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The authors contend that while digital environments can stimulate the interest of groups of students and amateurs in scientific and political topics, the diffusion of false, poor, and un-validated data through digital media contributes to the formation of bubbles of shallow understanding in the digitally informed public. In brief, the present article is a philosophical research that applies the virtual niche construction theory to the cognitive behavior of internet users, as it is described by the current psychological, sociological, and anthropological literature.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4018\/ijt.2018010104","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,2,1]],"date-time":"2018-02-01T10:29:11Z","timestamp":1517480951000},"page":"37-50","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["The Diffusion of Ignorance in On-Line Communities"],"prefix":"10.4018","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Selene","family":"Arfini","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Philosophy, Education and Economical-quantitative Sciences, University of Chieti and Pescara, Chieti, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tommaso","family":"Bertolotti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Humanities, Philosophy Section, and Computational Philosophy Lab, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lorenzo","family":"Magnani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Humanities, Philosophy Section, and Computational Philosophy Lab., University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"2432","reference":[{"key":"IJT.2018010104-0"},{"key":"IJT.2018010104-1","article-title":"Cyber-bullies as cyborg-bullies.","author":"T.Bertolotti","journal-title":"International Journal of Technoethics"},{"key":"IJT.2018010104-2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/s40493-014-0012-y"},{"key":"IJT.2018010104-3","first-page":"15","article-title":"Blogs, Twitter, and breaking news: The produsage of citizen journalism","author":"A.Bruns","year":"2012","journal-title":"Producing theory in a digital world: The intersection of audiences and production in contemporary theory"},{"key":"IJT.2018010104-4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"255","DOI":"10.1387\/theoria.561","article-title":"World, Niche and Super-Niche: How language makes minds matter more.","volume":"54","author":"A.Clark","year":"2005","journal-title":"Theoria"},{"key":"IJT.2018010104-5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/03085147.2011.637331"},{"key":"IJT.2018010104-6","first-page":"41","article-title":"Traditional news outlets turn to social networking web sites in an effort to build their online audiences.","volume":"1","author":"A.Emmett","year":"2008","journal-title":"American Journalism Review"},{"key":"IJT.2018010104-7","author":"J. 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