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Has your Facebook feed become an echo chamber? This app can fix that.

Just 5% of us regularly see views we strongly disagree with on social media. Here's how to change that.

Getting out of your filter bubble can be a useful experience, and thanks to a new app, it's as easy as pressing a button.

"But I don't live in a bubble," you might say. "I listen to a wide range of views." And maybe you'd be right! But a new exercise from the Kind Foundation puts that to the test with their "Pop Your Bubble" campaign and app.

Because as it turns out, just 5% of us regularly see posts on social media that we'd say "differ greatly" from our own worldview. And because of that, most of us aren't seeing the whole picture.


[rebelmouse-image 19526374 dam="1" original_size="750x390" caption="All images from the Kind Foundation/YouTube." expand=1]All images from the Kind Foundation/YouTube.

Social media makes information more readily available than ever before, but it also lets us choose what information we do or do not want to see.

In many ways, this can actually be a good thing — for example, it allows a lonely gay kid in a homophobic household to connect with a community that validates and supports their identity, while filtering out the kinds of anti-gay messages they already hear at home. The unintended side effect of this, however, is the way it can warp our perception of what the world outside is really like or how many people actually feel a certain way on an issue.

It's a phenomenon called the "filter bubble," a term coined in 2011 by Upworthy CEO Eli Pariser, and describes a distorted view of the world resulting from this über-personalized experience. Partially the result of our own choices and partially the result of social media algorithms, we all exist in our own filter bubbles that feed us information that fits our existing world views without challenging them too much.

The Pop Your Bubble app scans your Facebook profile for Likes, shares, and friends to get a sense of who you are and what sort of news you're regularly exposed to — then it offers up radical change.

The app offers you a slew of suggestions of people to follow that will add some ideological diversity to your news feed.

The question is: Are you up to the challenge?

More than half of all adults in a survey by the Morning Consult and the Kind Foundation said this is something they'd be interested in trying out. And, of course, if it's not working out for you or taking too much of a personal and emotional toll on your well-being, it's easy to unfollow any of the new additions to your newsfeed.

Getting outside our bubbles can help make us better, more effective and persuasive participants in political conversation. Even better, it can make us better, more empathetic people.

You won't agree with everything you see in your new post-bubble feed, and that's the whole point. And you certainly don't need to engage with every post you disagree with (in fact, maybe it's best to start just by listening and following the conversation).

Whether you're progressive, conservative, moderate, or something else entirely, it's a good idea to — at least occasionally — see what others are saying about the latest hot topic in politics, even if just to remind yourself that not everyone thinks the same way you do.

Of course, it's not anyone's responsibility to expose themselves to views they find abhorrent, or views that are dehumanizing or degrading, nor is it to suggest that those other views are necessarily right or worth giving equal consideration to. But for those who are interested in stepping outside the filter bubble, this can be a really useful tool worth giving a try.

Learn more about the Pop Your Bubble app on its website, and check out the cool video below from the Kind Foundation about the project.

Teacher starts period in front of class, turns into a lesson

Teachers are almost always teaching even when it's not in their lesson plan.

Those that were born to be teachers find teachable moments everywhere and one woman found herself in one of those moments. Though this one was likely just a bit more personal than she probably would've liked.

Emily Elizabeth posted a TikTok video about how she found herself in a predicament in front of her classroom full of 10 and 11-year-old kids. The teacher explained that she was noticing a lot of commotion and whispering among the little girls in her class while she was wearing white pants. After reminding the girls to stay on task, the whispering continued, prompting Emily to be more direct.

That's when one of the girls asked to speak with her privately dropping the bomb that no one that gets periods wants to hear in public.

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We can all get a little fascinated by doppelgängers and it's fun to find people who look alike. But what do you do when your baby girl looks uncannily like a famous middle-aged man?

Mom Dani Grier Mulvenna shared a photo of her infant daughter Cora side by side with a photo of Woody Harrelson on Twitter, with the caption "Ok but how does our daughter look like Woody Harrelson." The resemblance truly is remarkable, and the tweet quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of likes, shares and replies.

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Family

Woman who was pressured to quit her job to raise stepdaughter's baby makes a bold decision

This sparked an important conversation about family responsibility.

via Pixabay

A middle-aged woman holding a baby.

A story that recently went viral on Reddit’s AITA forum asks an important question: What is a parent’s role in taking care of their grandchildren? The story is even further complicated because the woman at the center of the controversy is a stepparent.

The woman, 38, met her husband Sam, 47, ten years ago, when his daughter, Leah, 25, was 15. Five years ago, the couple got married after Leah had moved out to go to college.

Leah’s mom passed away when she was 10.

Last year, Leah became pregnant, and she wanted to keep the baby, but her boyfriend didn’t. After the disagreement, the boyfriend broke up with her. This forced Leah to move back home because she couldn’t afford to be a single parent and live alone on a teacher’s salary.

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Two kids wearing backpacks walk to school together.

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Race & Ethnicity

Model tearfully expresses need for Black makeup artists after photoshoot disaster

"You guys knew what I looked like before I came, so rude. Why am I at Sephora doing my own makeup?"

Model tearfully expresses need for Black makeup artist

Modeling isn't always as glamorous as it looks.

Sure you get to wear fun clothes, have crazy stuff done to your hair and get paid for having people take pictures of you. But on the flip side, you have multiple people critiquing your body and how clothes fit you to your face. Gaining or losing a few pounds can be a contract breaker leaving you looking for work.

Some models have an extra layer to worry about when it comes to landing the right jobs - makeup. Megan Milan recently shared her experience during New York Fashion Week, a high profile week of fashion shows where celebrities flock to get first looks at designer collections. The model was getting ready for a photoshoot before a show later that night when the makeup artist didn't have the correct shade of makeup.

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