We’re all just talking to ourselves and here’s why
https://www.independent.co.uk/independentminds/long-reads/matthew-syed-book-review-rebel-ideas-social-networks-a9097246.html
The article touches base on several studies to examine the effects of diversity on the formation of echo chambers, and how echo chambers can be different from information bubbles.
The article starts off by mentioning a study examining the social networks of the University of Kansas and several other much smaller colleges in the same area. With its higher number of students and a higher factor of diversity, the University of Kansas is expected to have more “inclusive” social networks than its smaller neighbours. However, the exact opposite is true, and the study found that students from U of K were more likely to form their own exclusive networks. This sounds counterintuitive at first since the more diverse the people are, the more likely each student’s connections were going to be diverse. However, with great numbers also come to a greater amount of people sharing the same interests and hobbies, and a greater tendency for those people to form groups with each other. From the results of this study, it can be inferred that the more nodes there are in a network, the more likely that network is going to have clusters of people that are rivals with other groups of people. This paradox completely blows the idea of interconnectivity the internet is supposed to bring about. Instead of individuals forming strong ties with a diverse set of people, they are forming strong ties with like-minded people and weak or no ties with individuals with opposing viewpoints.
The article continues by talking about how echo chambers are formed. Essentially, when one member of a group A denounces the information provided by members of group B, then the information provided by group B which were originally supposed to attack group A now serves as a tool to unite members of group B. One can see a game theory problem arising here where the dominant strategy of both sides is to denounce each other, thus emphasizing the rift between the two groups even more. As such, provided that people are rational, echo chambers will always form and will only get larger. This could have drastic effects on future election cycles and the unity of the country.