Reinforcing Your Bias does not the truth make.

Today i have been thinking a lot about Echo Chambers and how they can be used to create a perception of reality that simply is not factually accurate.

Social Media and particularly sites like X (Formerly Twitter) have only enhanced this chasm in society and whilst being one of the best tools for instant communication out there, they have also simultaneously become some of the WORST inventions in modern human history due to the way people choose to use them.

For the most part, people use these sites as nothing but communication platforms to speak to family or friends but more and more we are seeing people arrange themselves in to interest groups via their own political bias or social interest and increasingly blocking out views that do not align with their own.

In theory, people should be free to do this, i am not here to tell people what they should or should not think BUT what i am doing is pointing out how this action is shaping discourse.

Human beings are pack animals and as such we are predisposed to stick with our group. Today we see this more than ever in how the so called “Truth” of a situation can seemingly be multiple things at the same time based solely on the perspective of our pack. The politcal left and right and everything inbetween will declare themselves the arbiters of truth even if the evidence does not stack up in their favour because of the reinforcement of their own bias and they are increasingly creating situations in which they have declared the “other Side” so “evil” that they will not see or accept anything that could (and often likely DOES) prove them wrong.

Is their a solution for this? Elon Musk seems to think that removing the ability to block people would at least help the situation but this comes with a range of issues in itself from privacy to the fact that in order to stay on Apple’s App Store or the Google play store the platform must have this feature, i myself have many people blocked who have doxxed my family, shared images of my children and threatened my life, i would not like to have my safety compromised by allowing these people access to my public profile andwould certainly think twice about using X as a platform.

Maybe this is the norm and there is no going back and if that is the case it is very sad indeed, the Reality is that no “side” is always right and taking the arguments and merits on board from the other is the only way that we can move forward BUT you have to make the decision to do that for yourself.

Only time will tell but remember – Reinforcing your bias does not the truth make and perhaps by opening yourself up to the opinions of others and finding the middle ground, things could get better.

– Who Knows? 

Benn