Ideological Isolation in Online Social Networks: A Survey of Computational Definitions, Metrics, and Mitigation Strategies
Date
Authors
Wang, Xiaodan
Liu, Yanbin
Wu, Shiqing
Zhao, Ziying
Hu, Yuxuan
Li, Weihua
Bai, Quan
Supervisor
Item type
Technical report
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Publisher
arXiv
Abstract
The proliferation of online social networks has significantly reshaped the way individuals access and engage with information. While these platforms offer unprecedented connectivity, they may foster environments where users are increasingly exposed to homogeneous content and like-minded interactions. Such dynamics are associated with selective exposure and the emergence of filter bubbles, echo chambers, tunnel vision, and polarization, which together can contribute to ideological isolation and raise concerns about information diversity and public discourse. This survey provides a comprehensive computational review of existing studies that define, analyze, quantify, and mitigate ideological isolation in online social networks. We examine the mechanisms underlying content personalization, user behavior patterns, and network structures that reinforce content-exposure concentration and narrowing dynamics. This paper also systematically reviews methodological approaches for detecting and measuring these isolation-related phenomena, covering network-, content-, and behavior-based metrics. We further organize computational mitigation strategies, including network-topological interventions and recommendation-level controls, and discuss their trade-offs and deployment considerations. By integrating definitions, metrics, and interventions across structural/topological, content-based, interactional, and cognitive isolation, this survey provides a unified computational framework. It serves as a reference for understanding and addressing the key challenges and opportunities in promoting information diversity and reducing ideological fragmentation in the digital age.Description
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Source
Wang, X., Liu, Y., Wu, S., Zhao, Z., Hu, Y., Li, W., & Bai, Q. (2026). Ideological isolation in online social networks: A survey of computational definitions, metrics, and mitigation strategies (arXiv:2601.07884v1). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.07884