Now that you’re all caught up on our posts about The Filter Bubble and Fake News, you’ve got enough information to fully appreciate the power of the Echo Chamber.
At this point, the echo chamber may come as no surprise; as we’re sure Spock would agree, it’s logical. If you’re friends with like-minded people on social media, and you read articles that only support your own ideologies of right and wrong, and you don’t fact check, you will quickly find yourself living in a world online that echoes your own ideas and beliefs right back to you. The internet makes it so easy to get stuck! Is that Facebook friend annoying you by posts memes that make you see red? Unfriend at the click of a button. Can’t stand to look at another picture of your cousin’s kid on Instagram? Gone! Who even knew you can click on Twitter hashtags and find out what the world is talking about?
We love our echo chamber! It builds up our confidence because, time and time again, we are shown that we are right, and that we are the majority. That feels so good! We fought so hard and so long to feel comfortable with who we are and with our convictions, and FINALLY, we are vindicated!
Here’s why this is concept is unnerving: In a study on American social media habits released mid-2016, the Pew Research Center reported that 62% of adults in the U.S. get their news from social media. And of that 62%, 18% of them do so often. That’s a majority of people relying on their echo chamber to tell them what’s good in the world, what’s going on in the world, and what’s new whether in entertainment, politics, crime, scientific research – anything. One study is not a be-all-end-all but it is revealing. There are a lot of people cozied up within their comfort zone.
What do we use news media for? Education and entertainment. Much like a blog post. The difference with news media is that it’s non-partisan. Supposed to be, anyway. Ideally, a traditional news article will provide you with just the facts, ma’am, allowing the reader to form their own opinion. But it’s a big, wide world out there. If you’ve got articles from reputable news sources showing up in your feed you might be tricked into thinking that your echo chamber is a diverse one. Take another look: Are you reading an op-ed? Does this newspaper have a political slant (insider note: most do)? Is there a This Side article and a That Side article? You don’t have the full story until you look around.
The most important factor to pay attention to in your echo chamber is you. As you know from the filter bubble, algorithms curate a lot of the content you see, but doesn’t stop you from doing a little investigation on your own – you’re the only one who can stop you from doing that. But how? How do we break free of the filter bubble? How do we fact check? How do we diversify our information intake? How do we even make time for that? What will we really get from another perspective? Those answers and more coming your way soon!
