With the passing of the ages into one of new technologies has brought the boons of cellular devices and the highest human interconnections in centuries, it has likewise brought the largest disconnections: echo chambers.
An echo chamber is an environment or group in which one encounters thoughts or opinions that echo their own. They may be as apparent as a group chat of friends that only share the same opinion on a subject as you do or as subliminal as your for you page.
Although found in any social setting, they have particularly blown up alongside the expansion of technology in the twenty-first century with the use of algorithms.
It’s commonly known that social media giants such as TikTok, Instagram, and SnapChat are of course no doubt collecting data, but what is this data used for? Algorithms. Using your preferences and likes, they create advanced programs which recommend content to cater personally to you. While this may be a perceived benefit it creates an echochamber.
Now, why are echo chambers harmful exactly? A plethora of reasons, of which this article covers only a few.
To start off, echo chambers strongly reinforce beliefs. While this can be applied to both good and bad ideals, it can quickly lead to radicalization of those ideals, which is bad both ways.
When you’re stuck in an echo chamber, you never get any diverse opinions to challenge your own, only ones to support it. This can quickly lead to the conceptualization that you have the only correct opinion, and nobody else does (although not everyone may not come to this point). This creates a toxic intolerance for others of differing opinions and a hostile attitude to those that do, leading to radical enforcement of your belief.
Building upon this, echo chambers decrease your diversity of thought. When you’re locked into a certain way of thinking, it’s rare to ever come up with ideals that are not supported by your ideals. This can lead to your loss of identity as an individual as you no longer reflect your own ideals but rather that of your echo chamber, and loss of scope in your world view.
With these two negatives combined, it leads to small things being able to snowball into widespread conflict, from person-to-person all the way to the national level, such as with modern extremist politics.
While sometimes echo chambers are unavoidable or benign, it’s still important to recognize whenever you’re in one to avoid being too heavily influenced. Whether it’s something as minor as your for you page on social media or as large as the news channel you watch, echo chambers can majorly affect your thinking and perspective on their world.
Next time you’re scrolling through your for you page, just remember the impact on how the media you consume can consume you.
