Perhaps over the past few weeks you have heard of a term called “Echo Chamber.” Literally, an echo chamber describes “an enclosed space for producing reverberation of sound.” Recently, the term echo chamber describes how ideologies and beliefs are often reinforced by our communities on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Glancing at my timeline, I see lots of posts from people who think like me, rarely do I see posts that go against my main political and religious beliefs. That my friends, is an echo chamber. In the weeks following the 2016 election results, the blame for our highly unprepared President-elect has been shifting around. However, I think echo chambers played a large role in the election. It allowed many of us to feel safe, to think that the alt-right was just a small group of people who we can surely defeat. (Likely I also thought this due to white privilege, I was confident that many white women would vote against Trump, but clearly not.) Obviously the best time to realize we all fell into an echo chamber would have been months and months ago. Regardless, now is the time to start climbing out of chambers and acknowledge the changing world we are living in.

At this point, I would like to make a disclaimer. Personally, I think I fell into an echo chamber for many reasons, one being that I like to fight. If you think I’m wrong I will literally fight you until the end of time. Ask any of my friends. Naturally, during election season to avoid spending all my time in Facebook fights, I de-friended people who were adamant Trump supporters (which wasn’t difficult as many of my friends were anti-Trump to begin). My more moderate Trump supporter friends stayed, and I felt that was enough to give me a glimpse of the other side. Boy was I wrong. By ignoring the extremists on the right I was truly turning a blind eye to part of the problem. This my friends, is the danger of echo chambers.

So what do we do now? Read the other side. When your Facebook friend shares an article that goes against what you believe read it. Try to understand where they are coming from. I personally try to find ways to more calmly argue my point rather than wanting to scream it in their face. Try to find a middle ground within the argument, it often exists. For example, one of my more liberal friends posted an article relating to Ohio’s passing of an anti-abortion bill. A conservative friend shared his dismay with the bill, but that he supported banning abortions (excluding rape and threats to the mother). By listening to his side rather than just ignoring an opposing opinion, I realized that he opposes abortion because he fears women will then just ignore regular birth control and have abortions as often as they please. After presenting some other information, both sides were able to reach a sort of middle ground. While my liberal friend still holds her pro-choice stance and my conservative friend likely still holds his pro-life stance, both sides now understand the other a little more.

Just understanding the other side may seem moot. It doesn’t do much to change the other person’s mind to what I (or you) believe is right. My conservative friend found a new understanding in that women take abortions seriously, and that abortions come at a great financial and physical cost to the woman, but he still held his ground that abortion is murder. To some, it may seem that my liberal friend “lost” by not changing his mind, but you have to remember that change doesn’t happen overnight. In the end, listening to the other side and attempting to understand will help to create a more united America. Or at least we won’t be constantly screaming at each other.

It is so easy to fall into an echo chamber. Naturally we want to surround ourselves with like-minded people, but we have to avoid this. Discrediting the other side to an issue is ignorant. Listen, learn, reason. America is not going to unite if both conservatives and liberals cover their ears to the opposing argument or continue to discredit the opposing arguments. Yes, I feel there are some issues that do not have an opposing side (for example, Climate change), but yet I still hear people arguing about it (it’s real folks and it is here). At least acknowledging the other side helps me to create a better rounded argument, and helps to understand why someone may form the argument that they do. Listen, learn, reason. Listen, learn, reason.