Is it just me, or have people’s views gotten stronger and stronger over the past decade or so?
Perhaps things have always been this way, but the advent of social media has made it more evident than before: When people argue nowadays (say, about politics), this doesn’t take place in the middle of a town square, or a local coffee shop, where only a few others would be exposed to their arguments. Rather, this is now done over social media channels, where the “argument” can be observed (and even further inflated) by countless other people.
That being said, I believe the above isn’t a cause, but rather, an effect. The effect of us using social media which by default show us content that we like. This increases our inherent confirmation bias. Many people aren’t even aware of it and even those of us who are, have a very hard time controlling it.
This triggers the following reaction:
- Most people out there have certain views;
- Social media only show them content that they like (i.e. relevant to their views);
- Confirmation bias kicks in, making these people believe that virtually everyone shares their views;
- When they encounter someone with different views, they try to… “outyell” them, because obviously, since everyone has been agreeing with them thus far, they must be right!
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand how the above sequence has contributed to the polarization of our society into respective bubbles.
But the outtake from today’s blogpost isn’t just restricted to politics, that was merely an example. It actually covers every facet of our daily lives, from how we conduct business, to how we treat others.
So it’s important to try and break the bubbles in which we live every now and then. Because if we don’t, they will end up turning into prisons, out of which we will have progressively harder time to exit and grow, by adopting the differing and potentially beneficial views of others.