10 Signs A Person Is In An Online Echo Chamber That Only Backs Up Their Own Preconceived Beliefs
Are you challenging yourself to learn new perspectives and empathize with your neighbor?
Evgeny Hmur | Shutterstock According to research by the Discourse & Society journal, echo chambers — specifically, the “hyperpartisans” who reside in them — are communities and spaces of like-minded people with similar values and beliefs who “echo” back to each other.
Essentially, hyper-partisans live in bubbles, where their interests, beliefs, and values are constantly shared and reflected — from traditional media to relationships and online communities.
While online echo chambers are typically characterized by hyperpartisanship and inherent socioeconomic and political discussions in research, the signs a person is in an online echo chamber that only backs up their own preconceived beliefs can be unsuspectingly mundane.
Here are 10 signs a person is in an online echo chamber that only backs up their own preconceived beliefs:
1. They believe intelligent conversations only happen with like-minded people.
JLco Julia Amaral | Shutterstock.com
Instead of acknowledging other opinions and perspectives from their echo chambers, from food preferences to social advocacy, people living in these isolated environments tend to resort to criticism. Trying to demean their differences with attacks on intelligence, fundamental character traits, and ignorance, these echo chamber members protect themselves from debating or discussing dissimilar opinions.
By genuinely believing intelligent conversations and debates are only possible with people who share their opinions and beliefs, they spark a fear-driven, insensitive, and unkind mindset towards people different from themselves.
It doesn’t matter if you're talking about veganism, policy, parenting styles, religion, or anything in between the lines—anything that’s become a considerable part of your life—everyone is human, everyone develops perspectives based on their unique experience, and “different” should never be inherently flawed.
2. They rely on ‘othering’ to criticize people.
Prostock-studio | Shutterstock.com
According to research from the SSM—Public Health journal, the practice of “othering” is how defensive groups craft ideas about the “in-groups” — those who belong — and the “out-groups” — those who are ostracized. Based on various traits, perceptions, and beliefs, this process targets specific socioeconomic and political perspectives to exclude people different from them (the “others”).
It’s essential to foster healthy connections and respond to violations of your values and beliefs with empathy and emotional intelligence rather than this defensiveness.
According to psychology expert Dr. Jean Greaves, people living in an online echo chamber have less practice navigating genuine disagreements within their circles, which can prompt emotional growth. Everyone around them reassures their opinions, shares their values, and builds confidence.
When they’re forced to reckon with the reality of the world — that there are other opinions and priorities in communities outside their own — they resort to anger, frustration, and defensiveness rather than honest and open communication to cope.
3. They’re afraid to express differing opinions online.
Voronaman | Shutterstock.com
While echo chambers have the power to cultivate healthy connections and community, they also tend to craft fear-based defensiveness in many members, inherently tied to their beliefs, values, and opinions. Instead of accepting change or being vulnerable about changing values, these people feel forced to repress any signs of internal difference.
This repression feeds into the anger and frustration many echo chambers cultivate in response to people and communities different from themselves, reducing the benefits of shared experience, interest, and connection these online communities have the power to harness.
4. They use emotionally-driven arguments.
JLco Julia Amaral | Shutterstock.com
As Jean E. Fox Tree, a participant in the Discourse & Society study, explains, part of what characterizes an online community as an echo chamber is its internal communication styles. When participants use emotion-driven arguments and personal conversations, not necessarily based on fact or concrete “truth” but also rooted in personal experience, they spark a sense of personal closeness among members.
This intrinsic connection and community, intertwined with shared opinions, beliefs, and experience, often makes it challenging to consider outside perspectives or diverge from an echo chamber’s information — they’re tied to your people, your identity, and unfortunately, the attitudes you consider as “personal truth.”
Sometimes, discomfort with the unknown or a fear of losing community prevents people from considering or empathizing with perspectives outside their echo chamber, but other times, it’s ignorance of the reality of their situation.
