Practical Dilemmas and Optimization Directions of Social Media Technology Communication from the Perspective of Cognitive Psychology

Authors

  • Yi Qian Faculty of Arts, the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC3051, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54097/k26k2431

Keywords:

Cognitive Psychology, Social Media, Algorithmic Recommendation, Information Cocoon, Cognitive Load, Communication Optimization

Abstract

Social media technology is widely diffused and is transforming the cognitive ecology of information delivery. Algorithmic suggestions, emotive computing and multimodal symbolic systems have changed the mechanisms of users' attention allocation and information filtering at the level of cognitive processing. However, the empowerment of technology has also brought a series of cognitive dilemmas: algorithms are constantly pushing homogeneous content, trapping users in self-reinforcing information cocoons and limiting their information horizons while polarising their views; the human brain is naturally inclined to emotional information, and social media amplifies this tendency, allowing emotional content to consistently dominate in dissemination; information overload prompts the brain to shift from deep thinking to a shallow cognitive mode of frequent attention diversion, inducing widespread cognitive fatigue. The article starts from the basic cognitive laws of information processing, analyses the internal mechanisms of social media dissemination dilemmas, and explores the optimisation direction with emphasis on the reconstruction of cognitive autonomy, including the cognitive ethical adjustment of algorithms, the cultivation of users' cognitive defence capabilities, and the multi-dimensional collaborative governance. The paper argues that the answer to solving the conundrum is not the denial of technology, but the re-establishment of human cognitive agency during technological iteration.

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References

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Published

13-10-2026

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Articles