Have you ever noticed that people (especially on the right) are really afraid of voicing their opinions online for fear that a woke internet mob might publicly shame and attack them?
This should seem a little odd. Most of our friends online probably have similar opinions as us. Yet when we post our opinions it seems like it's just the haters who show up.
Now consider for a moment that social media algorithms know everything about you. Based on your online activity they probably not only know where you are on the political spectrum but they also know how likely you are to be vocal about those opinions. They could easily pull up a list of the 10 to 20 people in your friends list most likely to attack you for stating a particular opinion. Not only this, but if you say something they like, they could reinforce that by showing it to people most likely to pat you on the back and share that content with others. They could even include a few friends on your side just to keep you from getting suspicious.
Starting to get the picture?
Now I want to be clear, I am not saying this is actually happening but rather is something that is entirely in the power of a social media company with the pushing of a few buttons and you would not even know it was happening. And this does not even get into the power of google to control what information pops up when you search for anything online! Some people have their undies in a bundle because of facebook or twitter banning posts or ads. But that is child's play compared to their ability to manipulate our perceptions of the society around us.
Another interesting observation is that from 2012-2018 there was a surge in new voices online. However, as soon as youtube and some other social media companies began making deals with mainstream media outlets, new independent information providers began to slow down. Where is the new Joe Rogan, The new Ben Shapiro or Steven Crowder. Why did the intellectual dark web stop growing. Perhaps the market just got saturated at the exact same time platforms like youtube began increases censorship and a push toward mainstream media alliances... or perhaps not.
Increasingly, we all feel like people are in totally different worlds of information. Obviously if a person got all their info from CNN or Fox News they would have totally different perceptions of the world. Now multiply that by a 1000 when you consider the ability for google and social media companies to manipulate your reality. This is because a large portion of our perception of the world around us comes (not from direct experience) but through these massive media corporations. These handful of corporations control who gets shown what and when and this is brings us closer and closer to living in a world like the Truman Show. A world where your perspective of the world is controlled by others. A world where a person with the "right" opinion can be manipulated into thinking the whole world agrees with them and they are virtuous for having that opinion and the opposite for a person with the "wrong" set of ideas.
The degree to which this is happening is a matter of speculation, but we should be VERY aware of this danger. Like Truman sailing out beyond the artificial confines, we too must seek out the best arguments from all sides of an issue. We must search broadly from multiple sources for information with various perspectives and perhaps we (Like Truman) will come to see the world around us is different than we once suspected. Now more than ever if you don't your intentionally break out of your echo chambers your perception of the world will be controlled by a handful of corporations with their own agenda.