This past week in class 4 groups
of students presented on certain types of false information which can be
categorized into disinformation meant to deceive or misinformation caused by an
honest mistake. One of the concepts that really stuck out to me was the echo
chamber.
From what I heard during the
presentation, an echo chamber is an effect in which media surrounds its user
with similar beliefs. This is a lot more common than one might expect as social
media such as Instagram and Facebook allow us to pick and choose what we see.
We can follow the accounts and hashtags we like or agree with and we can also
unfollow or block the ones we dislike or disagree with. When we narrow our feed
down to just our own interests, we accidentally create an echo chamber.
Another thing I learned about echo
chambers is that they amplify the user's thoughts, beliefs, and opinions by
repeating so much of the information that he or she agrees with. These
typically lack any sort of counterpoints.
What I have learned from this is that
while it is perfectly fine to follow whatever interests us on social media, we
shouldn't only follow the things we agree with. We need to be aware of what is
happening in the real world and although we should absolutely have our own
opinions on events, people, etc. we should not become so absorbed in ourselves
that it clogs our feed with the same opinions.
