“In the not too distant past, when people listened to political speeches or participated in discussion circles to hear new ideas and form an opinion, people were more likely to seek opportunities to hear views that already fit their worldview, rather than those that challenged it. The echo chamber phenomenon has always existed. Facebook differs in that its echo chamber is automatically generated. Social platforms use algorithms that feed liberal comments to their liberal users and conservative comments to conservative users. In this way, the automated preselection amplifies the already existing predisposition of people.”
– Gregg Easterbrook, “Why the world just doesn’t end – Seven end-time scenarios and how we can avert them”, Piper Publishing
