Friday, August 23, 2013

Great tool for breaking the online "filter bubble"

Here's a great little tool for skeptics:


It links articles together that offer differing points of view. You can browse these, or you can join the community and actively link websites together.

If you do this, and download the plug in, the rbutr icon handily let's you see if anyone has had a rebuttal to an article:



Anyone is free to link their opposing opinion to any other article - this is a useful tool for breaking the "filter bubble". Even if you're comfortable reading your usual articles on whatever, this lets you read opposing view points. Or, as they say:

"rbutr’s ultimate goal is to provide an easy way out of the confirmation bias bubble we all subconsciously construct around ourselves, where we are only ever presented claims and beliefs with which we already agree."

However, for this to work, it has to have people to link articles together (until a genius comes up with an automated process). Without the people doing this, the tool will not work.

I hadn't realised it existed, until it sent some traffic my way, because someone had linked Sean Thomas' "Are atheists mentally ill?" article to my reply.

Without people doing this, it won't work. So, join up, link articles, especially if you suffer SIWOTI syndrome, and use a personal blog to help alleviate this.


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