How does media bias apply to you? Many of us in this digital age consider ourselves to be well informed on current events and the background information about them. After all, we are flooded with information since we have the Internet -- full of online news reports and pop culture highlights -- right at our fingertips. What many of us fail to realize, though, is this also makes it easier than ever to see only what we want to see. This can make the information that we let in more one-sided than we would like to realize.

So many people stick by what they consider their well-informed personal opinion on relevant issues in society yet really don't know as much as they think they do. So, you don't like when people oppose the presidential candidate whom you favor? You can find information supporting your candidate of choice. You can also weed out information that opposes your favorite presidential candidate. You can also choose to not research the opposing candidate and what they might truly stand for, and never be fully informed. Depending on the news outlets you choose to follow, you can easily choose a 'side' to follow on issues and never get the full story. Engaging in these types of behaviors is a form of "confirmatory bias," which basically means you tend to search out information to support your preconceived opinions and ideas.

Politics is an easy example of mainstream media bias, but we do this with all kinds of topics. You're convinced that the police are never unjustly violent to people with less authority than them? Well, you can follow sources that post "edited" clips of people violently resisting and mistreating police, and vice versa. For every side there is to an issue, there is another way in which people can form a biased opinion. The mainstream media makes it so easy to be uninformed, by almost always choosing a side in issues and giving light to articles, videos, and people, involved with that side. Nothing is wrong with having an opinion or ultimately choosing a side that you think is more correct. But, when you haven't done research on the other side, you're simply giving in to confirmatory bias.

How can you combat confirmatory bias, you ask? Well, it can be more simple than you might think. Do comprehensive research about things -- especially the things you have strong opinions on. Is there a trending news story that makes a strong claim? Go look up information from several sources and from both "sides" to be better informed. Don't be one of those people who is so set in their preconceptions about everything that they never give other points of view a chance. Being ignorant is a choice. Being informed is a choice. Be proactive, and make sure you are informed on important issues!