EOTO Echo Chambers

While the concept of an Echo Chamber has existed for some time, it has only grown to prominence due to the rise of the internet and social media platforms over the last decade. To those who do not know what an Echo Chamber is, Oxford Dictionary defines it as “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”. In other words, the chamber is a close-knit group of people all saying the same opinions to better further their own beliefs in those opinions. 


A chart visualizing the Echo Chamber


As humans, we enjoy the sense of rightness as it provides a sense of superiority. Since humans find it hard to admit when they were wrong, they build up these chambers of communication and information transfer in order to make sure they feel like they are always correct. While these groups could be a great thing to have when developing friendships with others inside a social circle, they can also greatly damage viewpoints on certain subject matters. And this is most notably seen with topics such as politics and even some popular culture. 


We start with the easiest of the two; politics. Here in the United States, the two largest political parties, Democrats and Republicans, have a war of ideas that wage on every day of the calendar year. And when it comes to the members of the parties, they tend to slip into moral debates over what needs to be done. Debates such as healthcare, should we care for immigrants, the current state of the economy, national security, and onward. While some seem like basic issues, they can be swayed into the morals of the party. 


Healthcare-should we worry about all American citizens or the just the ones that can afford it. Economy-should we elevate the workers and students in insane debt to make sure the cycle of commerce persists, whether it be through ideals like Capitalism or Socialism? National Security-people see soldiers as tools of the government or even murderers sometimes. Do they matter in the grand scheme of things?


Because of all these issues, people wish to believe their “side” is the right own, morally speaking. And to reinforce that idea, they will speak with people of their alignment in echo chambers and continue to block out the other side. But it also makes sense. When it comes to big issues such as these, leaders and even citizens, need to find a solution to benefit the most. And when it does come to these issues, who wouldn’t want to be morally correct about them. 


A political cartoon about how President Trump can easily spread fake news. 


We can even see this in things such as popular culture as well. Art is subjective. But it is through this subjectiveness that we derive different opinions based upon movies and TV shows. We have people yell out a certain show is terrible, but we others like it. A major example of this is with the Star Wars movies. 


A major contender for the franchise is which movie is the best or the worst. While fans of any form of entertainment have been doing this for years, none have been as powerful as Star Wars. To this day, people still refuse to leave their chambers and open themselves up to the Prequel movies or the Sequels. While yes, most trilogies are critically not the best, cutting oneself off from the rest of them and refusing to hear the opinions of others about them is outright wrong and a little childish. 


Furthermore, it is because of these Echo Chambers and how much we love our opinions that new art is never made, or when it is art critiquing something we adore, we bash it an attack it. Yes, some of these critiques are mean spirited, but at the same time, we do damage the creator’s ideas when we do so. 


Echo Chambers do little more than damage our society as a whole. By cutting ourselves off, placing us in us vs. them mentality, we fail to grow as individuals and as a species. And it is because of these chambers, we grow increasingly more divided. Echo Chambers, in my opinion, is how extremists groups are formed. In the 2010s, these chambers were how terrorist organizations were able to grow their size as well. It is how we get these battles in the streets over political issues. 


Truth is, Echo Chambers can do very little benefit to society as a whole. 


Read more about Echo Chambers here: 

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/hearing-the-other-side/7CB061238546313D287668FF8EFE2EF7


http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.715.7520&rep=rep1&type=pdf


https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/echo-chamber 


https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Echo_chamber 

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