ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Whether you voted for President Trump or Hillary Clinton you probably have a hard time understanding the other side. Can’t they see that your candidate was clearly the better choice? Probably not, and that may be because they’re living in a political bubble. And you might be, too. But here is how you can expand your bubble without having to actually talk to someone with a different political view.
It was easily one of the most contentious presidential elections in history … and the most divisive. Finding someone online to disagree with you is easy. Understanding their point of view is hard. So a few new digital features might help you out with that.
Flip-Feed invites you to step into someone else’s Twitter feed. Created by MIT researchers, you just click a button, and, for instance, if you’re a conservative, your twitter feed will flip to a random, anonymous liberal tweeter.
The iPhone app Read Across The Aisle color codes each news website from moderate to partisan, and tracks your reading history. If you’re reading mostly on the left, it’ll send you an alert to get out of your bubble and read a news story from the right.
And the chrome extension Escape Your Bubble lets you do just that. After asking which party you want to learn more about, it will insert stories into your Facebook feed to expose you to different political views.
If you really want to put the thickness of your bubble to the test, PBS has a quiz on their website you can take to really see how disconnected you are.
In order to expand your political bubble you really have to keep an open mind. However, researchers at Dartmouth found that when people are exposed to media and information that contradicts their political views they tend to doubt its credibility, thus reinforcing their own opinion.
Contributors to this news report include: Jessica Sanchez, Producer; Roque Correa, Videographer and Editor.
