Are You Stuck in an Informational Echo Chamber?
You’re getting too comfy in the cozy corner of your subreddit!
These days, the internet is full of echo chambers. It’s easy to go down a rabbit hole and find a group of like-minded individuals who form a community where only a single point of view is permitted. Any opposing viewpoint is downvoted to oblivion, and your ideas are further hardened in your brain. This echo chamber effect can have harmful consequences. It can make you more resistant to new information and less able to think critically about the ideas you encounter. Echo chambers can also lead to people forming negative impressions of people who hold different viewpoints. When we only encounter people who share our beliefs, it’s easy to forget that there are decent, reasonable people out there who happen to disagree with us on some issues.
It’s effortless to get lost in a sea of voices all vying for attention on the internet. Social media platforms like Reddit allow users to create their little corners of the internet, custom-tailored to their interests and beliefs. These so-called “subreddits” can be useful places to find like-minded people and learn more about topics you’re passionate about. Subreddits are typically focused on a specific topic. Many people use them to filter out the noise of the internet and only see content that is relevant to their interests. However, subreddit communities can also become echo chambers, where users only see content that reaffirms their existing beliefs.
Opposing views are buried, and an army of moderators silences dissenting voices.
This can create us vs. them mentality, where members of a subreddit become close-minded and intolerant of anything that doesn’t fit their worldview. In some cases, this can lead to dangerous groupthink, where dangerous and harmful ideas are given a platform.
Most people like to be comfortable. They want to surround themselves with people who share their views, making them feel good about themselves. This is what an echo chamber is: a place where our views are reinforced and echoed back to us. And it’s hard to come out of one. Why would we want to? We’re comfortable there. It feels good. But the problem with echo chambers is that they prevent us from hearing other points of view. They keep us isolated and blind to what’s happening outside our little bubble. We’re not getting the full picture when we only hear one side of the story. We’re not seeing the world as it is.
Comfort zones are nothing more than echo chambers. Within them, your views are never challenged, and you never have to confront anything that might make you question your beliefs.
But if your views can’t stand up to a bit of challenge, maybe they were never that strong.
The modern world was founded on dissent and disagreement. Many people had to feel uncomfortable to be where we are today. They might hurt your fee-fees, but maybe you can actually grow. Molotov cocktails were thrown, women burned their bras, and eggs were cracked on the heads of politicians. But all those people who disagreed and felt uncomfortable eventually found common ground and worked together to create the world we live in today. So next time someone disagrees with you, instead of getting all huffy and puffy, try to understand where they’re coming from. You might learn something new…and maybe even help make the world a better place.