Living in a cave.
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I’ve only been caving a few times, enough to know that I don’t enjoy doing it. But as with most things in life, we can extract lessons and analogies that help us to think and understand. I had this thought as I was out walking yesterday.
I assume we’ve all heard an echo, most of us have probably made an echo by clapping or making some other sound which has bounced back to us.
Caves are often great places to make an echo. We can say hello loudly and that same hello comes back to us several times, almost like the cave is speaking back to us. It is good old-fashioned, harmless fun.
What isn’t old-fashioned and harmless are the modern echo-chambers we place ourselves in. An echo chamber is an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered.1
Even when our beliefs are healthy and helpful, to never have them challenged, questioned or added upon is not. Echo chambers can prove dangerous and even fatal when our beliefs are incorrect, examples include right-wing nationalism and left wing woke-ism.
Social media is often one giant echo chamber that feeds us what we already like, believe and want to see and hear. And because we live in an increasingly disconnected world of self-checkouts and home-delivery, we rarely, if ever have to leave the comfort of our own ideologies.
There is always more than one perspective or idea that has value, on every subject from marriage to making money. But sadly we rarely see or hear them, instead we are fed a steady stream of content that already jives with our existing belief system.
One way to combat this is to return to some of the older ways we did things. Instead of ordering online, maybe get out to the mall before they go extinct. Maybe it’s time to get off Facebook and actually read a book instead. Rather than binge Netflix, we could invite friends to attend the local cinema together.
As we continue to scrub away the connection that is so vital for human survival and success, and place ourselves in echo-chambers that grow increasingly louder, we should not be surprised to see more violence, extremism, and intolerance in our society.
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Google dictionary