Sometimes there’s nothing better than shouting into the void and getting your own opinions pinged right back to you. Like a hot bowl of macaroni and cheese, or a flannel blanket and a good documentary, echo chambers can be reassuring and comforting, but too much of a good thing will inevitably turn bad.
Pew Research found that “about six-in-ten Web-using Millennials (61%) reported getting political news on Facebook.” The problem here is that Facebook uses a complex, ever-changing algorithm that decides for its one billion users what they see each time they log in. These posts are calculated based on who you’re friends with, what pages you like, what groups you belong to, etc. Facebook displays what the algorithm predicts you will want to see and virtually nothing else. Welcome to your personalized echo chamber.
Not sure if you have tunnel vision? Check the red flags below.
Signs you’re living in an echo chamber:
- Your primary source of news is an obviously biased site.
- You refuse to converse with people whose opinions differ from your own.
- When you and your friends talk about politics it turns into a frenzied screaming match — even when you agree on everything.
- You don’t fact-check stories if they reinforce your beliefs.
It can be argued that echo chambers helped Donald Trump get elected. They allow fake news stories written by broke college graduates to fester and get shared thousands of times,. If something looks reputable and reinforces your ideologies, chances are you won’t want to fact-check it and burst your own bubble.
As Mostafa M. El-Bermawy argues in his piece for Wired, our Facebook feeds alienate us from people who hold different opinions from our own, which explains the gap in understanding of political, religious and social differences in real life interactions. The only way to bridge the divide is to start public discourse that includes everyone, even if you don’t agree with them. It’s impossible to make any meaningful change in attitude or policy if even one party is excluded.
So please, follow Donald Trump on Twitter. Like some conservative pages on Facebook. It won’t kill you, and your friends won’t hate you for it.
Following Trump doesn’t mean you support him, it means you’re watching him. Holding powerful people accountable for their words and actions is one of the only ways we will be able to fight them these next four years. Keep track of what they’re saying and be aware of the lies that are being shared.
You cannot fight an enemy you can’t see.
