Ask Lemmy

I'd love to see literally any data that this "echo chamber" thing is real. A lot of people on lemmy in particular love to talk about it but in a vacuum, without any reference to what they mean by it.

A while ago on lemmy I stated a political position and someone told me "If you ever talk to anybody outside of your echo chamber you're in for a dangerous time", and I was like, okay, I'm talking to you, right now. Hit me with this dangerous knowledge. No reply. The whole time they talked to me the only thing they had to say was about echo chambers and no actual, substantial reply to anything I was saying.

So if anyone wants to explain what they actually mean by this concept with details and evidence I would love to hear it.

I'm doing it. I'm stepping out of my echo chamber and ready to hear the unvarnished truth from you brave iconoclasts. Oh god this is scary.

Because every space is an echo chamber to some extent. Mod = God gets abused way too often, so why talk somewhere you risk getting banned from if you can avoid it by staying in spaces that already support your views?

Lack of curiosity. It's exhausting to deal with political realities like 24/7 and perceive the world in a constant hyper politicized lens, without also becoming a schizo crazy person. The easiest way to prevent all this,but still be able to rationalize and make sense of the world in front of you, is to be able to slot yourself into a nice clean prepackaged category, where your information can be run through the filters for you, and you don't have to really rationalize new stuff or critically think.

This even extends to spaces outside the echo chamber if you do it long enough, because your language changes so much that your opposition is basically incapable of actually communicating with you. It's pretty easily witnessed in conservative echo chambers, where they'll say that, this or that is woke, this or that is communism, but the same also applies in reverse where people assume academic definitions to be "true", which is basically nonsensical as far as linguistics goes.

So, basically, it's easy, so it's default, and it's totally inescapable, both existentially and just in terms of the raw media landscape being totally comprised of polarizing hackery.

I think people expressing opinions to othet that they don't agree with makes people uncomfortable. People tend to avoid feeling uncomfortable. Also some people get angry when they get uncomfortable.

Its hard to have an meaningful conversation with someone who is angry.

I’ll tell you why I’m pretty liberal with my block button and cool with my echo chamber. There are people out there who want me dead for liking my same sex. My trans friends are being legislated against / threatened with violence not because of science or health, but because of feelings and religion. I have family that emigrated legally being exposed to horrific racism and the threat of violence.

Do you support human rights? Or do you support death to the “other” ? Makes my choices easy. Not to mention I prefer actual truth to my information sources, not tabloid fluff designed to keep me enraged.

Because it makes them feel that even though they can't be successful or safe, they can be right.

Mirror Neurons

I've always been fascinated by the idea that Americans define themselves by their politics. Where I'm from people will usually say, "I voted for X" but in the US it seems people say, "I am a republican/democrat".

Also the concept of registering as a democrat/republican. Is that just for being able to vote for your preferred party's nominee in the pre-selection phase? It seems like it would go a long way towards mentally committing you to how you vote in the actual election.

For a rather unsettling take, you may be interested in the concept of the digital panopticon. Because of the degree of surveillance that is possible in what media we consume, it's also possible that we are intentionally being kept in these echo chambers.

It's exhausting to have to teach people who don't want to listen.

know that frustration type feeling when you are confronted with new information that might be true if you look into it? doesnt even have to be about politics, it usually doesnt.

thats sometimes the feeling of learning, when you replace estabilished but wrong ideas in your head with better ones. growing as a person can sometimes be painful, growing pains if you will.

nobody likes pain, right?

Because arguing with idiots online is bad for mental health. And if you keep doing it, eventually some of your online haters might find out where you live.

Because the opposite echo chamber is filled with lying liars who lie? ;)

You can't take someone from an echo chamber, present them with facts, and change their mind. In fact, the opposite is true. They double down on what they think they already know.

https://today.uconn.edu/2022/08/cognitive-biases-and-brain-biology-help-explain-why-facts-dont-change-minds-2/#

One thing that keeps me in my echo chamber is people not coming to debate in good faith. I’m generally all for listening to me ideas and viewpoints, but I find that so many people I talk to just want to convince me I’m wrong.

Because self-reflection is hard and most people have been taught that it's equivalent to "hating yourself, your country, etc..." Taking an honest look at your own faults is inordinately hard for most people, so they would rather double down on their own wrongness, regardless of evidence.

The concept of the echo chamber was invented by social media companies to gaslight people about how social media algorithms force antagonizing interactions between people who would avoid each other in real life because arguments mean participation means more ad revenue.

In real life constantly trying to hunt down people you disagree with to "expose yourself to the whole debate" isn't seen as virtuous, it's seen as grounds for a restraining order, and depending on how intense you were about it, an involuntary psych hold.

It's not an echo chamber, it's the fact that how humans naturally build their own social environment outside of social media runs directly opposed to how social media companies maximize their revenue off you.

Most people pretty much live their lives thinking they have the right opinions about pretty much everything. Then they think that people closest to them are more or less the same but the further you get from yourself the more wrong they are and then the opposition is basically wrong about everything. It takes quite a bit to admit to yourself that you're most likely entirely wrong about a lot of things just as well as the "opposition" is right about some of the stuff you absolutely hate to even think about.

If you don't hold any views you know would make your side of the political isle disagree with you then you're most likely in a echo chamber.

One whole “echo chamber” was built on stigmatizing the mainstream news which by definition means they’re pushing alternative news.

The only news I’m interested in are the facts. I avoid opinion articles or “framing” as much as I can.

If we’re calling factual reporting an echo chamber then fine. I guess the answer to your question for me is I like my echo chamber because the truth matters.

The “echo chamber” narrative only serves to legitimize and “both sides” bullshit.

It’s not just a US thing. It’s human nature and tribalism. People will generally stay in spaces where they are validated, other people agree with them, and their beliefs are reinforced.