Too many times in the halls of Granite Bay High School, I have heard “So-and-So’s belief is stupid because of __”.
During election week, it was not uncommon to hear snippets of passionate political discussions come in and out of focus. Political tension has increased because of Granite Bay High School’s location. While young people have a gender-based political rift within themselves, Granite Bay as a whole is very conservative. In fact, according to the Placer County Registration Statistics as of September 2024, 40.81% of Placer County residents are registered Republicans while 31.6% of residents are registered Democrats. However, Granite Bay is located in a state where the number of registered Democrats (46.2%) outweighs the number of registered Republicans (24.7%): California. These extremism layers provide an interesting mix of perspectives and people, therefore, even more contrasting beliefs.
“The growing divide between the youth like today’s women are the most liberal people in history and today’s young men are becoming more conservative,” Solomon Auerbach, president of the Granite Bay Conservative’s Club, said.
This is further amplified by social media algorithms, which provide us with information that strictly aligns with our beliefs and drives a bigger rift through our society. Younger people are the most prevalent users of these platforms, leaving the newer generations vulnerable to these programs.
“I think it’s kind of the same thing that happened to our parents on FaceBook, where we started believing everything we saw without giving it a better inlook,” Atlas McCord, a sophomore at Granite Bay High School, said.
The problem with social media is that, instead of creating your own beliefs, it forces you to regurgitate the information you’ve been strategically “fed” by the algorithms. These large-scale corporations just tell users what they want to hear: only opinions aligning with their views.
To put this to the test, I searched “Trump” in Google, referring to the 45th and 47th President of the United States, both signed in and out of my personal Google account. Please note that I have used this Google account to search for political questions, creating Google’s image of my political views. On the left are the results when signed into my account, and on the right are the results when signed out.
The results were different in headlines from different news sources. When signed into my account, my feed presents me with traditionally left-leaning media. When not signed into my account, the algorithm gives the most recent and popular news with more of a central ideology.
Now, one may say that this algorithm doesn’t necessarily matter so much: that the results on the left are still relevant and modern news sources. While I would state them to be correct, over time these biases build up to shape the way we view the truth. Additionally, even though the stations on the left are left-leaning, the algorithm does not take into account my other beliefs that happen to be a bit more right-leaning. As an independent and objective journalist, I take both sides into account and have opinions on both sides of the spectrum; right and left alike. However, rather than amplifying my overall belief system as a person, Google affiliates me with a political party, slaps a label, on me, and continues to give me information that supports their perceived view of me.
This gives users a false sense of choice with their beliefs, believing that they have been presented with enough information to curate a structured and well-supported opinion when they’ve just been given one side to the story.
“Across the board people see social media as being positive in their engagement, informing them about the political world, and engaging in political conversations,” Dr. Trey Ornoff, a political professor at Oklahoma Christian University, said. “The primary reason for this is people view social media as more real than other kinds of interactions via media. It leads to an assumption of deeper levels of understanding.”
Because of these rifts created in our society, the bridge to cross over to the other side of the spectrum continues to become lengthened. And for those on the bridge-which is a lot of youth-; there’s a lot of pressuring to choose a side. So with only two ways to go, these two political parties will continue to discredit and deny anything the other side has to say; leading us all into the abyss of misinformation and falsity.
“Social media pulls people down rabbit holes and leads to an exclusion of voices. The algorithms that drive what you see are all based on engagement. So getting you riled up or down makes these echo chambers. Social media is not designed to foster critical thinking or a wide range of voices, it is designed to make money via a lot of eyeballs.” Ornoff said.
While politics is an accurate representation of the polarized social climate we live in today, these principles apply to an array of different types of beliefs: Religious, philosophical, and even behavioral. With these large corporations putting us against one another, we all must question our own beliefs and what we’ve known to be true; especially as it is proven that even the most reliable information source on the planet, Google, has failed society as a truly genuine source.
With this problem becoming increasingly prevalent and larger today; it becomes clear that some change is needed in our society. So, before you judge somebody else, ask yourself:
- Where did this belief come from? Evidence, experience, or something I was taught?
- What might someone with an opposing belief believe, and why?
- What evidence would make me reconsider this belief?
- Can I name any specifically named scientific studies or evidence that backs up both sides of the argument?
- Is this belief consistent with my other values and principles?
- Could cultural, social, or personal biases be influencing this belief?
- Am I afraid to challenge this belief, and if so, why?
- Do I hold a stereotype over those that have an opposing belief? How can I separate the belief from the person holding it?
- Do I get defensive when somebody else questions my beliefs? If, so, why? How will I grow as a person by questioning this belief?
