As I continuing toying with assignment ideas that reflect a new approach to critical pedagogy, I find myself enamored with a classic rhetorical assignment, arguing a different point of view. It's relevancy to my dissertation, though, depends on the validity of the echo chamber effect. The echo chamber effect is the concept that in the hyper nich-ified and targeted world of Internet news and blogs that people only read information that reinforces their own beliefs. However, recent studies indicate that Internet surfing and social media sites lead to a wider exposure to a variety of viewpoints.
One of the landmark studies focuses on Facebook. Scholars from the University of Michigan discovered that people shared more links from "friends" they have weak ties with than with "friends" they had strong ties with. While they shared with higher frequency links from strong ties, cumulatively more links were shared from weak ties. They define strong ties as the friends whose pictures you comment on, who you message privately, etc. However, they don't establish that weak Facebook ties automatically mean that these individuals hold different values or viewpoints. My weakest ties are professional "friends." I don't comment on pictures of their kids or message them about getting together for dinner, but I am much more interested in the links they post than those of many of my close friends. So until they finish their more nuanced study on the sharing of political stories, I remain skeptical.
In Future Perfect, Steven Johnson cites another study by two University of Chicago business professors, who discovered the echo chamber effect was only a shade more significant for web users than traditional consumers of newspapers and TV news. He quotes David Brooks, who states, "This study suggests that Internet users are a bunch of ideological Jack Kerouacs. They're not burrowing down into comforting nests. They're cruising far and wide, looking for adventure, information, combat and arousal" (103). While Johnson diminishes the significance of the echo chamber effect, he does still stress the importance of diverse viewpoints when it comes to problem-solving. Johnson uses the term diversity broadly: "we are smarter as a society--more innovative and flexible in our thinking--when diverse perspectives collaborate...the emphasis on diversity does not revolve exclusively around the multicultural diversity of race or gender; it's as much about professional, economic, and intellectual diversity as it is about identity politics" (99). So what remains as in the next week and a half of class planning is how exactly I will have students capitalize on "the network" to grow as writers and thinkers. I do like the idea of group projects, but they are usually a hard sell and can limit students from pursuing topics that they are more interested in. Will this semester be the one where I finally master the online group project? Stay tuned...
