Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by 7800 1944 days ago
Doesn’t this by definition mean that you’re in a social media bubble with those who agree with you?
11 comments

None of OP's criteria for unfollowing/muting people was them saying things they disagree with.

It's the difference between not watching NBA games because you're not interested in basketball, and refusing to watch the local news because "they have a (left|right) bias".

There is more content out there competing for your attention than you have time in your life to consume it. Rather than letting twitter's default algorithm feed you the most "engaging", OP is saying a more mindful approach works for them.

I've started to wonder if "bubbles" are a good thing. Others beliefs shouldn't be foisted on me at any given moment of my day, and if I don't care to hear them there isn't anything wrong with that.

Moreover, communication seems less hostile and more nuanced when we aren't forced to discuss everything with everyone at once. That is why more focused communities like this one seem to be more enjoyable to use.

That’s an interesting take. What is the difference between building a social media bubble and hanging out with friends because of shared interests? It’s almost as if social media comes with this intent that you’re supposed to confront yourself with the world or you are becoming blind, while this can often be a very alien concept in the real world that few intentionally do.
Following that logic, you are in a bubble in any situation except where you have a feed of every single person's tweets. I don't think that is a very sustainable view.
Only if you get distracted by political bullshit.

I follow on twitter:

- A group of museums and people who work on Roman ruins in the UK and post a lot of ancient history content

- Local news reporters in beats I care about

- A few tech journalists and “celebrities” or podcasters

- Cat and dog video accounts

- Some money people

- Baseball related stuff

I do not follow people I know on Twitter and haven’t logged into Facebook for years. The magic of Twitter is that you can purge content you don’t want to read very easily. I actually have family involved in politics... they never ever want to talk shop, ever. There is nothing more vapid and boring than yakking about political bullshit.

If you think you are in a bubble about politics because of your social media friends, seriously get new friends or mute anyone who talks about how great their guy is. It will measurably improve your life.

I challenge you to explain why this matters.
Sure, but I use Twitter to relax and enjoy specific types of content. It doesn't need to be your source of knowledge.
Sure but it's a bubble of comic book artists, people that like video games, comedians cracking jokes, etc.
That would depend on the person. Lots of people are very interested by people who disagree with them in certain ways.
I'm aware of the bad takes anyway, since they're pretty much unavoidable.
only if what you want to see is just people who agree with you, in which case you'll live in a sad bubble in any case ..