EOTO 2: Echo Chambers

An echo chamber occurs when a person is only exposed to information that they themselves agree with. These can happen in real life or online, although they more widely occur in online spaces, thanks to things like algorithms. 

Wanting to be among like-minded people isn't inherently a bad thing, but echo chambers can become dangerous because they can distort a person's perception of reality, like by convincing a person that "everyone" believes what they believe. It also makes people less open to different ideas, since the person's existing beliefs get so thoroughly cemented through the constant affirmation these spaces provide. 

A couple of concepts that tie in with echo chambers include confirmation bias and filter bubbles. Confirmation bias is people's inclination to believe things that affirm their beliefs over things that don't. Echo chambers are pretty much founded on confirmation bias, since people will naturally follow the things that they agree with and want to see more of it. 

Filter bubbles occur when digital algorithms filter people's online content into what it believes they will want to see, hiding anything that the user hasn't shown interest in. This isn't inherently a bad thing- there's so much content available on the internet, why shouldn't platforms just focus on showing me things I actually want to see? But like echo chambers, these can also cause people to be uninformed on certain topics and less open to new ideas. The main difference between filter bubbles and echo chambers seems to be that echo chambers may be formed naturally, whereas filter bubbles are always curated by an algorithm for the specific purpose of creating more engagement.  

If I had to guess, the demographic most vulnerable to echo chambers are those who, for a multitude of reasons that could cause this, spend more time socializing online than they do in-person. Online spaces are likely to expose you exclusively to like-minded people, whereas in real life, especially in a place like a college campus, I interact with lots of different people with lots of different beliefs on a daily basis. I don't have to be friends with all these people, but it's good to at least encounter a large variety of people and values.

The best way to avoid falling into echo chambers is to make sure to vary your sources of information. Checking multiple news sources of different affiliations is a good place to start, as well as seeking low-bias sources (there really isn't such a thing as no-bias sources, as nice as that would be). Unfortunately, though, the modern internet and algorithms have made doing all this digging a high time investment, potentially more work than the average person can be reasonably expected to do. 

I don't necessarily have a source for this, but as I mentioned earlier, a way I believe people can avoid echo chambers is to make sure real-life interaction is balanced properly with online social interaction. Even still, just being aware that echo chambers exist and constantly checking your assumptions about what "everyone" believes is a great start to avoiding falling into echo chambers.