Im wary of echo chambers and it’s so incredibly easy to find yourself in them nowadays. It’s always good to be around dissenting opinions and have discussions with the other side. Obviously there’s a limit with hostility and all that but assuming civility it is pretty much always better to not be completely surrounded with people that think just like you.
The constantly repeated echo chamber argument is honestly kinda just nonsense. To conservatives, anything outside of their echo chamber is one big echo chamber because it disagrees with them.
Obviously, if all you ever do is go online and talk to Marxist groups or something, that’s one thing. But really, all you need to do is be exposed to people from different backgrounds as you to break up any echo chamber effect. That’s why so many kids become more progressive in college - it’s often the first time they get out of the echo chamber of their hometown and are exposed to kids who don’t look like them and grew up under different circumstances. If you’re on Lemmy, odds are pretty good that you’re exposed to minorities and other people with different backgrounds than yours. Places like Lemmy are full of people from all over the world and from all walks of life with all kinds of different views. You don’t need to go out of your way to expose yourself to conservatives like you’re building up a tolerance for poison or something. You can get that just by checking the news or Twitter.
You make a good point but I think you are severely underestimating the amount of terminally online people around the country (and world). Obviously if you go outside of your echo chamber you will see other perspectives… I don’t think anyone would question that. The problem is many many people rarely go outside that circle and will in fact actively avoid going outside that circle. And you’re right again that lemmy is diverse in it’s userbase but to say that it’s not very heavily leaning to one side of the political spectrum and liable to become an echo chamber for many is pretty disingenuous imo. I mean just look at this thread.
Now Im not saying you are doomed to become some wacko sycophantic nutjob from an echo chamber. But you will undoubtedly only get certain sides of stories that may very well shape your points of view. It’s just something to be aware of is all.
Im wary of echo chambers and it’s so incredibly easy to find yourself in them nowadays. It’s always good to be around dissenting opinions and have discussions with the other side. Obviously there’s a limit with hostility and all that but assuming civility it is pretty much always better to not be completely surrounded with people that think just like you.
The constantly repeated echo chamber argument is honestly kinda just nonsense. To conservatives, anything outside of their echo chamber is one big echo chamber because it disagrees with them.
Obviously, if all you ever do is go online and talk to Marxist groups or something, that’s one thing. But really, all you need to do is be exposed to people from different backgrounds as you to break up any echo chamber effect. That’s why so many kids become more progressive in college - it’s often the first time they get out of the echo chamber of their hometown and are exposed to kids who don’t look like them and grew up under different circumstances. If you’re on Lemmy, odds are pretty good that you’re exposed to minorities and other people with different backgrounds than yours. Places like Lemmy are full of people from all over the world and from all walks of life with all kinds of different views. You don’t need to go out of your way to expose yourself to conservatives like you’re building up a tolerance for poison or something. You can get that just by checking the news or Twitter.
You make a good point but I think you are severely underestimating the amount of terminally online people around the country (and world). Obviously if you go outside of your echo chamber you will see other perspectives… I don’t think anyone would question that. The problem is many many people rarely go outside that circle and will in fact actively avoid going outside that circle. And you’re right again that lemmy is diverse in it’s userbase but to say that it’s not very heavily leaning to one side of the political spectrum and liable to become an echo chamber for many is pretty disingenuous imo. I mean just look at this thread.
Now Im not saying you are doomed to become some wacko sycophantic nutjob from an echo chamber. But you will undoubtedly only get certain sides of stories that may very well shape your points of view. It’s just something to be aware of is all.