VisualBubble: Exploring How Reflection-Oriented User Experiences Affect Users’ Awareness of Their Exposure to Misinformation on Social Media

Current solutions addressing misinformation on social media appear to rely on the misconception that misinformation is predominately spread by Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, the proliferation of false news is mainly due to humans. Solutions to curb misinformation should therefore emphasize human behavioral interventions, rather than focus solely on curbing AI bots. In this study, we analyze social media users’ behaviors by means of a user journey. We create VisualBubble, a design probe that encourages reflection-oriented user experiences during news consumption on social media. We test our design probe with 10 users, to determine its effectiveness in increasing users’ critical reflection on their news consumption behaviors. The initial findings show that VisualBubble can contribute to more critical attitudes towards the news that users are exposed to and, therefore, has the potential to mitigate social media misinformation.