About Filter Bubble Lab
Filter Bubble Lab is an educational web app that lets you operate the post feed of a fictional social network called Flock to see, firsthand, how recommended content gradually becomes biased. No sign-up is required, it is free to use, and nothing you do here is sent to an external server.
How the lesson works
- Choose three topics you are interested in to shape your initial recommended feed.
- Use actions such as Like, Share, Follow, and Not Interested on posts in the Flock feed. Once you have taken enough actions (or seen enough posts), you will be invited to see how your feed has changed.
- On the reveal screen, you review your learned interest profile, changes in feed diversity, posts that were never shown to you, the feed you would have seen with opposite preferences, and your engagement with low-reliability posts.
- Finally, you read five short lessons covering filter bubbles, echo chambers, confirmation bias, and how recommendation algorithms work, then take a knowledge-check quiz.
What this covers
- What a filter bubble is
- How it differs from an echo chamber
- Confirmation bias as a human tendency
- What recommendation algorithms aim for
- Practical habits you can start today, such as consulting multiple sources, diversifying who you follow, and checking sources before sharing
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