What I learned About the Echo Chamber

 When you use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any social media site you have an account and that account logs what you spend time looking at, like, ignore, and click on. After a while, you begin to only see things on those sites that fit within what you have interacted with positively. This creates an echo chamber, and it can be dangerous if left unchecked in media. An echo chamber is a situation where one's beliefs and ideals are constantly being reinforced inside a closed system without any disagreeing opinions. The more technical term is confirmation bias, and with the rise in social media and political polarization the echo chambers have progressively gotten more extreme. 

Social media is one of the biggest culprits in creating echo chambers because of how much time is spent on these sites everyday. By tailoring our news feeds to feature things that are similar to ones we have "liked" and "shared" it keeps people scrolling longer, being fed the same beliefs for extended periods of time. It isn't entirely social media's fault either, as we do this because we like it, it doesn't force us to think about why we believe something or challenges what we believe in. In the presentation in class, the presenter stated that 68% of Americans rely on social media for their main source of news, which is a prime location for echo chambers, as I have already stated. The presenter also stated echo chambers pose a greater threat to younger audiences on social media as they are not educated enough to recognize what is happening and how it can affect them. In addition to younger people, lower-income people are also at risk because it can be difficult to access information outside of their echo chambers. These are not limited to social media, as you could find echo chambers in any type of media. For example one could only watch Fox News, The Daily Wire, or other republican news sources and that person would only see issues through the lens of a republican, and vice versa for democratic sources. 

There is no situation where an echo chamber's benefits outweigh its drawbacks. Political polarization is another drawback that seems to only have amplified in recent years. As social media sites recognize someone is starting to "like" political posts one way or another, it will suggest more and more posts with that same message. This can push people further to the extreme side of whichever political party, and then there is no hope for healthy conversations about politics. While it allows people online to find others that share their beliefs and views of the world, that includes people that pose a danger to society finding others like them and potentially causing harm to a lot of people. For example the far-right social network site, Gab, which has no moderation on what can be said on the site, and has been used by domestic terrorists that have carried out shootings across America in recent years. In addition to radicalization, it creates a closed mindedness in the people in their own echo chambers, and goes against the notion of a marketplace of ideas. 

There is still hope for people to escape these echo chambers. The best way to combat this is to widen the scope of news one consumes. If someone were to read different opinions on a topic it can help them form a more well-rounded opinion of their own. Hearing ideas from outside one's echo chamber can be uncomfortable but is necessary to build a complete opinion on a topic. Another way is to take everything with some skepticism until one can truly verify what they are reading is an objective fact, and not twisted in any way. People fall into these echo chambers because they allow them to feel good about their ideas as they are always reinforced, but unless one seeks out other viewpoints, they can almost never get the full picture.