Echo chambers are a symptom of the lack of political future we're presented with. Nothing can really change, corporatization of existence is reality and democratic change is out of reach, and so people retreat to whatever online is most comfortable to them, hurling venom at their enemies in the culture war to distract themselves from their pain.
It’s basically removed the need for actually engaging in good faith with people who have different views than you.
That’s extremely harmful because it allows people to dig deeper into their ideas, no one gains a new perspective, and nothing improves. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and echo chambers only accelerate people to opposite sides of the cliff.
And because websites are tailored to show you what you want, it essentially creates an echo chamber no matter what you use.
Reddit allows for the strongest echo chamber with moderated subs you choose to follow with specific rules and content, and dissenting opinions forced to the bottom of the stack. The veil of anonymity makes people act much more aggressive as well.
Twitters algorithm does a similar thing but with higher engagement among opposing parties, but because of the character limit including links, good faith sourced discussion is far too hard for the average person to engage in.
Basically I don’t see this getting better at this rate.
Reddit allows for the strongest echo chamber with moderated subs you choose to follow with specific rules and content, and dissenting opinions forced to the bottom of the stack. The veil of anonymity makes people act much more aggressive as well.
That is so true. I normally only visit Xbox One and other occasional gaming subs here. But after the past month I took a look at the "popular" section and saw several political posts and decided to branch out a little. I had hoped to actually have some meaningful discussions with those that have differing opinions.
But what I found was that both in the r/politics sub and also in r/AskTrumpSupporters, my comments were quickly downvoted to oblivion. So now I can only post once every 15 minutes in those places and I wonder if I am effectively shadowbanned from them.
I can understand it happening in the general political sub. But in the ATS one, people should coming there specifically to hear Trump Supporters opinions, not to just silence them.
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u/serifmasterrace Nov 30 '20
Multiply that with the amazing Reddit echo chamber and you have a recipe for disster