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 Don’t create your own echo chamber. Social networking sites and other tools make it easy to create your own custom news channel, ensuring that you see stories from sources you like, about subjects that interest you. Important stories can easily slip past you, and your understanding of political matters will suffer. But if you follow only the political sources you like, that will get you in trouble, too. So open yourself up to alternative sources of news and opinions that you might find offensive or wrong. If what’s showing up in your news feed does not challenge your ideas and beliefs from time to time, consider whether you’ve been censoring news that you don’t like. Make sure you’re getting all sides of the story, not just the one that you want to hear.¹²

 Don’t trust your browser. It’s not just your self-selected social media feeds that are shaping your information diet: every link you click and word you search is fed into complex algorithms that tailor your results into a custom feed of “things you might like.” Just as Amazon knows what items to suggest on your personal Amazon front page based on your browsing and purchase history, your Google results are similarly parsed and packaged for your viewing pleasure. Two people searching on a particular topic may get very different results.¹³ Search around—don’t just click on the first links offered to you.

 Separate truth from truthiness. Some of the most compelling (and viral) political material on the Internet comes from people who are intent on selling you on their narrative. Their arguments may be valid, and their evidence may be strong—but bear in mind that an opinion piece is different from a statement of fact. Take care to seek out news sources that strive for objectivity and don’t have an ax to grind (such as the Associated Press or the news pages of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, or Politico) alongside those that offer analysis and argument.

In Your Own Words

Describe the enduring tension in the United States between self-interested human nature and public-spirited government and the way that has been shaped in a mediated world.