In my time surfing the web, I have
wondered why people think things I have seen to be false. Why is it that ideas
linger long enough to become outdated but few seem to notice? It is most likely
due to human psychology and the structure and nature of the internet itself
that causes these things.
On the internet, many posts and
comments can stay there for many years. This can lead to people coming across
them later and taking its viewpoint for their own. This occurs due to human
tendency to agree about something they know nothing about rather than research
or dispute it. They then repeat it, allowing someone else to find it. This process
continues until a counter reaction occurs, where an increasing number of people
with more accurate information attack the initial faulty or out of date
viewpoint. This counter reaction can occur either shortly after the faulty
information starts spreading or many years down the road. The faulty viewpoints
that are constantly fueled by nostalgia and the echo chamber effect are the
most difficult to deal with and are the least likely to ever die, despite any
counter reaction.
The echo chamber is a phenomenon
where people within a closed system experience amplified beliefs. This is most
easily seen on the internet. People on the internet frequent communities that share
their interests and beliefs. With this biased support, people become less likely
to change their views or even question them. Even if someone attempts to
correct someone with an echo chamber, the person is unlikely to listen due to
their words contradicting what they have absolute faith is true due to their
community. It is also more likely for these groups to form on the internet do
to the ease of finding other people with shared interests, backgrounds, and
beliefs. The larger the groups get, the more power they have to influence other
people to join them in their beliefs and thus increase their scale and
influence further.
Another issue with beliefs on the
internet is how some things can become more popular than they are actually
worth. This is due to these things passing an “event horizon” of sorts with
their popularity. Once something can pass a certain point, it becomes “cool” to
like it. I use quotes on the word “cool” because it is used in a similar way to
how smoking is “cool” or drugs are “cool.” It is essentially social pressures
that cause these things to become so popular. It is like an oversized echo
chamber in a way. Things I feel make good examples are Grand Theft Auto,
Skyrim, and Minecraft. By no means does this mean that anything that passes the
event horizon of popularity is bad like smoking or jumping off a bridge. I
personally agree that there are positive aspects to these things, as many other
people felt before they became popular. The issue is that there are other
things that are just as good, but failed to pass the event horizon.
Unfortunately, this can work the
other way, where it becomes “cool” to hate something. This time it is more
likely to be what used to be an echo chamber go too far and pass a negative event
horizon. This is only increased by the fact that people like to listen to
people hate things (bad reviews are more interesting than good reviews). Similar
to how there is always a lot of doom and gloom on the news.
While most of my experience comes
from frequenting video game websites, I am fairly certain that this applies to
other communities online. One could also compare the internet communities to
real life communities in history and current events. It is entirely possible
that I am biased in writing this due to most of my time spend online and in
real life society with people who share interests with myself. It seems to be
challenge for people to overcome human psychology to find out the real truths
in life.
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