Just before Thanksgiving, I forwarded an article to a friend of mine. We were having lunch in a couple of weeks, and I thought he’d appreciate the piece. When I asked if he had the chance to read it, his answer was: “No. I almost did because you sent it, but I can’t stand that magazine. They’re to the left of Marx.”
Although the Marx comment was an exaggeration, this periodical does lean to the left in their writing. However, the article I sent to him was well-written and smart. Yes, it was liberal, and although I didn’t agree with the tone of the writer (he sounded like the last loser of a fourth-grade spelling bee), his perspective and the data presented were thought-provoking. At the end of the day, that’s all I really want from an article – to have my thoughts stimulated.
Only a few hours after our lunch, while listening to audible.com, I heard the term echo chamber used for the first time. The author stated how dangerous our process of information-gathering has become. We can customize all our experiences today. We don’t ask “what’s on TV tonight”, we ask “what do we want to watch tonight”; we don’t buy CD’s with 13 songs that we don’t care about, we download the one song we love; and we don’t read or watch news that challenges us, we only take in the information with which we agree. You’ll find more Red Sox fans wearing Yankee hats than MSNBC viewers watching Fox and Friends.
Although convenient at first, this phenomenon has turned us into being divisive, narrow, and unreasonable. Instead of listening to others, we fear and loathe them for their perspectives and opinions. Instead of stretching ourselves to learn about new and different things, we get fat on the dullest pleasures of life. Instead of respecting those that openly consider the opinions, we view them as weak. We live in echo chambers.
In an echo chamber, the only thing one hears are their own words. Comforting maybe. Lazy, stagnant, and gutless … definitely. Has your life become an echo chamber? Have you surrounded yourself only with people that think like you do? Do you ever watch news channels or read magazines that have different points of view than you do? When hearing opinions different that yours, do you think about your defense, or do you listen and ask second, third, and fourth questions.
Do you live in an echo chamber? If so, get out. Challenge your opinions; spend time with people smarter than you, regardless of their opinions; and expose yourself to views and opinions completely different than yours. If you do these things, and do them openly, everything in your life will improve.
