Seeing the recent wave of discourse surrounding social media platforms has been interesting.
We had similar problems before them. Tabloids, conspiracy theory subculture, clickbait, etc, are nothing new.
And we had "feed readers" that functioned to aggregate news sources that we subscribed/followed/liked. Which, in theory, should have catered to us in the way that people now label an "echo chamber".
But there are a few differences that stick out to me:
- More people producing content (back in the day anyone could create a blog or personal site, but the barrier of entry is lowered by social media platforms)
- These platforms are promoting some content above other content (which goes beyond aggregation)
- There's more data being collected and the tech to analyze it is increasing (targeting segments is easier)
We had similar problems before them. Tabloids, conspiracy theory subculture, clickbait, etc, are nothing new.
And we had "feed readers" that functioned to aggregate news sources that we subscribed/followed/liked. Which, in theory, should have catered to us in the way that people now label an "echo chamber".
But there are a few differences that stick out to me:
- More people producing content (back in the day anyone could create a blog or personal site, but the barrier of entry is lowered by social media platforms)
- These platforms are promoting some content above other content (which goes beyond aggregation)
- There's more data being collected and the tech to analyze it is increasing (targeting segments is easier)
- Bots