[HN Gopher] Breaking out of the echo chamber loop
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Breaking out of the echo chamber loop
Author : hunterclarke
Score : 23 points
Date : 2021-02-07 22:58 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.hunterclarke.me)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.hunterclarke.me)
| erikerikson wrote:
| For some reason, this makes me think of the difference between
| dealing with all the recruiter spam that comes at me and actively
| seeking out a place doing something I want to help succeed. In
| the former my possibility is constrained by who is paying to
| serve me up while in the latter I am an active participant in my
| life, altering my environment to enact a transcript I'm
| constantly discovering and modifying. I have to remain aware that
| I'm establishing my own phenomenological context but I find that
| sort of consideration good for the soul.
| kodah wrote:
| Personally, I don't think it's worthwhile to try to game the
| algorithms that are in place for the experience you desire.
|
| I don't really believe people want _out_ of echo chambers as much
| as they say they do. I don 't find many conservatives dabbling in
| Modern Monetary Theory or many liberals trying to solve problems
| in rural America that already don't afflict their own groups.
| They're quite content sitting just where they are and continuing
| to justify their disinterest in the rest of the world. In this
| vein, I don't think what they're in is really an echo chamber.
| These kind of people seem to be geared more towards getting
| _others_ to see what they see in their own interests
| /causes/etc... and if you just aren't that interested, then
| you're maybe not an enemy but certainly not a friend or maybe
| even a likable stranger.
|
| I started off with politics as an example because it's the first
| place I noticed this behavior, but it really stretches into any
| vein of interest that people have. There's entire rivalries that
| form around online personas or ideologies in a given domain that
| are just as divisive as politics, however, they stay penned up in
| their own domain so you only come across them when you're in
| communities of a certain mass.
|
| Try to run from whatever this is all you want. The only way I
| started making friends (and trusting) people of different
| persuasions and lifestyles from mine was getting out in the real
| world again.
| hunterclarke wrote:
| Author here. I agree that most people aren't actively looking
| to break out of the comfortable, algorithmically generated
| corner of the internet they read. I like a lot of the topics
| that are suggested to me. Youtube is spot on in a lot of its
| suggestions.
|
| But I'm not sure that the "slice" of the internet I'm exposed
| to is the best one for me. Especially over a long enough time
| period. I'm in a different season of life than I was in high
| school or college. But there's quite a bit of "inertia" behind
| these algorithms that keep me coming back to the same content I
| read back then (5-10 years ago).
|
| I don't think there's a good set of digital tools out there for
| saying "I want off the ride." Or at least "I'd like to ride a
| different ride for a minute."
|
| I think if we want to enable self-educators, there has to be a
| better suite of tools available to those who want to be
| presented with diverse ideas.
|
| Just my 2 cents.
|
| +1 for getting out in the real world.
| mcherm wrote:
| I'll add that I believe there is a meaningful (perhaps not
| overwhelming) percentage of people who would be interested in
| getting exposure to things "outside their bubble" simply for
| the sake of self-improvement and better understanding the
| world around them.
|
| I would put myself in that category -- at least up to a
| certain (limited) percentage of my media-consuming time.
| ip26 wrote:
| I tried breaking out of my echo chambers and found:
|
| 1) It's all echo chambers everywhere. It's just a matter of
| which you pick.
|
| 2) Finding/identifying high quality echo chambers with mind-
| opening discussion is hard especially when you are not an
| insider
|
| 3) You might find a bubble you like OK and then suddenly the
| bubble is talking enthusiastically about how, yup, cyclists
| pretty much _deserve_ to die. Well, _you_ happen to be a (law-
| abiding) cyclist, and by god that hurts to hear.
|
| I've found if I want to continue seeing the best in everyone,
| there's a portion of the population I just shouldn't talk to.
| At least online.
| svachalek wrote:
| Real world is great, but even most online forums (like this
| one) are much better than an advertising-supported, algorithm-
| driven addiction feed.
| darig wrote:
| ... yelled into the cave.
| DC1350 wrote:
| Is there any proof that the algorithmic echo chamber is a real
| thing? I don't use any social media that has algorithmic
| curation, but I still get the strong feeling that I'm in a bubble
| whenever I encounter other internet bubbles. How much is just
| caused by me choosing to see things I already agree with instead
| of a computer choosing for me?
| cblconfederate wrote:
| how would you "prove" this? IMHO the algorithmic feeds of
| twitter and youtube are boring, or rather, surface extremely
| shallow and low effort content. I switch all my feeds (youtube,
| twitter, HN) to chronological mode now, and i think the future
| is the past: RSS . It forces you to follow few quality people
| to get good recommendations
| hunterclarke wrote:
| I actually think it's a bit of both. You select for things you
| like, and avoid things you don't. Then the algorithm says "I
| can help with that." The problem is that you can't tell it to
| stop even if you want it to.
|
| Finding other sources of community and content that isn't
| centered around a feed is a good idea as well.
| biophysboy wrote:
| I think about this too: does the internet modify human
| behavior, or capitalize on it? I mean, it does both, but I
| think historians would lean toward the latter.
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