Freedom of choice and network "echo effects" of information consumption

Abstract

The mechanisms of media personalization and separation in network communication on the principle of like-mindedness stimulate the formation of "echo chambers" and "filter bubbles". The social network phenomenon indicated by these metaphors is the subject of research, and the concepts themselves are considered as close, but not identical. The purpose of the study is to identify factors affecting the effectiveness of filtering algorithms, the user's ability to make informed choices and self–organization in the process of information consumption. The analysis of the causes and consequences of selective strategies of online information consumption is carried out on the basis of the communicative - activity approach, the theory of virtual reality Zh. Baudrillard, concepts of digital media by K. Sunstein, E. Pariser and R. Fletcher. The results of foreign and domestic studies of communication practices on various social platforms are used as an empirical basis. The research approaches presented in the scientific literature allow us to focus on the technological and logical-semantic perspective of the analysis of stable forms of network communication. According to the authors, the interdependence of filtering algorithms and value dominants of information consumption leaves the user with a chance to independently choose a "consumer basket". The duality in obtaining personalized content is emphasized: on the one hand, it is convenience, saving effort, on the other - the one-dimensionality of the world picture in the information bubble. Based on this, freedom of choice is characterized as the right to active choice and the right not to choose, consciously delegating it to neural network filters. In conclusion, the authors identified internal and external network factors for reducing the effectiveness of filtering algorithms: the interpretation of user behavior by artificial intelligence; the functioning of rational confrontational communication; the opportunistic conceptualization of echo effects; the availability of means of conscious counteraction. Incentives for reasonable information consumption, technological and cognitive ways of protecting and rationalizing user behavior are highlighted.