--- title: Algorithms, bubbles and false balance — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Algorithms, bubbles and false balance», a lesson of the politics course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: An app's feed is chosen by an algorithm, a set of rules a computer follows: it notices what you watch and for how long, then shows --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Politics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/) / Algorithms, bubbles and false balance # Algorithms, bubbles and false balance Lesson 34 of the politics course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/0/) — An app's feed is chosen by an algorithm, a set of rules a computer follows: it notices what you watch and for how long, then shows you more of the same. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/1/) — It is like a dinner lady who sees you take chips once and from then on piles only chips on your plate: she is not reading your mind, she is counting what you took, and soon you forget other food exists. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/2/) — When your feed and friends all agree with you, it can feel as if everyone does; that is a bubble, or echo chamber, and posts that make people angry spread fastest because angry people comment. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/3/) — TV can mislead in the opposite way: putting one scientist and one doubter side by side can make a question look 50-50 when the experts mostly agree; that is false balance. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/4/) — You can step out of the bubble: follow some people you disagree with, read news from other places, and notice when your feed keeps getting stranger. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/5/) — An algorithm is a set of rules a computer follows; feeds use it to choose what to show next from what you watched and clicked. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/6/) — When you only hear opinions like your own, you are in an echo chamber or filter bubble, and it can feel as if everyone agrees with you. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/7/) — Researchers disagree about how strong bubbles are, and many people still meet other views at school, at work and in their families. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/8/) — Posts that make people angry get many comments and shares, so apps show them to more people; posts made to anger you on purpose are called rage bait. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/9/) — False balance means showing two sides as equal when the experts are not split; most climate scientists agree the Earth is warming because of people. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/10/) — Following someone you disagree with lets you hear what they really say, not what others say they say. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/11/) — A rabbit hole is going deeper into one strange topic, and researchers argue about how often feeds lead people there. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/12/) — Each person's feed is made for them, so two people can see very different things about the same news. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/13/) — Liking or sharing tells the algorithm to show more and tells friends you agree; you can like a creator without sharing everything they post. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/14/) — "Nobody is talking about this!" is a hook to make you feel you found a secret, even when millions have already watched. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/15/) — Ways to break a bubble include reading different outlets, news from another country, and the other side's best argument. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/34-algorithms-bubbles-and-false-balance/16/) — Words in this lesson: "it's giving" means "it looks like" or "it feels like"; "highkey" means openly or very; "fixin' to" in the US South means about to; "gurt" in the West Country means big. - ← previous: [Cherry-picked clips and clickbait headlines](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/33-cherry-picked-clips-and-clickbait/) - next →: [How to check: who, how, who else](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/35-how-to-check-who-how-who-else/) - ↑ back to [Politics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/)