Does Algorithmic Awareness Inculcate Mindful News Consumption in Social Media?

Social media curation algorithms can raise problems in terms of distortion of reality and mindless news consumption behaviors. This paper proposes algorithmic awareness as a plausible tool towards instilling mindful news consumption on social media platforms. Specifically, the paper investigates the effects of an Algorithmic Awareness (AA) intervention on 1) users perceived awareness about algorithmic curation and filter bubble effect and 2) news consumption behaviors in social media platforms. Based on concepts from information processing and mindfulness, we propose that imparting algorithmic awareness can coerce social media users to make more mindful decisions about whether to believe news posts and perform activities that contribute to their spread (e.g., read, share, fact check, customizing feed). To this end, we design an explanation-based intervention and propose to conduct a between subject’s online experiment