In 2017, Molly Russell a 14-year old girl took her own life. The court, in a global first, cited the social media algorithm as the main culprit. Her father said that these websites “pushed her into a rabbit hole of depressive content”, as the two sites’ artificial-intelligence algorithms directed a continual stream of dark and hopeless content to her feed and in-box.

Social media is a place where we generally like what we see and see what we like. We may not be aware of it but, our feeds are a personalized e-comfort zone. We all live in our own bubbles where we collect, read and share information from sources that have similar viewpoint as our own. This is called confirmation bias, which is the tendency to favor information that reinforces existing beliefs. This is a natural human tendency but where it gets dangerous is, over time, algorithms turn slight preferences into a polarized environment in which we never come across any views and voices that challenge our own thinking. This creates a “bubble” of biased and divisive views and leads to radicalization. These echo chambers in their purest form are the most personalized and concentrated form of media distribution.

Ever-so-often, the algorithm leaps at any moment of curiosity and uses it to feed you more and more of similar content, regardless of its context or extremism. My project is a work that sheds some light on the same. It revolves around a controversial personality, initially having watched a video or two about him, I was soon found stormed with content only perpetuating his beliefs and viewpoint. Part of it also has to do with the controversial nature of his views on topics like feminism, racism, body shaming and toxic masculinity, which taps into the curious tendencies of humans to “click” on this content, which in turn feeds the algorithm and increases the virality of these posts/stories. I found myself in this echo chamber that I did not want to be a part of, continuously pushed towards his ideologies, therefore I decided to document all the suggested content that I was recommended. The first video, is a compilation of this content arranged in a format to reference an echo chamber, and the second video represents placing myself into this echo chamber. Both the videos end with the amalgamation of the virtual world I was being forced into with my own reality.