In the days following the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, Facebook has been on fire with posts from everyone's friends, relatives and acquaintances about the outcome of the next presidential election. Not that this hasn't been happening since this time last year, but I digress. As the posts start increasing in number, I find myself scowling at my news feed and my finger often hovers over the unfollow or unfriend button. However, there seems to be some issues with this practice that we aren't realizing.

Now I have unfollowed and unfriended people from Facebook and Twitter a million times. No, I don't want to see the 50 recipe videos you've shared in the last hour. Your daughter is very talented, but your posting every two minutes about the latest, greatest thing she's done is getting old. And for the love of all that is holy, stop sharing pictures of abused animals. They break my heart, and what's worse is I know I can't save them all, so now I feel even guiltier. Thanks a lot. Now, unfollowing or un-friending these people comes from a legitimate place - annoyance on social media is easy to avoid with these features. Where we run into issues is when we start unfollowing or un-friending people because of their political views.

When you remove these people from your news feed, what you're doing is surrounding yourself with people who share the same thoughts and views as you. This is called the Facebook Echochamber. Essentially, you type a status and metaphorically shout it into the void, and the only statuses you see in return are the ones that echo your own opinion. What does that do for your education on political topics? Not a whole lot. We need to have some opposing viewpoints in order to keep ourselves up to date on what's going on in this country. This is not to say that you must keep friends with every person who opposes your view. If someone is spewing hate speech on the reg, then please unfriend them. There is no need to surround yourself with negativity and hate, but there is a need to surround yourself with people who can challenge your opinions and drive you to research new ideas. In fact, according to this article published in January, it can actually make you more narrow minded and less likely to accept someone else's thoughts if you remove these people from your news feeds.

This Facebook Echochamber idea is not new, and it is constantly evolving. As of June 29, Facebook is working to ensure that the posts you see first are the ones from "those you care about the most." For more details on how this is harmful, check out this article. Essentially what this means for you is that your friends, who likely share similar views, are the ones you'll see the most of, and sites that you follow (specifically news sites) will fall further down on the list. Chances are you'll get distracted or bored by the time you get through the "most important" posts and your social media time will simply be another way for you to see your unopposed views echoed by those you admire and care about.

This article is not meant to tell you to abandon your beliefs and blindly absorb information spewed by your peers. You can 100 percent disagree with peoples' political stances. But more importantly, this article is telling you not to get rid of all the people who oppose your ideas. Oppositions in thought grow you as a person. You do not have to get into Facebook fights with these people, and you do not have to read that propaganda article about how Donald Trump was sent by Jesus himself to save America. Hell, you don't even have to listen to me at all. I'm simply encouraging i you to think about where your peers' thoughts and stances are coming from and what their beliefs are grounded in. It can only make you a more educated and involved voter come November, and that's what we really need.