Echo chamber (media)

An echo chamber is an environment or ecosystem in which participants encounter beliefs that amplify or reinforce their preexisting beliefs by communication and repetition inside a closed system and insulated from rebuttal.

Quotes

• Now, he never, ever saw or met anyone in his town that had similar views to him. And then, one day, he was going down to the petrol station at the end of his road, and three lads with EDL hoodies on walked past, chanting "EDL". And I said to him, "Paul! Well, that's sort of great. I mean, in a way. You could make some friends. You know, people." He's like, "Yeah, yeah. I thought it was really nice. It was really nice to see some fellow EDL people." I was like, "Oh, cool. Did you speak to them?" "No." "Why didn't you speak to them?" "Well, I didn't really know what to say." So he just walked past, went back home, logged on, and then carried on his online blitz. He didn't want to speak to the offline people, because who is he offline? The real world Paul isn't really anything. These guys wouldn't know him. The digital Paul—the angry, violent, virulent neo-Nazi—he has a following, he has meaning. So he much preferred to leave these guys, walk home, and log back on.
  • Jamie Bartlett: "The Dark Net" (24:02–25:05). Talks at Google (2014-10-02).

• The liberals were outraged by Trump. But they expressed their anger in cyberspace, so it had no effect, because the algorithms made sure that they only spoke to people who already agreed with them. Instead, ironically, their waves of angry messages and tweets benefited the large corporations who ran the social media platforms. One online analyst put it simply: "Angry people click more."
  • Adam Curtis: HyperNormalisation (2016)

• Standing on the outside, what you should ask yourself is, "If they're wrong, would they ever find out?"
  • Bjørn Stærk: "The Conspiracy Smell Test" (archived). Bjørn Stærk blog (2005-10-09).

See also

• Social media