Echo-Chambers and the Dangers of self-radicalization.

Dear Damen, I hope all is well today, as you are off on a playdate with mom, leaving Dad alone to ponder on how he will inform you on the ever quickly moving world of radicalization through echo-chambers and our selective information gathering.

It turns out, humans hate to be wrong. And due to Algorithms the computer reinforces every single thing we perceived as truth, or rather, what appears to be, opposed to what actually is.

And that, my son, brings to me what is an Echo-Chamber?

Social media is a great tool, but a dangerous one. And your world view on technology is much different than mine. And while I am only twenty-three years older than you, I received my first phone when I was in grade 8. It had calling, and to text, you had to press the numbers a certain number of times to get the letter you wanted. And it only stored up to 200 messages in total. You can imagine how many times a night your father was deleting text messages to receive more.

Flash forward to now, Damen, and you’re taking Daddy’s and mommy’s phone and putting it up to your ear. You start talking into it. You see that the screen lights up. You want to play with it—just like any eighteen-month-old should.

And yet you have no idea how powerful that device is. Hell, I know your mother hasn’t a clue—all she knows is that her phone has more memories on it in photos, than your parents have combined to document our whole childhood.

And while that sounds amazing because it is—it’s also scary!

The whole world out there in the palms of your hand. All the evil, and all the good with it—accessible with a few words typed into google.

Now how can that be a bad thing, you may ask?

Well, what if I told you that as human beings, we are very bad at receiving criticism. Or beyond that, we’re all a bunch of sore losers.

And to avoid losing, everyone, from the moment they receive a cellphone and beyond, love to fortify and confirm our own opinions. In the same way we all like to win, and only win, we don’t like to be wrong, or to question our own belief system.

We all want to be kings and queens. And what better way to accomplish that, than to have your own personal page to sort your accomplishments, and inherently live in your own empire?

A place that only you own. Where you are judge, jury, and executioner. That is the phone.

Don’t believe me? Go on twitter and block the President of the United States, or the Prime Minister of Canada.

You can do that—and yet legally as a citizen, they can’t block you.

So it’s this immense power where we voluntarily, on all sides, create a room where everything that’s shown to us has gone through our rigorous selection process. Where the algorithm, that you train overtime, will get better and better at showing you, God of your own reality, the only things you want to hear.

And the only things you want to hear, is what makes you feel good.

Some experts that are way more intelligent than I, describe it as if we create and live in a ‘Daily me.’

And so ironically, even though we have access to more information than any person in human history—we are now more isolated than ever. Because our freedom to filter whatever information we choose to receive, forces us into narrow boxes of singular thinking.

And just like a King, or true tyrant—if someone expresses and opinion you disagree with, you can silence them at the press of a button.

And if you want to go further than that, than you can get a bunch of kings and tyrants together and take the Castle from the person in question—without spilling a drop of blood.

I know of a source.

Now Damen, I feel it’s important in an open discussion to remind you that I graduated high school and became a paratrooper and landlord.

I am not an expert. However, I did have an anonymous expert who wanted to highlight the relationship between social media and the third person effect in large part, due to self-esteem.

And he told me of the numerous studies on how social media affects a user’s self-esteem negatively. He spoke how social media actually targets users who have low self-esteem, acting as a driving force.

And then he pointed to the fact the third person effect as well, according to experts, primarily targets those with low self-esteem.

He suggested that there is a compounding affect between constant usage of social media and the third-person effect. Almost creating an infinite loop that cannot be stopped.

My anonymous expert states “the third person effect primarily affects groups that are seeking social desirability by self-motivated means to raise self-esteem. In this case, social media users who go out of their way to be relevant and popular amongst their peers or on their social media network by sharing, spreading, and writing about beliefs that they know will get engagements. They see this engagement through likes, hearts, shares, comments, retweets, and impressions.

It’s the old adage of ‘we’ve never been more connected, and yet more alone.’

However, despite this knowledge—the user with low self-esteem constantly seeks approval and acceptance through engagements. Thus, those who desire constant engagement, are more likely than not to polarize themselves through the constant need and desire for more. As once the ‘new’ thing becomes mainstream or accepted, then they are sent back to the bottom of self-esteem ladder.

And to climb it again, they must search for the ‘new’ thing.

Thus, it’s a self-progression that never ends where the user act’s no more than a hamster in a wheel.

Do you see the danger in anonymous experts, or sources?

In this case, this anonymous expert is myself, and merely spreading an opinion. But imagine how many articles you've read, that've woven lies to reinforce your narrative?

And beyond that, How can you refute something that simultaneously doesn’t exist, yet exists at the same time?

You can’t.