Perils of an Echo Chamber
Personal experiences and shocking revelations.
Being associated with societal structures means that you are probably a part of an echo chamber. Unless you are extremely conscious of the information you are consuming, it will be immensely difficult to identify when you’ve become a member of this group, let alone navigate through it.
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Information Bubbles
A paper by C. Thi. Nguyen, published by Cambridge University describes two different problems we currently face.
An epistemic bubble originates when the people inside are not exposed to dissenting opinions. Whereas in an echo chamber, the delusion or confidence in one’s own beliefs is so strong that opposing views become automatically invalid despite having exposure to them.
I understand this with the visual of an echo chamber being a subset of an epistemic bubble. The paper argues that an epistemic bubble leads to the amalgamation of multiple thoughts under one general umbrella due to lack of experience and introduction to contrasting thoughts. But in an echo chamber, there is active distrust between the members themselves. Sounds very familiar to the functioning of a cult, with repercussions if you stray away from the decided norm.
Political Echo Chambers
It is a widely known fact that Delhi University is politically charged to a huge extent. However, I was unaware of the looming left-wing bubble that would engulf me during my three years there. Undoubtedly there are much larger, stringent echo chambers in the right-wing which are much more dangerous for an individual. However, I am a leftist hence I can talk only about my experience in the left-wing sphere of my college.
To argue why you are pro-something, you need to be able to understand and analyze the weak points of the thing you are opposing. When I realized I cannot coherently and methodologically dissect the right-wing or even debate why I am a leftist, I was deeply embarrassed. Dramatic as the revelation was, I immediately realized that I had never tried to intentionally read or study the functioning of the right-wing. There was a lack of effort from my side to understand the opposition majorly because of the scarcity of incentives for me to do it.
I graduated two months back, and I am yet to meet a person from college who was openly right-winged. I am sure there were numerous sanghis, but nobody had the guts to accept their political inclination in an environment where it was preferred to be a leftist.
It took me a lot of time to understand, but we were a part of a big, invisible bubble. It was the norm to hate Modi fanatically, rage and protest AND unless your personality didn’t revolve around being ‘against-BJP’, you became a red flag person immediately. Disclaimer, I am not propagating BJP’s manifesto or their ideals, I am advocating for a chance to hear both sides without active bullying involved. This problem was exacerbated during college mostly due to Instagram-politics and social-media activism.
The Instagram Conundrum
You know the drill, once a particular post gains traction on Instagram, it is reposted by 90% of your circle, especially if it is of moral or social character. In multiple incidents, people close to me have felt the pressure of not speaking up i.e. not posting supporting stories on the platform during times of unrest. Understandably, each to their own, and there should never be an obligation to follow the masses.
In a hypothetical situation, you will probably follow your friends, family and acquaintances first, who we assume will have a similar ideology as yours. The algorithm will further recommend creators and content which cater to your interests, including political afflictions, thereby creating a reverberating bubble of opinions. Thereafter, before you even know it, your brain will subconsciously cement these ideas, packaged in bite-sized content in different formats, permanently.
It took me three years to realize the significance of monitoring information being fed to the brain, whether it is online or informal discussions over chai with your friends. Hence, it is important to be receptive to opposing ideas at a much higher frequency than those which align with our thinking. Certainly, it is a meticulous and tiresome process but unfortunately the only way I can imagine, to burst this bubble.
Brain Food for this Week
(Here I plug in whatever I am consuming. Someday I would love to write a collection of essays like Briallen Hopper talking about all the things I love in literature, pop culture and music, but that is for the future)
Reading 📖 : The Weary Generations by Abdullah Hussain & House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.
Podcasts 📱 : 3 Things by The Indian Express (only staple)
Watching 🍿 : Currently nothing
Grooving 🎵 : Tinashe’s latest album ‘333’
Thank you for reading! Feedback is always welcomed.
Warm Wishes.