Week 3: Placement and Further Research

This week I received an internship at an organization called CITYarts. I will be working with them on connecting youth across the world through art. The organization seeks to bring people together through murals and community activities. This is perfect for my project because I am looking into how social media disconnects young people from each other. Working with CITYarts will give me important insight into successful ways of connecting young people not just with each other but with issues across the world. I might also help them with their social media account which will give me an interesting new perspective on apps like Instagram considering the goal would be to increase engagement and use Instagram for good and connection! 

My initial research question sought to compare Gen Z with Gen X, as I continued along that path I realized that far too much generalization about the different generations would be involved in the research. This week I decided to really explore filter bubbles and the presence of algorithms in the various news sources of Gen Z such as social media and some news apps such as The New Yorker, Apple News, The New York Times etc. My initial mistake was assuming Gen X doesn’t feel the disconnecting effects of social media because they read more long-form news articles. After discussing this with Mr. Fleming (an older millennial) and other teachers, I realized that while some may be skeptical of what they read, plenty of Gen X adults trust the information they see online. It was these important discussions that led me to revise my research question to: “To what extent does the presence of algorithmic bias in Gen Z New Yorkers’ news sources affect their perspectives on and discussions surrounding mental health?” 

After looking into some prior research, I learned that the presence of algorithms is not the only issue. The issue is actually their increasing extremity. For example, if I were to read one story on the New York Times app about plants, I might see more similar articles pop up in the future., But there will still be a multitude of other stories that I can easily access by looking through the app. On Instagram if a viewer shows the slightest sign of interest in a video, the algorithm throws more of it, and not much of anything else, at them. If I watch a video about the symptoms of ADHD, that might grab my attention, so I would watch it the whole way through. Soon my feed would be full of videos about mental health posted by non-professionals. This hidden bias is a huge problem, and its why youth are increasingly isolated in the info they are seeing. 

The algorithmic bias in filter bubbles on social media is especially dangerous because, unlike picking up a left—or right-wing newspaper, we are not as aware of the biases. 

Some questions I’m left with this week: 

1. What are the best ways to get my survey out to my target demographic (Gen Z)? 
2. How can Instagram and other social media platforms be used for good?
3. How can I take full advantage of the resources and experience at my placement? 

What I hope to address in Week 4: 

I hope to answer some of this week’s questions and finish up a solid draft of my survey. I also look forward to updating my abstract now that my project has really gotten started!