The Echo Chamber

I used to have a friend, Keith†, who was about as leftist as they come. I suspect he is actually a full-on socialist, though I was unable to confirm that suspicion when we were still on talking terms. He unfriended and blocked me about a two years ago, after a heated exchange where I pointed out a good half-dozen logical fallacies in a post of his.

We went to high school together, and lost touch shortly after heading off to college. When we got back in touch through Facebook, he was very different than I remembered him. In high school, he seemed to be very freedom-loving. But now, he was very controlling and frankly, quite arrogant. One of the first exchanges I remember having after we became Facebook friends started along these lines (I would go copy and paste, but like I said, I was blocked a while ago.):

Him: I don't read Drudge Report any longer, and neither should you.

This bothered me on several fronts, but the most important was the implication was that he knew better than I where I should get my news.

I pressed him to explain why.  His response: Drudge bubbles up the "fringe" media.

That should've been my cue to unfriend him, or at least tell Facebook not to show me his posts. It was fairly obvious that he wasn't interested in honest discussion of issues, but in sealing his echo chamber.

I have several friends who I vehemently disagree with on a number of policy issues. We have heated arguments online all the time. My wife constantly asks me why I bother to discuss things with them, when we never change each others' stance on anything.

My answer is this: if I were to do to them what Keith did to me — unfriend and block, then I would be creating an echo chamber for myself. I would be creating a confirmation bias feedback loop. Facebook already tries its hardest to help you do that - we all tend to like pages that we agree with and which give us meme images we like. In turn, Facebook shows us more posts from people we interact with, and less from people we don't.

We need to keep in contact with people who disagree with us, if only because all humans are fallible. As we strive for perfection, knowing it will never be attained, we need to know when our biases and assumptions are wrong, and not have them continually confirmed by people and sources who are equally as wrong.

So even though I disagree with my leftie friends, I do not unfriend & block them unless they are flat-out abusive or threatening. For the record, I also disagree with my theocratic friends.

† - no, I did not change his name to protect him. I'm leaving his last name out, though I'm not entirely sure why.