Trapped in the Feed: Becoming Aware of Social Media Echo Chambers

Master's Thesis | TU Delft, Design for Interaction

Social media platforms have become predominant channels for information with personalization algorithms significantly shaping the content we encounter, thus, have a big impact on society.

Initially, none of the platforms were created with the aim of delivering news. However, a significant portion of their users began perceiving and using them as a news source.

This research focuses on the platform X (formerly Twitter), which is selected for its mission to promote and protect public conversation, positioning itself as the town square of the internet.

59.9%

of the world’s population
uses social media

4.8 billion

social media users in total

92.7%

of all internet users

Problem Definition

Younger individuals are more inclined to rely on social media as a news source and exhibit trust in information coming from these platforms. They often encounter news content incidentally on social media when they are not actively seeking it. (Fletcher and Nielsen, 2017)

The information and news they encounter are influenced by personalized recommender systems that show content aligning with their existing beliefs and past interactions. This creates filtered views, limiting their exposure to diverse perspectives. (Cinelli et al., 2021)

The Challenge

01. How can we increase the exposure to diverse viewpoints in incidental news consumption on X(formerly Twitter)?


02. How can design interventions bring users with different viewpoints together on X?


03. What would designed discussion spaces that bridge echo chambers to foster healthy discourse look like?

01. How can we increase the exposure to diverse viewpoints in incidental news consumption on X(formerly Twitter)?


02. How can design interventions bring users with different viewpoints together on X?


03. What would designed discussion spaces that bridge echo chambers to foster healthy discourse look like?

01. How can we increase the exposure to diverse viewpoints in incidental news consumption on X(formerly Twitter)?


02. How can design interventions bring users with different viewpoints together on X?


03. What would designed discussion spaces that bridge echo chambers to foster healthy discourse look like?

Approach & Method

This research is guided by the principles of Research Through Design and inspired by Design Activism. Design activities and interventions are used to contribute to the development of understanding and knowledge, provoke discussions, and make the interactions observable.

Process

Literature Review: I went through the literature to learn about social media personalization systems, echo chambers, incidental news consumption, the regulatory landscape on digital interactions, and democracy models. This first step sets stage for exploring design interventions.

Design Research & Analysis: I conducted stakeholder interviews, analyzed current design interventions in the literature, current X features and conducted a session with users to understand the user perceptions.

Shaping the Design Vision: Based on the research findings, I structured the design vision, prioritizing features and information.

Initial Design Proposal: I designed a high-fidelity, interactive prototype to test the design. The design consisted of three main components: a landing page, frictions to disrupt incidental exposure, and a dedicated community space for online discourse.

Literature Review: I went through the literature to learn about social media personalization systems, echo chambers, incidental news consumption, the regulatory landscape on digital interactions, and democracy models. This first step sets stage for exploring design interventions.


Design Research & Analysis: I conducted stakeholder interviews, analyzed current design interventions in the literature, current X features and conducted a session with users to understand the user perceptions.


Shaping the Design Vision: Based on the research findings, I structured the design vision, prioritizing features and information.


Initial Design Proposal: I designed a high-fidelity, interactive prototype to test the design. The design consisted of three main components: a landing page, frictions to disrupt incidental exposure, and a dedicated community space for online discourse.


User Evaluation: I conducted a focus group session with six regular social media users to evaluate the design and identify areas for improvement.


Design Recommendations: Based on the feedback and thematic analysis, I created design recommendations and made necessary adjustments to design. This redesign aims to provide further insights and guidance for future practice and research by visualizing the recommendations in a conceptual way.

Literature Review: I went through the literature to learn about social media personalization systems, echo chambers, incidental news consumption, the regulatory landscape on digital interactions, and democracy models. This first step sets stage for exploring design interventions.


Design Research & Analysis: I conducted stakeholder interviews, analyzed current design interventions in the literature, current X features and conducted a session with users to understand the user perceptions.


Shaping the Design Vision: Based on the research findings, I structured the design vision, prioritizing features and information.


