The perils of echo chambers

A simple explanation of Echo Chambers is de rigueur for the education of younger generation that for long has remained at the mercy of hate peddlers and dissemblers in the virtual world of social media constructed reality. That understanding is essential so that they do not become victims of propaganda and the forked tongue of mountebanks masquerading as ‘Mr Knowalls’ on social media platforms. The remuneration policy of YouTube linked with views has incentivised anyone with a smartphone device to create and load risqué content, unencumbered by moral or legal strictures. In a mad quest for making quick buck. Echo chambers are the habitat of these keyboard predators where they ply their wares, relying on the public hunger for sensationalism and gore.

Echo chamber is a closed space where people of one particular mindset are crammed together. The likeminded are cleverly corralled together to speak and hear multiple echoes and variations of the same musical note while dancing the deadly minuet of discontent and doublespeak. The echoes repeat and then magnify the same narrative again and again. Since there is no contrary opinion the members of echo chambers think and hear only one version of reality remaining oblivious to actual reality which is bitter but true. Fidelity to truth in current WhatsApp groups gives way to dissimulation and advocacy of politically and financially driven half-truths, which are lapped up by all due to groupthink, another psychological malady of these echo chambers.

Now if echo chamber’s definition is clear we come to its current manifestations. These manifestations include WhatsApp/ Facebook/ Instagram groups and Twitter handles of political-partisan, likeminded cohorts inspired by the same ideals. Now when these social media platforms become echo chambers, the net result is polarisation and proliferation of half-baked partisan narratives, high on hate and promise but low on hope and reality. Reality is hard and frugal while the ether world constructed utopias in WhatsApp groups appear alluring and attractive. The young generation that is looking for promise and hope gets easily entrapped in these black holes.

Very few amongst the young generation read books and serious articles these days and according to a 2015 study by Microsoft the attention span of Generation Z (the latest tech-savvy, hyper-connected and immediate answers seeking new generation) is 8 seconds, merely 4 seconds more than the millennials. As a result the younger generation gathers more information from Twitter, WhatsApp and other social media platforms than from books or serious analytical articles. Now this allows echo chambers to influence the young minds since they do not have the benefits of diversity and depth of opinion, having shunned the depth and profundity of books in favour of sensation and immediacy of social media content.

Now the next question is: who dominates social media? Social media in countries like Pakistan and in case of its diaspora abroad is dominated by people with dubious intellectual and political credentials who merely wish to attract traffic to earn money from platforms like YouTube. For them the national interest, morality and ethics are secondary considerations, while their pecuniary interests and political partisanship reign supreme. When such individuals swamp the echo chambers with highly partisan and polarised discourse the people especially millennials and Generation Z get emotionally riled up and confused. Deepfakes and AI have added another lethal dimension to proliferation of lies validating the acerbic saying of Winston Churchill: “A lie gets half way around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on”.

Some context to above thoughts is in order to illustrate the wrongs such echo chambers of disinformation inflict on the national cohesion. The social media reels on Facebook and Instagram were flooded with politically partisan and calumnious posts bordering on obscenity in the run up to 2024 elections. The macabre insult to aural sensitivities, however, was surprisingly consumed with alacrity by several educated people whose critical faculties had become too inured to this stuff due to slow poisoning of their minds through social media untruths. The victory had been declared by digital media influencers based on social media surveys and predictions made about rigging in elections.

Jury is still out in the West about the negative digital behaviour and social media use amongst the young generation. A study by Linda Charmaraman, and Jennifer Grossman et al concludes that the early initiation of the social media is linked with negative digital behaviour and that there is a need for more empirical studies to determine the psychosocial impact of the social media generated confusion on impressionable minds. A dependency on technologies for social interactions instead of physical civic engagements is also being criticised by behavioural scientists for anti-social behaviour of the young generation. When you construct a reality based on untruths on social media that is actually an unreality and when that unreality comes in conflict with ground reality the result is anger, ennui and what the psychologists refer to as cognitive dissonance.

So my advice to young generation is to stay away from the echo chambers of lies and seek truth in diversity and depth of knowledge, tapping in multiple sources to seek truth despite one’s political and moral biases. Staying clear of poorly educated social media handlers and influencers is the key. Seek knowledge in diversity and contrarian discourse shunning prejudice, bias and pet peeves. Read as many books and serious journal and newspaper articles by serious writers to develop a balanced perspective on divisive issues. Be selective in choosing social media spaces and unfollow all accounts that stir negative emotions of hate and conflict.

Pakistan cannot afford the repeat of 9^th May 2023 and to obviate its recurrence the new generation needs to be weaned away from the pernicious effects of echo chambers dominated by digital predators with selfish political and pecuniary agendas. Avoiding the perils of echo chambers of discord on social media is as much a parental as well as societal responsibility. The state alone cannot do it.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2024.

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