Diving Down the Cat Hole

Why we keep diving deeper into the world of online provocations—and what cats have to do with it

Welcome to the “Cat Hole”—the digital version of the rabbit hole from Alice in Wonderland. Just as Alice spirals deeper and deeper into a fantasy world, today’s algorithms pull people on the internet into their very own digital tunnels: they show us posts, videos or news that correspond to our preferences. Especially content that sparks strong emotions like anger or outrage—often based on lies and fakes—gets plenty of shares and likes. This ensures that our feeds are increasingly flooded with provocations. Algorithms and emotions mutually reinforce each other: the more often a lie appears online and gets shared, the more believable it seems. Once someone has fallen into the Cat Hole, they soon see the same upsetting stories everywhere, whether they are true or false. Thus the line between truth and deception becomes increasingly blurred in the digital world. That’s why it is even more important to remain critical, check facts and always remember to come back up from our own digital tunnels.

Reinforced with algorithms!