Initial Design Proposal: I designed a high-fidelity, interactive prototype to test the design. The design consisted of three main components: a landing page, frictions to disrupt incidental exposure, and a dedicated community space for online discourse.


User Evaluation: I conducted a focus group session with six regular social media users to evaluate the design and identify areas for improvement.


Design Recommendations: Based on the feedback and thematic analysis, I created design recommendations and made necessary adjustments to design. This redesign aims to provide further insights and guidance for future practice and research by visualizing the recommendations in a conceptual way.

User Evaluation: I conducted a focus group session with six active social media users to evaluate the design and identify areas for improvement.


Design Recommendations: Based on the feedback and thematic analysis, I created design recommendations and made necessary adjustments to design. This redesign aims to provide further insights and guidance for future practice and research by visualizing the recommendations in a conceptual way.

Literature Review: I went through the literature to learn about social media personalization systems, echo chambers, incidental news consumption, the regulatory landscape on digital interactions, and democracy models. This first step sets stage for exploring design interventions.


Design Research & Analysis: I conducted stakeholder interviews, analyzed current design interventions in the literature, current X features and conducted a session with users to understand the user perceptions.


Shaping the Design Vision: Based on the research findings, I structured the design vision, prioritizing features and information.


Initial Design Proposal: I designed a high-fidelity, interactive prototype to test the design. The design consisted of three main components: a landing page, frictions to disrupt incidental exposure, and a dedicated community space for online discourse.


User Evaluation: I conducted a focus group session with six regular social media users to evaluate the design and identify areas for improvement.


Design Recommendations: Based on the feedback and thematic analysis, I created design recommendations and made necessary adjustments to design. This redesign aims to provide further insights and guidance for future practice and research by visualizing the recommendations in a conceptual way.

Literature Review: I went through the literature to learn about social media personalization systems, echo chambers, incidental news consumption, the regulatory landscape on digital interactions, and democracy models. This first step sets stage for exploring design interventions.


Design Research & Analysis: I conducted stakeholder interviews, analyzed current design interventions in the literature, current X features and conducted a session with users to understand the user perceptions.


Shaping the Design Vision: Based on the research findings, I structured the design vision, prioritizing features and information.


Initial Design Proposal: I designed a high-fidelity, interactive prototype to test the design. The design consisted of three main components: a landing page, frictions to disrupt incidental exposure, and a dedicated community space for online discourse.


User Evaluation: I conducted a focus group session with six regular social media users to evaluate the design and identify areas for improvement.


Design Recommendations: Based on the feedback and thematic analysis, I created design recommendations and made necessary adjustments to design. This redesign aims to provide further insights and guidance for future practice and research by visualizing the recommendations in a conceptual way.

Design Frictions in Social Media

Digital technology has long pursued the goal of eliminating friction, creating seamless experiencess. According to Cox et al. (2016c), introducing small frictions into interactions can sometimes improve everyday technology use.


Design frictions can interrupt “mindless” interactions, encouraging moments of reflection and fostering more “mindful” engagement.


For this purpose, I focused on disrupting the brief moment of incidental news exposure on news consumption on X, and designed frictions by benefiting from nudging techniques.

“Friction exists in many different forms and is not always a feature of design. Descriptively it can be, and normatively, sometimes it should be. Companies have implemented friction-in-design measures, often to serve their own interests and sometimes to promote a societal goal.”

Frischmann & Benesch, 2022b

The image pairs at the bottom represent two of the design interventions that introduce friction to the user experience.

Conclusion

As designers, we strive to create seamless experiences—but we must ask ourselves: is this always good for users and society?

This research invites designers to rethink designing seamless experiences, suggesting that not all social media experiences have to be seamless. Incidental news consumption can benefit from being seamful, with thoughtfully introduced frictions providing opportunities for users to slow down and explore diverse perspectives. This approach aims to contribute to a well-informed society and a healthier democracy.

This thesis conveys this advocacy by proposing specific design recommendations and redesign proposals.

While acknowledging that influencing regulations is a long-term process requiring comprehensive research, this work goes beyond its scope and hopes to serve as an initial step to inspire regulatory bodies.

The thesis can be found through this link.

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