Unga svenskar i algoritmiska informationsmiljöer : En kvalitativ studie om filterbubblor och demokratisk opinionsbildning på sociala medier

Sammanfattning

The study aims to examine how young Swedish adults experience and relate to filter bubbles on social media and how this affects their exposure to information and view of democratic shaping of opinion. The background for the study is the growing meaning of social media as a place to gather information. Algorithmically personalized information flows raise questions about selective exposure, the fragmentation of the public sphere and individual opportunities to engage with diverse perspectives. The study is based on a qualitative approach and is conducted through semi-structured interviews with ten young Swedish adults in the ages between 18-26. The material is analyzed through thematic analysis based on Selective Exposure Theory, Habermas’s theory of the public sphere and Giddens’s reflexivity theory. The result shows that young Swedish adults generally exhibit an awareness that social media affects the types of information they are exposed to, but that type of reflective awareness varies. The results also show the consequences of the filter bubble on democratic shaping of opinion because the majority of respondents are mostly exposed to only one perspective.