Ask HN: What do you think about internet echo chambers? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What do you think about internet echo chambers?

4 pointsdoorbellguy5 comments

How about you seed the conversation by telling us what you think about internet echo chambers?

Hopefully also addressing the question: is HN an internet echo chamber, and how do you tell?

    Ask HN: What do you think about internet echo chambers?

This makes me sound like a knee-jerk contrarian, but I think the majority opinion is wrong. Echo chambers are good! When you have too wide a chasm between points of view, you spend all your time bickering about surface issues. But if you speak to people who already agree with you on first principles, you can have a deeper discussion.

For example, a doctor and homeopath are less likely to have a productive discussion about health issues, than two doctors, or two homeopaths. A doctor and homeopath are just going to argue over whose profession is the worthless one.

    is HN an internet echo chamber

Sure, moreso than most other sites, in that people on HN are better educated (and therefore more liberal) than the average social network. But I'd prefer it if the opinions were still less diverse.

    and how do you tell?

Since I seldom see users threaten each other with physical violence here, I assume it's more of an echo chamber than most other websites.

My view is that "echo chamber" is a meaningless phrase meant to malign people who you disagree with, but who generally agree with each other.

I don't know what the majority opinion is. I figure it's different for different people, which is why I asked the one who posted this question to gives a more meaningful description.

What is your definition of an echo chamber? It obviously includes "a place where people don't threaten each other with physical violence."

BTW, you wrote "HN are better educated (and therefore more liberal)"

That is a conjecture. Engineers and tend to be more conservative than even the nation as a whole, and HN has many engineers. (See for example https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Engineers_and_woo .)

Fair enough. I ought to have omitted the "(and therefore more liberal)" since it's a bit inflammatory. Either way, in comparison to other communities, HN users tend to be more academic, etc.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com