Facebook echo chamber

I’ve written before about the Facebook echo chamber where, like karma, like-minded Facebook friends are drawn towards you. This becomes an echo chamber as one only hears from those who share your views.

Yesterday I was shown again just how much filtering Facebook does, when my friend Tanner Lovelace commented on an update Kelly made to Facebook.

“Wait, are you and Tanner Facebook friends?” I asked Kelly.

“I am,” she answered.

“How come I’m not Tanner’s friend?”

“Well, the only way I know Tanner is through you,” she said, “so you must be his friend.”

I checked my list of Facebook friends and, sure enough, there was Tanner. Then I checked Tanner’s page and saw how many of his updates I haven’t been getting because for some reason Facebook never thought to show them to me.

Without me knowing it, Facebook was steering me towards some friends and away from others. I never knew what I had been missing.

This is what I find really frustrating about Facebook: the view it gives you of your world is highly distorted. And you might not ever realize it.