Rebecca Blood, in her keynote at BlogTalk, worried that bloggers only read bloggers who agree with them, thus greatly limiting the potential for growth and understanding. Worse, only reading people who think the way we do can result in an “echo chamber” where the echoes seem to confirm our beliefs.

Rebecca used as her example the blogs for and against the Iraqi war. But that is one of the most divisive of issues. Is it true for less contentious topics?

I suspect it is to some degree. (Note: Joho the Blog remains true to its pledge to be 100% Research Free.) But I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing.

It sort of has to be true because conversations need common ground. So, if it’s a debate about software patents, the people involved in all sides of the issue will likely be fairly technical, sharing some assumptions about the nature of software and how markets work. Nevertheless, the homogeneity is what enables there to be vigorous debate.

Some degree of homogeneity is a condition not only for conversation but also for understanding and learning. For example, when AKMA upbraided me for something stupid and mean I said about Foucault, we were only able to talk about it because we share a base of presuppositions about philosophy. Because of that shared base, AKMA was able to show me where I was wrong and opened up Foucault in a way I had dismissed. Are AKMA and I Western, intellectual (in my case, add a “-wannabe”) white guys who are carrying very roughly the same baggage? Sure. But are we also an echo chamber in which we can’t learn anything? Nah.

Echo chambers definitely do exist. Sometimes they exist precisely in order to solidify opinion. But not every case of homogeneity is an echo chamber. Because we can only understand the new in terms of the familiar (which is the same as saying that understanding means placing something in context), agreement is the ground on which learning can occur.

Nevertheless, I find it impossible to resist Rebecca’s conclusion that we – I – ought to be more adventurous and open in what we read and think about. Agreement simultaneously enables learning and tends towards complacency.

Categories: Uncategorized dw