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Grade 12

Filter Bubble Trouble

How can filter bubbles limit the information we're exposed to?
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Lesson Slides

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When we get news from our social media feeds, it often only tells us part of the story. Our friends -- and the website's algorithms -- tend to feed us perspectives we already agree with. Show students ways to escape the filter bubble and make sure their ideas about the world are being challenged.

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Learning Objectives:
  • Define "filter bubble" and explain how it occurs.
  • Reflect on the limitations and drawbacks that filter bubbles cause.
  • Identify strategies for escaping their own filter bubbles.
Key Vocabulary: algorithm  ·  filter bubble  ·  personalized content
algorithm:
pieces of code that follow a sequence of instructions
filter bubble:
when your social media feed and what you see online only aligns with your existing beliefs and experiences
personalized content:
information that a website or app shows you based on what they think you want to see
News & Media Literacy
This lesson meets standards for Common Core ELA, CASEL, AASL, and ISTE. See standards

Lesson Plan

50 mins.
Extension Activity:

Have students choose a social media, gaming, or other platform they use regularly (Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, etc.). Have students review their feed and identify what content they think might be part of their filter bubble (i.e., content where their friends and others might not see the same thing). Take screenshots of at least three examples, and arrange them in an image with “you” at the center using a Google Slide, Padlet, or VoiceThread. Students should explain in the drawing why they think the pieces of content are part of their filter bubble. Have students share their examples with each other, and invite them to use the comment function noting what they observe about each other’s examples.

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Classroom resources

  • Lesson Slides
  • Burst Your Filter Bubble! Handout Teacher Version
  • Lesson Quiz

Take-home resources

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Lesson last updated: August 2019
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