5. They frequently use swear words and exclamation points online.
Just Life | Shutterstock.com
Along with passionate swear words and constant exclamation points, many people living in an online echo chamber will also frequently use “you” and “I” to spark familiarity and closeness in debates, discussions, and “PSAs” online, at least according to Allison Nguyen, the principal author of the Discourse & Society study.
Even without specific rhetoric or beliefs ingrained into their message, they use these linguistic markers, language, and elements to instill a sense of shared experience and connection with the people in their online echo chamber. This often sparks a great deal of hostility and personal emotion in disagreements with those outside the chamber—they’re so emotionally invested in the values and community they share that they’re offended by pushback.
6. They project ideas of ‘echo chambers’ onto the people they disagree with.
DimaBerlin | Shutterstock.com
The key signs that a person is in an online echo chamber that only backs up their own preconceived beliefs aren’t always clear — in fact, they can often be unsuspecting. If someone constantly demonizes another community's opinions or attacks differing opinions, saying, “They're the ones in an echo chamber,” that’s more often than not a means of projecting.
People in online echo chambers, such as social media, are often shocked or confused when they see differing opinions on their feeds or “FYPs” — they often don’t realize that the situation is algorithmic and isolating.
7. They idolize certain public figures or influencers.
Rido | Shutterstock.com
According to University of Pennsylvania professor Damon Centola, social media influencers can greatly influence online echo chambers, as they’re often connected to everyone. In contrast, specific users only have their circles and communities.
He not only argues that influencers hold a great deal of power in projecting and filtering information in certain chambers, which he coined “centralized” rather than “egalitarian,” but also that social media platforms have primarily become echo chambers in themselves.
“Online networks are often organized around a few key influencers,” Centola argues. “This feature of social media is one of the main reasons why misinformation and fake news have become so pervasive. In centralized networks, biased influencers have a disproportionate impact on their community — enabling small rumors and suppositions to become amplified into widespread misconceptions and false beliefs.”
While not every thought or opinion that comes out of an echo chamber is a misconception, isolation from discussion impacts the thought processes of its members—they’re not just free from criticism; they’re isolated from debate that can unlock truly big-picture mindsets and ideas.
8. They’re boldly rude to people with differing opinions.
Prostock-studio | Shutterstock.com
According to research from the Reuters Institute, “affective polarization,” the dislike between two opposing sides of an argument or opinion, has grown more divided in recent years across many spaces. Not only does this increase the bold-faced hostility many users online feel empowered to express from their echo chambers online, but it also protects them from feeling the repercussions of that hatred.
By demonizing, attacking, and dehumanizing other group’s intelligence online, they feel less guilty criticizing them, even from an incredibly rude and insensitive standpoint. They know their community, founded on intense loyalty to a set of beliefs, will support them in “standing up” for what they believe in, even if it’s harsh.
Of course, not every echo chamber operates like this, and they’re often not founded on ideas and opinions that are inherently and intensely personal like many modern ones are.
9. They believe their opinions are always right.
Fizkes | Shutterstock.com
Sometimes, people don’t enter into echo chambers online but craft and cultivate them by seeking similar opinions and engaging with content that reaffirms their beliefs. As social media algorithms learn from their engagement, they feed into their isolation, cultivating a space with little to no dissenting voices or opinions.
Without pushback, or at the very least, accessibility to differing opinions, they start to believe that their values, beliefs, and perspectives are either entirely “right” or shared by most people. When they’re finally exposed to differing opinions, it can be equally shocking and isolating to come to terms with.
10. They share an ‘us versus them’ mentality.
People Images Yuri A | Shutterstock.com
Depending on the specificity of opinions in an echo chamber and what’s typically discussed, the intensity of this sign can be widely different.
Generally, if someone constantly picks sides, argues for a “my way or the highway” approach, or labels issues as a “with us or against us” mindset, they’ve been isolated to an echo chamber.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a news and entertainment writer at YourTango who focuses on health and wellness, social policy, and human interest stories.