Fake news aside, Facebook can help puncture our political “bubbles” - Vox

as we jump to fix the fake news problem, we may end up destroying our best hope to break through our echo chambers... those bubbles, it turns out, are far from airtight... 15-25 percent of the people we connect to on social media, on average, come from across the political divide... the level of diversity we come across in real life
homophily is weaker among our more distant connections... Facebook ... good at facilitating connections with our second- and third-tier friends... increase the odds ... that we share our views with them... our instinct to avoid conflict keep us from bringing up politics at the dinner table ... those rules of decorum get tossed out online...
News aggregators and search sites had the best bubble-bursting record... Social media trailed ... still, people who relied on social media for news got more diverse and challenging information than did the people who navigated directly to their favorite news sites... users whose online friend circles included at least 20 percent who disagreed with them became more centrist over time
Not all dialogue is productive ... Without a foundation of respect... discussion with a political opponent may make us dig our heels in... the true issue with social media ... it exposes us to the worst in political dialogue...
we should be careful not to accidentally dismantle the bridge social media offers... the primary risk of “fake story” fixes ... they will be perceived as biased ... making users on the extremes flee the network ... effectively sealing themselves off from opposing viewpoints