Depolarizing bots

Worried your Twitter feed is dominated by those with political beliefs similar to your own? The Polarization Lab has set up bots that will relay tweets from politicians and journalists with opposing beliefs that are supposed to balance out your own biases.

This is an interesting approach based on research from the Lab that claims becoming aware of the position of others can moderate your own. I think there is an important difference between understanding the positions taken by those whom I find to think very differently from the way I do. I have studied work on argumentation and I know that those arguing different positions tend to write/speak more in substantiating their own positions than addressing the positions and supporting evidence taken by others. Tbere are so many issues on which my values leave me wondering just what could justify positions taken the oppose these values and I have been identifying the tweets forwarded by the bot just to see if justifications are included. So far, I have not found what I am looking for, but I will continue to try. I also have taken the proactive step of asking for justifications, but my requests are usually ignored.

This approach should interest others who care about social media and wonder whether there is hope for meaningful discussion of issues.

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