Every day you hear something shared by Donald Trump on Truth Social, the social media platform owned by Trump Media & Technology Group. The president has used the service to share everything from racist memes about the Obamas to bizarre boasts about the death of the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Psychology and political science experts say Truth Social is a questionable social network for a number of reasons. But perhaps most alarming is that the platform — like other social media networks — is an “echo chamber,” “an environment in which people seek out and consume information that reinforces their existing beliefs, values or opinions,” said Manahil Riaz, a Houston-based psychotherapist and owner of Riaz Counseling.
Health: Trump keeps using this phrase — and psychologists say it’s more powerful than you think
Echo chambers became a more common topic during the 2016 election, said Claire Robertson, an assistant professor of psychology at Colby College in Maine who focuses on political polarization and extremism. “This is … the first acknowledgment that what we see online is not necessarily representative of the offline world,” Robertson said.
Online, we curate our friends, the brands we follow and the news we see. If I don’t want to see updates from my ex, I don’t have to do that — and while that might be fine for this situation, it’s not so good when it comes to news and politics.
“The only content we see online is from people who agree with us. It’s the original concept of the echo chamber,” Robertson explains.
While social media does primarily show us the views of people who share our beliefs, we will Occasionally we see people or content in the news that we disagree with, but that doesn’t help much either. “That does happen, but for the most part, what we see are the opinions of the most extreme versions of people on both sides of the aisle. That can then be validated in our minds as the norm or representative of these different groups of people,” Robertson said.
Online echo chambers are harmful because they reinforce false beliefs. Illustration: Huffington Post; Photo: Getty Images
Like this article? Keep independent journalism alive. Support The Huffington Post.
Truth Social aims to “bring like-minded people together.”
Truth Social launched in 2022 as a conservative response to Trump being kicked off Facebook and Twitter (now known as X) following the January 6 insurrection.
“Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and so on, they can all be echo chambers, right? They just have echo chambers on both sides, and things like Truth Social and Bluesky [which tends to be more left-leaning]they are more specific to one aspect,” Robertson explained.
LIFE: What’s up with Trump and his many props?
The platform was also created to serve as an outlet for conservatives, Robertson said.
Social media channels like Facebook and X “were originally designed to be like a digital town square. Many tech companies still say that,” Robertson said.
They are intended to be places where people from different places and backgrounds can talk to each other. “People had hoped it would improve democracy… but that’s clearly not happening,” Robertson added.
Echo chambers create a sense of security.
“Echo chambers are environments that may appeal to some people because there is a sense of safety, comfort and validation,” Riaz said. “As humans, we love these three things. In these spaces, people are surrounded by beliefs and perspectives that align with their own, which can make their world feel very certain and safe.”
Life: The first seemingly innocuous word Trump keeps weaponizing
In an echo chamber, there is also no pressure to support or re-evaluate beliefs.
“It takes a lot of emotional and cognitive effort when we’re faced with opposing viewpoints,” such as discomfort, curiosity, and tolerance,
People who prioritize familiarity may also be more susceptible to echo chambers, she said.
“These environments can affirm a sense of reality, a sense of belonging, while protecting their ideas. Being exposed to opposing ideas can be very destabilizing, like, ‘If I’m not a Republican, who am I?’ My identity is so tied up with that that it almost feels like death. It almost feels like a threat,” Riaz noted.
Experts say that while all social media can be an echo chamber, Truth Social takes it to a different level. NurPhoto from Getty Images
Being in an echo chamber is problematic and even dangerous.
This applies to anyone, whether you are left or right. It even extends to perspectives beyond politics.
“Anytime people are exposed to extremely biased choices about something — people’s opinions — they start to think A: This is how everything is, and B: This is how everything should be,” Robertson said. “And none of those things are inherently true.”
LIFE: ‘Crazy spectacle’: Megyn Kelly’s behavior in Super Bowl rant actually disturbing
Online echo chambers can also lead to people receiving “grossly incomplete information,” she said.
“I also think we make the most mistakes when we don’t have complete information,” Robertson said. “We don’t cast doubt on information that we agree with. We treat it as basic truth. I think that’s where echo chambers really become a problem.”
In addition to not being exposed to other perspectives, what’s even more concerning is that people in echo chambers don’t question what they see. Riaz explains that echo chambers simply promote the idea that your own opinion is the “absolute truth.”
“There is little room for alternative perspectives or critical reflection,” she said. “In echo chambers, ideas are repeated and reinforced, creating a black-and-white understanding of the world, which is harmful because most social and political cultural issues are so complex and nuanced that they rarely have a single or simple explanation.”
LIVE: ****** attack advocates say it’s most shocking thing to happen in Epstein documents release
Opposing viewpoints can feel overwhelming or even threatening, which can lead people to ignore viewpoints that are inconsistent with their own and prevent them from having meaningful conversations. “Whatever the contradictory information is, it can be labeled as an exception rather than a meaningful challenge that exists,” Riaz said. “As a result, this mentality can reinforce harmful stereotypes and biases.”
Specifically, in the case of Truth Social, Trump controls information on the platform by sharing updates only on this one site, which does not reach everyone.
“Just from history, it’s generally not good to guard information… When information is shared more widely, things tend to become more equitable,” Robertson said.
Why is Trump attracted to echo chambers?
Between the reinforcement of false beliefs, biases, stereotypes, and withholding certain information from others, the echo chamber of a truth society is not an ideal space for anyone, especially a president. But experts believe he may be attracted to this kind of space for several reasons.
“I think he wants his worldview to be reaffirmed. I think he’s power-hungry and he can’t say something to the public, he has to create an audience for himself,” Riaz said.
Riaz said he is usually surrounded by “yes” people who say “yes” to his every request, request or idea. When someone disagrees with him, such as when Republican Sens. Tim Scott and Katie Britt recently criticized him for posting a racist video of the Obamas, Trump reportedly berates them.
Since Truth Social was created as a conservative platform and an “alternative” version of social media, it makes sense that Trump’s ideas would simply be supported here rather than questioned.
Riaz said he saw Truth Social as a place where people would listen and “treat me like a powerful person.”
Related…
Read the original article on The Huffington Post
