What I Learned about the Echo Chamber

    Jake Drew, a fellow classmate of mine presented his project on echo chambers. He described them as a sort of tunnel vision when someone only listens to ideas they agree with. Their opinion, right or wrong, is then echoed back to them reassuring themselves that they are right whether that is the case or not. This is most commonly seen in politics. People frequently affiliate themselves, identify with a party, and adhere to the group mentality and political agenda. This means if you identify as a republican you must be pro choice and if you are a democrat you must be pro choice for example. Many people do not fit this box, but some people are too comfortable pushing themselves inside of it and they find comfort in echoed confirmation bias. 

    Jake pointed out that a positive to the echo chamber is this sense of community. Surrounding yourself with people who have common beliefs and opinions is not bad because it is a good way to make friends and feel comfortable around one another. The problem is that the negatives greatly outweigh the positives.

    This sense of community is a productive community. Without contrary ideas there cannot be room for growth or true thinking. People must risk being the dissenting opinion, standing up for your ideas, and risk being offensive if it means coming to the right answer.

    Jake gave the example about the news and how echo chambers are just listening to the same politically affiliated news sources which is the same as living in that unproductive community. Fake news is created when the only time you want to hear what the other side has to say is when you are trying to make them look bad.

    I really enjoyed Jake's analogy that he and his father discuss which is “ping pong politics”. Echos bounce, and if you are in an echo chamber you only hear the same opinions which closes you off to other ideas. This creates the battle between two major political parties metaphorically playing ping pong with each other. Back and forth, maybe grunting and shouting as they try to hit harder and harder.