An Empirical Research On The Information Cocoons In The Mobile Social Age

Cass R.Sunstein reckons that we can easily be trapped in a so-called “information cocoons”,if we only choose to receive the information that we fancy or we want to know.Selective exposure is not something new,but the internet age is making this phenomenon become more outstanding.People always want their cognitions to stay balance,but once they meet something going against their original cognition,they may feel mentally disharmonious.This is the “cognitive dissonance theory” proposed by Leon Festinger.In Wechat,Public Account Subscriptions and the Moments entitle us with the right to select information,but are “information cocoons” existing? And what might be the factors contributing to its existence? Following these questions,this paper does an empirical research on the basis of study of the previous related theory and literature,and collected primary sources by questionnaire and interview.Research shows that “information cocoons” phenomenon does exist among Wechat users,and there are two main factors that contribute to its existence——the alternative sources of information and the gender of users.Based on the above results,users should acknowledge the factors contributing to the “information cocoons” and reasonably expand its access to getting information in case of being trapped in the “information cocoons”.