Regarding “echo chambers”: this is a popular, popularized term. It makes some kind of sense to a person who thinks a certain way, but introspection or intuitiveness does not a fact make.

You can slant your intuition the other way if you like. The claim is that in an information environment with lots of specialized sources, people will seek out information sources that support, or at least don’t contradict, what they already believe. I.e., they will enter an echo chamber. But it is just as reasonable to believe that in an information environment with that much diversity, people will be exposed to a wide variety of ideas in spite of themselves, and people who actively seek out nuance won’t have any trouble finding it. Some people might get sucked into an echo chamber, but most won’t.

That’s just as intuitive a stance to hold.

It’s also the stance that seems to fit the data

Using a nationally representative survey of adult internet users in the United Kingdom (N = 2000), we find that those who are interested in politics and those with diverse media diets tend to avoid echo chambers. This work challenges the impact of echo chambers and tempers fears of partisan segregation since only a small segment of the population are likely to find themselves in an echo chamber.

Here’s a more expository account that surveys numerous data points; as the authors put it

A deep dive into the academic literature tells us that the “echo chambers” narrative captures, at most, the experience of a minority of the public. Indeed, this claim itself has ironically been amplified and distorted in a kind of echo chamber effect.

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