America has many political issues, but one often goes unnoticed: social media echo chambers. Echo chambers are internet bubbles that feed information to reinforce an individual’s preexisting views.
The very nature of social media allows these echo chambers to form and sustain themselves. Social media companies aim to incentivize scrolling, so they target posts specifically based on your habits. By tracking your preferences and what you watch most, these platforms create a personalized algorithm. This engagement-based algorithm creates echo chambers that isolate individuals by political beliefs.
This matters because 53 percent of U.S. adults report that they get some of their news from social media. The most popular platforms to get news are Facebook and YouTube, which 38 percent and 35 percent of American adults regularly get their news from, followed by Instagram and TikTok at 20 percent each.
If an individual who gets their information from social media is trapped in an echo chamber, they are likely to be fed skewed information. This is because echo chambers often feed confirmation bias, a tendency to seek information that supports what someone already believes and ignore contradictory information. In other words, individuals are shown content that aligns with their beliefs, reinforcing what they already hold without adequately challenging their assumptions.
Echo chambers also prioritize emotional appeals and the validation of pre-existing beliefs over evidence-driven reporting.
A UC Davis study found that YouTube and TikTok can trap users already watching politically biased content in a “loop effect” by continually recommending similarly biased, and potentially more extreme, content. This can lead to radicalization, making people less willing to cooperate or hear other perspectives and giving them an artificial sense of confidence. Seeing so many other users who agree with them can make them feel their beliefs are more widely accepted than they really are.
The descent into echo chambers is often inadvertent. A computational model tested with X data found that users may unintentionally sort themselves into polarized networks by unfollowing users whom they consider untrustworthy news sources. But intentional or not, we have an issue on our hands.
Echo chambers amplify the polarization that has plagued our country for the past few decades. People get trapped in digital bubbles where they only see content they agree with politically, which worsens polarization. And while people in echo chambers may interact mostly with those they agree with because of the algorithm, we do exist beyond the bubble. We inevitably come into contact with those of differing views in real life.
More alarmingly, social media echo chambers often lead to hostile conversations rather than productive ones. In a discussion, people can easily see the person they are debating not as someone with a different viewpoint, but as simply wrong. Rather than trying to hear out the other side, polarized conversations often become attempts to convert the other person.
One example of this is social media content itself. For instance, Jubilee debates have gained massive popularity over the past couple of years and encapsulate the worrying nature of contemporary political discussion. In my opinion, these debates don’t promote fair, genuine conversation. Instead, they focus on creating viral “gotcha” moments. These conversations aren’t productive because they neglect a crucial component of dialogue: listening. Listening is essential to understanding, which combats hostility and humanizes the other side.
One phrase I think about that’s been echoed throughout American history is “United We Stand, Divided We Fall,” and if we cannot come together and understand each other, how can our democracy stay intact?
Due to political polarization, influenced by social media echo chambers, those on the other side are often no longer seen as those with differing views, but as an “enemy” that seeks to destroy the country. Instead of seeing someone with a differing view as a fellow citizen seeking what’s best for their country, we begin to see them as an enemy of America.
Young people should be especially concerned, as we are the most active generation on social media. But what exactly can we do?
It’s hard to say exactly how to solve this issue. Getting rid of social media isn’t practical or possible, especially for our generation. The more logical answer may lie in how we choose to engage with social media: being aware of how social media algorithms create echo chambers can help us push back against them.
With this knowledge in mind, we can intentionally seek out other perspectives. Along with reading an article or watching a video that shares our perspective, we can find another that offers an alternative perspective, helping us better understand others’ beliefs and strengthen our own.
Only when we start listening to each other will we see real change.
Kayla Cloherty is a sophomore majoring in history.
Views expressed in the opinions pages represent the opinions of the columnists. The only piece that represents the view of the Pipe Dream Editorial Board is the staff editorial.