Bias and Learning in the Digital Culture

With one device, we can go from watching a documentary on fast food in America to listening to NPR to reading the Sunday morning edition of The Wall Street Journal. The computer and the Internet have caused the convergence of every major form of media. Now, film, television, radio, and books have all found themselves available on the Internet for the easy access of billions of people all across the world. No one doubts the wonders of the computer as a life-changing piece of technology since its introduction just a few decades ago. Because of the expansion of the computer as a multi-dimensional tool, we view it as a means of obtaining more resources and learning more information than ever before. Although it’s great that we now have the capability of exploring billions of stores of information, it doesn’t mean that all that is available for us is true or without a substantial amount of bias. Today more than ever, we have images and texts flashed before us to attempt to shove us in one direction and pull away from another. Even though it’s inevitable that there will be bias in almost everything we see and hear, it doesn’t mean that we’re sponges ready to soak anything in. It’s our responsibility in this hectic and bustling digital culture to understand that bias is and will always be prevalent but we have to look through it to obtain the truth and maintain our values.

            Although most people are aware of media bias, it’s hard to grasp just how much it extends. If we look at texts and images depicted of countries and people from around the world, we only see a very narrow view of the world and its values. For example, when I think of the word “Africa” I immediately think of poverty, wild life, and open lands. I rarely see images of something like a businessman working at his office in Nairobi as opposed to seeing a more common image like an emaciated child living in a dilapidated house. To find out what other Americans thought, I typed in “Africa” into Google Images to see that most of the pictures consisted of huts, elephants, wild plains, and various African peoples wearing traditional clothing, or basically a number of the things that I initially thought of too. Although these are elements of the culture, it is by no means a comprehensive view of African countries and its peoples’ lives. In fact, to debunk the idea of extreme poverty present in all parts of Africa, recent statistics and sources show that trade between Africa and the world has increased 200% in 2011 and within the next five years, Africa as a continent will have the fastest growing economy of any continent. 

A typical image when "Africa" is typed into Google Images

Nairobi and its growth

So why is it that with all of our millions of resources on the Internet to learn and expand, we still have these narrow views and ideas? Is the information present inaccurate and slanted or are our minds not searching for the right material? It seems like it’s a little of both. The information that we’re presented with is definitely skewed because as Americans, we’re going to have the American point of view on a number of issues. Although this is by no means intentional, it is nonetheless harmful to people who don’t strive to understand other aspects of an issue. Therefore, the problem of learning in the digital culture occurs when because of the numerous biases present, we don’t attempt to understand anything else except for our own biases.

It’s apparent that in our culture, we do have certain stereotypes against other people from around the world based on a skewed depiction. However, what stereotypes exist in the world that badly reflects on us as Americans? This past summer, for the first time, I got to experience a life outside of America and live in Korea to visit my relatives. Not only was the culture itself interesting but also their views on Americans and the American way of life. In a conversation with my thirty year-old cousin about life in America, she asked me questions like, is it safe to go outside at night? Do most people have guns? Are there gangs? Are your friends rich? Is everyone overweight? I knew that the image of the overweight, loudmouthed, and aggressive American existed but I had no idea that it would be something that a large group of people actually believed in. It turns out that this is an image that some Koreans do hold true for Americans as I went from one relative’s house to another.

Thomas Rude's American Standard

Evidently, our portrayal as Americans isn’t any better than what we think of other cultures. As referenced above, we have an easy access to the world with the help of the computer. With a few keystrokes into a search engine, we can learn about almost any topic that exists. Though this almost seems like a panacea to helping those with limited educations, our minds are still limited regardless of the fact that we have more information available to us than ever before. To truly take advantage of our current technological advancements, we not only have to surround ourselves with information but delve through it and find what is real or else this digital culture will be gone to waste.