I’d like here to address two opposite—yet equal—errors that we can fall into when utilizing social technologies. They both result in confirmation bias. The first is associating only with people that are like us, and the second is trolling people different than you to antagonize, ridicule, and prove your own self-righteousness. In short, I want to discuss echo chambers.
I appreciate all the algorithms that make me aware of new products that I’m predisposed (predestined?) to like and new people that I’m predisposed to follow. But the second category is becoming more and more troublesome to me, if only because it reinforces my existing worldview and—more tragically—existing biases.
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