Echo Chambers

If you haven’t seen Tim Urban’s incredible TED Talk about procrastination, you’ve got to go see it. Immediately. It’s the only acceptable way to procrastinate on your work because it’s a literal paradigm-shifter and also just a really fun watch. Anyway!

He presents some interesting ideas about the concept of an echo chamber. Political and ideological tribalism has become more and more prevalent over the last decade, though it’s always existed to some extent. So why are echo chambers dangerous – and first of all, what does it even mean?

You’re in danger of being in an echo chamber environment when “talking about how obviously correct [shared core ideas] are” is a common activity for a group. Echo chambers get their name from the idea that you could shout something that should be debated, but instead it just gets echoed back to you. As Urban puts it, there is a direct relationship between agreement and decency in an echo chamber. The more a person agrees with a group, no matter how misguided the group’s views are, the more decent that person appears to a group- an obviously unhealthy circumstance. I recall watching the presidential debates in the last 10 years and cringing at how very disrespectful it all seemed. When someone criticizes an idea that an echo chamber group holds to be true, it’s as if they are criticizing the core identity of the group. There’s no room for productive discussion, because there’s almost a childish element of “my way or highway” to it all.

Discourse and disagreement are critical to progress, which is why echo chambers are incredibly harmful. This is also why association matters a lot in who a person is. When much of one’s time is spent with people who only echo your ideas, it’s much harder to break out of a rut or think more creatively. Echo chamber-style thinking is predicated on being right all the time – in a space like that, it feels morally wrong to disagree, which is why the same narrative gets shouted repeatedly.

So, what marks a better environment? What kind of environment would be better and more conducive to productive conversation?

Tim Urban calls this contrary mindset an “Idea Lab” – a place where disagreement and debate is as much a part of conversation as agreement and consensus. A healthy balance of the two are essential for growth in any context. In this idea lab space, disagreements are not only permissible but important for innovation. In an idea lab, people come up with ideas and fill up whiteboards with notes and plans before realizing there might be hitch, erasing it all, and starting new. Hard work is a hallmark of an idea lab. It’s easy to be in an echo chamber. No new research is required, and little to no thought goes into figuring out how new pieces of news align with the usual echo-chamber ideas. In an idea lab, a lot of research needs to happen: to find out what solutions exist, what solutions are possible, if proposed ideas can even happen, and how, if they can. Idea labs and echo chambers exist outside business schools and engineering departments. The concept is applicable to much more than actual innovation. When the echo chambers disappear – from our town halls, Congresses, and even from inside our homes – that’s when we’ll see changes for the best. 🔆