Friday 7 October 2016

We're living in a Giant Echo Chamber

I was reading a blog about the various Pantone colour palette for 2016/2017.... yes, I'm mad about colour... no this blog is not going to be about colours....much.... It is actually a comment by the Vice President of Pantone that got me thinking...

The world has become an increasingly polarized place. As Pantone’s Vice President Laurie Pressman notes, on the one side are aspects which almost fade into anonymity (n#4 INVISIBLE) , while the other has a strong, stand-out-and-be-seen attitude. Looked at from another perspective, consider the dichotomy between yoga and mindfulness and the race so many have joined for status and social positioning.

Fact of the matter is that we do live in an increasingly polarised world because we curate and filter all the information that comes our way, and we hang out with people that think the same way we do ourselves. What the means is that our world views hardly ever get challenged, we almost never have cause to look again at what we think and try to see things from a different view.
I found this very noticeable during the 'Brexit' nonsense. When it was announced, 99% of my Facebook friends were horrified and incredulous, but that doesn't reflect the actual position of the nation, just all the London middle class broad minded lefty types that are my mates...and me, if I'm honest... And it really notices when you see how popular Trump is in the US. Again, everyone I know can't believe that this circus has come so far and struggle to understand what anyone could possibly see in that ludicrous man. Yet, he stands a very real chance of becoming the next president, so clearly there are loads of people out there that think really differently to me. 

But because I'm surrounded by people that think the same way as me, it just entrenches my views to the point where I wouldn't even spend 1 nano second trying to relate to Mr Trump as a sensible choice for the Presidency.

Life didn't used to be this way, before the internet, there was no facebook's eternal feedback loop of self confirming reality. The giant echo chamber... 

It's confusing, being a grownup.... 

Mr Boycie doesn't need to worry about this stuff....


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