a new tweak to their algorithm in 2014; it allows facebook to show each user content specific to them. According to the author, "People are happy because they only see what they want," he said. "And they only see what they agree with". The troublesome trend of changes in the way information that is being presented to us, we ask ourselves, did this had any effect on the 2016 presidential election that ultimately led to the victory of Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton. The article believed that if you were a Trump supporter you would see a lot of news, videos and other forms of media in positive light of Donald trump, vice versa to if you were a Hillary Clinton supporter. Because Facebook is such a powerful platform to spread a movement and influences, Facebook didn't seem to taken in consideration of the potential indirect abuses of their