Assignment: Create a research study that explores an issue of our choice within our current media landscape and produce a brief paper detailing our findings.

Approach: I chose to write about the effect that social media algorithms have on a user’s perceptions, critical thinking skills, and awareness of current issues. Specifically I was curious to see if people cared that potentially harmful AI-based algorithms were feeding them content from a one sided point of view, effectively creating an echo chamber, or if users were content with their current experience. I conducted a study of 15 subjects aged 18-55 and posed four questions.

Result: I found that while users, particularly those within Gen-Z, were inside digital echo-chambers, but largely weren’t concerned about this. In fact on multiple occasions, some subjects even admitted that they didn’t care much for content that toted differing point of views, and were completely fine with the content they were viewing. I presented my findings in a research paper.