What is An Echo Chamber? Are You in An Echo Chamber ? How to Avoid Confirmation Bias. | Conversations With the browns

The closed systems we are in that only tell us what we want to hear

Social media has made it so easy to stay up-to-date with family, friends, and the latest news. But have you noticed that you keep seeing the same information in your feed over and over again? This episode pulls back the curtain on social media’s closed systems, their purpose, and how to reach outside your echo chambers.

Echo chambers in social media

Echo chambers are a metaphorical description of a situation in which beliefs are amplified or reinforced by communication and repetition inside a closed system and insulates them from rebuttal (en.wikipedia.org). Social media is one type of echo chamber.   

Before social media was the main way to hear from friends, distant friends, and non-friends, we were more aware when we were choosing to only talk to a certain group of people. Social media gives us large networks of people (a.k.a. more friends). Hearing from a large network makes us think we are getting a bigger slice of reality than we really are. 

Social media is free to us because other people are paying to use the platform and sell products to us. These platforms are designed in a way to give us more content that it thinks we will like and want to hear about. From ads to articles, social media algorithms are designed to give us more of what we clicked on before. It is a kind of closed system or echo chamber.

This became very obvious with a simple search our daughter did online. Sophia really likes The Great British Baking Show. Her reaction to the show was to jump into the kitchen and make the goodies from the show. We let her look on Instagram to see what other people have done with their cake decorating. 

It only took a few days for the entire feed to Instagram to be taken over by cake decorating and nothing but cake decorating. Nothing and no one that was intentionally being followed were highlighted. It was completely cake decorating ads and people decorating cakes. Just like an internet search engine, social media is designed to give you results it thinks you’re going to like and want to see more of. 

This specific information that shows up also happens when we have friends (and non-friends) on our social media who post about certain topics. Pretty soon everything in our news feed is curated based on what others have sent to us and what we have clicked on. 

Unless you send a direct message, even your real friends on social media may not see your posts. Their feed is based on what they have interacted with. We tend to interact with what we like, so the internet tries to guess what that is. We’re living the algorithm life. Echo chambers hurt us when we stop hearing diverse voices. 

Social media algorithms shape a closed system in a way we don’t realize. When we see something that contradicts the mainstream point of view it’s easy to dismiss. We think we have a diverse group of friends and information, but it is really shaped by an algorithm. The internet and social media are tools. We need to realize they are tools and see what they are really doing. We need to see how they can help and how they can harm.

Closed systems may keep you from hearing different perspectives.

What can we do about our echo chambers?

Start by having more actual conversations, face-to-face. Evaluate if you are inside an echo chamber. Are you seeing only one point of view? Intentionally subscribe and follow people you wouldn’t normally follow and that are outside your norm. Hear from other “friends.”

Be aware. Echo chambers are not new and they can occur in other areas of your life. You can find yourself inside echo chambers with friend groups, at schools, and churches. It’s important to engage in these areas of life, but be aware of the echo chambers that can develop. Recognize the comfort you feel in your closed systems and be willing to incorporate other voices.

In a community, it is important to incorporate more voices. Your community should not just be within one race, gender, or age. When there are no other perspectives, you may find yourself basking in your mutual ignorance together. Go outside your norms. Bring other voices into your community.  

None of this means that your situation isn’t real or doesn’t matter, but it helps to put it in the right place. Being around varied groups outside your peer group brings perspective and wisdom. Acknowledge that you have echo chambers in your life. Have awareness so you can come to the table and know what you bring.

We want to hear from you. Identify the echo chambers that you see in your own life. Do you leave space to hear a different viewpoint?

Send us your questions and your thoughts. Let’s continue this conversation.   

Leave a comment or call/text our 24-hour feedback phone at 530-535-8121. 

Submit a topic for a conversation - https://forms.gle/actLkkKrEHP7pNMZ9 

Make more connections with us at https://linktr.ee/lifewiththebrowns