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Comment by vlunkr | Hacker News Reader

As a counterpoint, I've seen lots of people become more accepting because of the way the internet connects people. If you lived in a rural place before, you likely had very little interaction with minority groups outside of how they were portrayed in media. Now it's possible to interact with all kinds of people and recognize them as people instead of stereotypes.

I don't deny that there are echo chambers and major communication breakdowns, but I think on the whole it's a positive development.

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How does that work, like how does the connection get made and identity discovered? Generally I feel the echo chamber effect would be more common.

One consumes information online, that information causes introspection and a better perspective of one's identity.

Usually it's not one specific event but a bombardment of information that over time, hopefully gives someone more perspective and their place in the world.

On the other hand, it closes some people off and causes the echo chamber. Cuts both ways.

Can you share some articles or studies that demonstrate the increasing openness? (I hope it’s true that it cuts both ways, but would like to see more data/research).

I don't know. I can see it going both ways, but I think that modern technology has reduced introspection for many people. In the news today, it's all about sound bites and hyperbolic headlines. I thing the intellectual attributes of news sources has declined. I thought I saw a study or thread on HN supporting the claim, but now I can't find it.

News is very polarizing by design. Just like with social media, news profits more off of driving polarization. So they frame everything to drive traffic and viewers.

> Generally I feel the echo chamber effect would be more common

almost certainly is

Well on more anonymous platforms like HN or Reddit it probably doesn't happen that much, but on youtube, instagram, twitter, etc usually identity is no secret.

This is just more of my opinion, but generally the people I know that get caught up in bad echo chambers would have done so without the internet. The Alex Jones fans are just a new iteration of Rush Limbaugh fans, albeit more extreme. I think it's possible for otherwise reasonable people to get caught up in something like that, but they can also get out with time and more life experience.

This reads like a technocrat's hopeful vision of the Internet in the early 1990s. Sure, in theory it's true, but we all know in reality that that's not how the majority of humanity is using the Internet.

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