Rethinking ‘echo chambers’ as local elections approach…

Humans are social beings. Relationships, voices, opinions, and ideas hold an important place in life. Different ideas and opinions contribute to giving meaning to this space and hold value when they are not viewed as a tool to establish dominance over others. Humans are nourished, enriched, intellectually developed, and advanced by this environment.

Especially in the period we are currently in, humans are mostly able to hear only their own voice and opinion in the environment they live in. Everyone around them thinks like them. They speak like them, they resemble them. The television channels they watch align with their own views. They say what they want to hear. The newspapers they read are the same. They reflect their thoughts, they write them. They accept everything as truth, they do not question it. They do not read publications with opposing content. The same goes for those they follow on social media…

People parallel to their own views. The more limited comfort zones created are similar. Everyone is of the same mind, in the same direction... It is impossible to encounter a different view. Especially on social media, sharing the same posts with people of similar views increases the sense of trust. They react to developing events in the same way and position themselves at the same point. Over time, a person hears only their own voice and their own opinion in the environment where they live. After a while, different views begin to be seen as abnormal. They even begin to be seen as extreme. If taken further, the different view that is met with reaction begins to be judged, moving to the point of “everyone sees the truth, why don't you?” It can even reach the dimension of “do you have a vested interest in this, who and what are you serving?”

The ‘Echo Chamber’ effect, conceptualized by C. Sunstein, is the massive spiral in which people find themselves in the digital world (social networks and digital media). Individuals only receive the information they want, communicate with people similar to themselves, and stay away from what they do not like. Sunstein states that this moment will cause very significant problems for the democratic perspective.

This situation also means that the information possessed by people gathered around similar thoughts remains limited to those who unite in that thought, and that similar thoughts, opinions, and news are reinforced and adopted without questioning.

Being trapped in an ‘echo chamber,’ constantly being in the same environments, can sometimes disconnect a person from reality in an increasingly polarized society, and learning, curiosity, asking questions, and effort decrease.

There is little time left until the local elections. A method called post-truth is being used by politics. In other words, politics is being conducted by re-transmitting lies as if they were true.

Especially the opposition needs to get rid of the echo chamber effect in its policies, rhetoric, and candidate selection process, and break away from its narrow practice. Acting on the reality that echo chambers exist in the target segment just as they do in its own camp, it must develop rhetoric that will break this effect and win.

THOSE WHO LOST 17 YEARS DUE TO 1 DAY WILL MEET IN KARTAL

The Association for Justice in Retirement (EMADDER), founded by employees demanding gradual retirement and growing day by day, chaired by Mihriban Uğurlu, is preparing for a major rally in Kartal on Sunday, January 21.

In the legal regulation regarding those who were caught by the age requirement for retirement (EYT), while those who had insurance entry before September 8, 1999, could obtain the right to retire, a waiting period of 17-20 years was introduced for those who had insurance entry 1 day later. This situation brought reactions as it led to inequality of rights and injustice.

RADIO PROGRAM

Our dear readers, dear friends, from now on, I will be on the program called “Alternative” on 96.6 Yön Radio every Thursday at 15.00. I hope you listen…