Ever since the creation of the internet, people have been able to form communities to discuss topics they are interested in. These topics may include pieces of fiction a group likes or a world event that arouses conversation. Communities like this are able to build friendships and can be an amazing source of enjoyment.
While online communities can foster connection and shared enjoyment, they are not without their drawbacks.
An echo chamber is when a group like this becomes a place where opposing opinions or thoughts are not welcome. Instead of healthy debate, only opinions coinciding with the majority are shown or supported.
Although these spaces can provide value for someone to express their feelings, they are also a garden for misinformation to spread like a weed throughout the minds of the people who enter them.
The source of most echo chambers is misinformation spread through the news. Some of the largest perpetrators when it comes to spreading information are large companies, who prioritize monetary gain over the values of providing truthful information to the people watching them, so much so that it leads to eventual defamation lawsuits.
One of these lawsuits occurred in 2023 against Fox News when they continuously lied about the accuracy of the presidential election of 2020. This resulted in Fox News having to pay approximately 800 million dollars to Dominion Voting systems.
A defamation lawsuit also occurred when the news station MSNBC was almost forced to pay around 10 million dollars to a Republican news network for accusing them of being “Russian propaganda.” Although a federal judge shot down the claim of defamation, the statement is still inflammatory and breeds a further divide between the American people.
Most misinformation stems from large stations painting a myriad of stories into politically charged events just because they seem more interesting to the average person. This creates a larger rift where people continue to reinforce their own biases against any opposing side because they ‘aren’t reasonable anymore.’
Recently, the age of fast news has created a problem of misinformation being readily available for the average person to consume without even a whiff of suspicion of how credible it is. Then, whoever consumes the opinion dressed as news will post a rant on TikTok about their personal opinion, using a completely false set of events they saw on the news. This post creates a space where an ever-growing group of people’s ideas are reinforced based on a completely falsified piece of evidence. Even when those ideas are eventually challenged, the people who were fed the misinformation simply disagree because of the mob mentality developed because of the constant validation their opinion received. This mob mentality eventually evolves into no one willing to have even the slightest conversation with anyone who might have an opposing view on a certain topic, causing a cycle of vomited talking points spewed from person to person until no one in an online space has the mental capacity to think for themselves.
Although the blame of who created these large echo chambers falls onto certain corporations who spread dramatized events and some downright false stories. The responsibility falls onto the individual to become aware of what they may be consuming. Readers need to start educating themselves on what the actual facts of whatever event is being covered, rather than simply watching someone else’s perception and put their trust into corporations without their interests in mind.
