The Echo Chamber
Dang you Mark Zuckerberg. You’ve done it again. Just as I was starting to spend less time on Facebook, you sucked me back in. For those of you who didn’t get this news in their Facebook feed yet: The 800 lb. Gorilla of Social Media changed its algorithms last month with the express purpose of getting people back together again. It has de-prioritized click-bait stories and organic news posts designed to stir things up. The experts said you were nuts, Mr. Zuckerberg, and Wall Street punished your stock the day it was announced. But I like stirring things up. It’s kind of fun to post something on a friends wall, just to get their reaction. If they are a conservative, I can post a picture of Nancy Pelosi. If they are a liberal, I can post a Trump tweet.
Despite recent elections, the toxic state of politics and the great divide it caused, I refuse to live in an echo chamber. I refuse. So I started slowly and judiciously reducing my time on Facebook. The ads, the conversation and the interaction seemed to be getting one-sided.
Look, I get my news from both CNN and Fox. (somewhere in the middle, I find truth).
I have friends on both sides of the aisle. I hear them, see them, listen to them, laugh at them, and laugh with them. But I didn’t unfriend them on Facebook because they had a different world view. And I'm so glad I didn’t, because now I get to all of them more often on Facebook, and not just the ones I agree with politically. Thanks, Zuck.
Hold on a minute....is this a good thing?