In the digital realm where algorithms reign supreme, Alex Krause Matlack, M.S. and Bryan Boots, Ph.D. from the UMKC Henry W. Bloch School of Management aim to create a tool that disrupts the social media landscape, thanks to a $200,000 grant from the Internet Society Foundation.

Social media is a double-edged sword. It has the power to bring people together and the power to keep people together in echo chambers. These digital environments expose users to information that reinforces their pre-existing views, effectively trapping people in an algorithmic cycle that filters out any opposing information.

“We're doing this to ensure that we ‘build the right tool’, not just ‘build the tool right.’” — Bryan Boots

 

Thanks to Matlack, Boots and their collaborators, this problem may have a solution.

“We aim to create a free, open-source tool that will empower everyday users of social media to increase the diversity of information and posts in their social media feed,” Boots said.

Matlack and Boots are in the research phase of their grant, working on several smaller projects aimed at helping them learn how and why people use social media.

“We're doing this to ensure that we ‘build the right tool,’ not just ‘build the tool right,’” Boots said.

Matlack and Boots were also awarded additional funding from the Bloch School to participate in the faculty exchange program between UMKC and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa. This opportunity allowed them to collaborate with Oghenerhe G. Salubi from the Department of Library and Information Science at UWC.

“This has allowed us to broaden our research to better understand how online social network usage is in Africa, particularly, South Africa,” Matlack said. 

As Matlack and Boots near the development phase of their grant, the pair hopes their work will initiate broader and continuous research efforts that examine the effects of the internet and social media on society.

The Internet Society Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation with a mission to promote the development and accessibility of the internet globally by funding initiatives with a similar focus.