Beware the social media echo chamber

As Thomas Jefferson said, ‘If you can only afford one newspaper, buy the one you least agree with’

Many of the social media giants we use on a daily basis are keen to keep us engaged with them, and thus keen to show us more of what we like. This creates the dreaded echo chamber – in which we only see and hear opinions with which we agree.

Tech giants care about little more than their shareholders, while algorithms and robots care only for providing you with more and more confirmation bias, pushing your head further into the sand dune of your beliefs, however extreme or fictitious they may become.

It is incumbent upon us as citizens in what is (allegedly) still a functioning democracy to battle against this.