Political Echo Chambers

Normally I adopt the proper dinner etiquette rule on Facebook to not discuss religion or politics.  Sports?  Fifty-fifty.  I don’t post nor take a public position on anything in those realms.  I do, however, occasionally post to elicit critical thinking, and for the most part, steer it toward the positive.

I am amazed at the opportunity that many respondents take to comment in accordance with their extreme views, left or right, even if the original post has nothing to do with their expressed views.  Yet, unlike many who delete comments or banish from friendships those who post viewpoints opposite of theirs, I will not normally take down a post nor unfriend them.

It’s partially because of respecting free speech and on occasion by allowing someone to hoist themself by their own petard.  But there’s a selfish element to it too.  I’m very sensitive about not cocooning myself into the echo chambers of like-mindedness.  I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend your right to say it, whether it be borne from the heights of the sublime or the depths of sheer idiocy. 

Ultimately that protects me from the tendency to get closed in and feed the divisiveness that plagues and pervades social media these days.  It’s a normal but not desirable progression to the societal ills that befall the adoption of new technology (new meaning in the past 20 years).  Only the most wizened could’ve seen the progression of this division early on.  I know I sure didn’t early on, but it’s clear to me now.  It’s a dangerous side-effect of social media and fueled by relative anonymity that promotes psychological bullying.