We find peculiar differences across social media. Our method quantifies the existence of echo-chambers along two main dimensions: homophily in the interaction networks and bias in the information diffusion toward likely-minded peers. We infer the leaning of users about controversial topics - ranging from vaccines to abortion - and reconstruct their interaction networks by analyzing different features, such as shared links domain, followed pages, follower relationship and commented posts. To shed light on this issue, we introduce an operational definition of echo chambers and perform a massive comparative analysis on more than 1B pieces of contents produced by 1M users on four social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Gab. Although a quantitative methodology for their identification is still missing, the phenomenon of echo chambers is widely debated both at scientific and political level. In the mid-1990s, about the time when Nathan’s Run was first being published, AOL was pretty much synonymous with the internet for me.Recent studies have shown that online users tend to select information adhering to their system of beliefs, ignore information that does not, and join groups - i.e., echo chambers - around a shared narrative. Those were the days of squealing telephone modems and pay-by-the-hour access. I remember jumping out of my skin the first time that AOL voice said, “Welcome” through the speakers that I didn’t even know my computer had. #I CANNOT GET INTO THE ECHO CHAMBER STRIKE SKIN# There seemed to be no end to the rabbit holes of information diving. As a trivia junkie and a procrastinator, I’d stumbled upon the ultimate time suck. It was fabulous! But it wasn’t until I discovered the wonders of the chat room that I truly understood the addiction of internet rabbit holes. My favorite of those chat rooms was the AOL Writers Club.ĪOL chat rooms provided opportunities to “speak” real-time with real people all over the world. Run by a husband-and-wife team out of their apartment in Arlington, Virginia, the Writers Club provided my first opportunity to interact with writers of all stripes. Since the chats were real-time, the topics we discussed were the kinds of things you’d discuss in a coffee shop with friends. We got to know each other as we talked not just about craft, but about our families and whatever came to mind. Tom Clancy was probably the most famous person to pop in from time to time, but other regulars included Harlan Coben, Tess Gerritsen, Dennis Lehane and others who were just starting their careers. More than a few of those Writers Club denizens became face-to-face friends and remain so to this day. I don’t know that we knew them as trolls at the time, but they charged into the otherwise friendly group and started swinging bats and throwing hand grenades. They were uncooperative, and just plain mean to people. One in particular went on to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, but he was one of the most sour individuals I have ever run across. (I don’t know if the trolls were the cause of the collapse, but they are certainly the reason why I capped off that particular rabbit hole in my life.)Īt conferences, I run into some the old members, and when the topic comes up, everyone agrees that no group has ever come close to the sense of community we shared in the early days of the AOL Writers Club. TKZ comes close on some levels, but the interaction here happens in slow motion, while the Writers Club was real time.įast forward to 2020. I have joined–but rarely participate in–several writer-oriented Facebook groups, and I’m dismayed by how many of them are pre-loaded with trolls, and how the trolls are the dominant presence. Even more frustrating is the fact that these moderated, members-only group leaders tolerate the internal festering that will ultimately kill the thing they’re trying to build. Some of these groups have tens of thousands of members. If only 1% carry the troll gene, that’s still a lot of negativity. So, why do people who are obviously early in their writer-journey post their work into these ant hills and ask for comments? Do they not read other entries first? Are they masochists and merely want to reinforce the negative narrative that plagues so many artists? I cannot imagine doing such a thing. Let’s add into this mix some egregiously awful advice, mostly doled out by people who clearly are parroting what they’ve heard from somebody who knows someone who attended a conference somewhere. #I CANNOT GET INTO THE ECHO CHAMBER STRIKE SKIN#.

Get into the echo camber strike