Why social media shows exciting moments ^{CEFR B2}

Researchers at Virginia Tech, led by Alice Jang and Viswanath Venkatesh of the Pamplin College of Business, studied why social media feeds often highlight exciting, unusual events instead of ordinary life. Their paper in MIS Quarterly explains a new concept called "rareness bias diffusion": rare or unique content, once frequently observed, is perceived as more common and prompts users to share similar items, which amplifies its spread.

To explore this effect, the team ran six experiments. In one series of tests, participants read fictional scenarios set in a dystopian city attacked by various monsters; some scenarios were shown more often than others. Surprisingly, participants tended to share the scenario they had seen least. The researchers also built a simulated mock network of thousands of social media users and unique content to examine how these biases propagate at scale.

The findings show that social media distortion is not caused only by algorithms. Ordinary human biases and the desire for novelty interact with platform dynamics so that rare information spreads widely, making the unusual look common and the everyday disappear. Jang says, "It makes people feel like their lives are falling short, when in reality, everyone is mostly doing mundane things—they just only post the exciting parts." She adds that the bias "is impossible to fix." Venkatesh suggests that awareness—that feeds are others' highlight reels—may reduce negative effects. The researchers conclude the responsibility to reduce distortion ultimately falls on users.