More polarization and division comes from flame wars - burned out people lashing out at each other, encouraged by the algorithms and the social media platform design.
I think part of the theory is that people get polarized by spending time in communities that reinforce their beliefs without challenging them or exposing them to other ideas, and that leads to polarization, division and disputes when different sides interact.
Exactly. it’s well-documented that echo chamber communities tend towards extremism over time, as the members internally fight for status and try to one-up each other while doing so. And while doing this, they tend to demonize and dehumanize the ‘other side’ to a greater and greater degree.
And open communities… don’t.
Evidence is right here on lemmy. Just go to to the echo chamber communities, and you’ll see all sorts of heinous commentary… and you will see way less of it in the same communities on .world or non-echo chamber instances.
A lot of the news feeds for the echo chambers on fedi are insanely toxic and have incredibly awful dehumanizing takes about the ‘other’ side. But inside them, the members think their delusional takes are ‘truth’ and that it’s the outsiders who are toxic and delusional.
Yeah! Exactly!
Great post! Fully unpopular opinion, and done without attacking anyone.
Thanks!
Echo chamber isn’t inherently a bad thing. It only becomes such when you don’t know you’re in one and are getting delusional because of it.
