If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4, The Message)
If the “big sort” – the clustering of people with similar education, ideology, income, and other socioeconomic factors – isn’t resulting in enough echo chambers, cable news and social media are ensuring the echo chamber construction accelerates and intensifies. The Attention Economy is full throttle, profiting in the billions from our anxiety and anger, ideological entrenchment, and perception gaps. Perhaps most unsettling, our echo chambers are not simply constructed by people adopting divergent views about the same information, but rather by people consuming and inhabiting different narratives altogether. Increasingly, it is not simply a matter of discrepant perceptions and interpretations – which could theoretically be debated in good faith – but rather a matter of which narratives we consume and in which tribe this situates us. This is why we’ve all thought, “I can’t understand why those people would think, vote, or act that way.” Of course we can’t. We are, for all intents and purposes, occupying different realities.
Crucially, it does not follow that everything is therefore relative, that no interpretations are more valid than
others, or that truth, justice, and beauty are not worth insisting upon. And that’s because the rapid siloing of society has real world consequences. The negative consequences disproportionately fall upon marginalized communities with fewer resources, less power, and less voice. False equivalence and both-sides-ism cannot be part of the equation.
So, what is the faithful response? How will God’s narrative put a question mark next to all others?
Here are 6 suggestions. More to come next week.
1. Encourage curiosity as a spiritual discipline, investigating both yourself and others. Consider, “What echo chamber(s) am I at risk of being lured into, given the media I consume or tribe I’m most comfortable in? How am I segregating myself from people I don’t understand or don’t want to understand? How might I better understand perspectives I generally oppose, so that I can engage more productively? This doesn’t mean developing sympathy for dangerous or extremist views – it means valuing human beings over “being right.” “He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.” – John Stuart Mill.
2. Preach the Gospel. Proclamation, not punditry. The beatitudes, the fruit of the Spirit, the Philippians 2 hymn, and countless other scriptures challenge the toxic ethos of our echo-chambered culture. Proclaim the absurdity and unsettling nature of God’s grace, which leaves no one in the position of judge. “The human race is positively addicted to keeping records and remembering scores… if God has announced anything in Jesus, it is that he, for one, has pensioned off the bookkeeping department permanently.” – Fr Robert Farar Capon.
3. Tunnel under echo chambers by addressing issues that cut across every demographic. This includes growing cynicism, lack of hope for the future, economic stress, distrust in politics and institutions, loneliness, yet also a yearning for spirituality and meaning making.
4. Challenge the dominant, reductive narratives. Media feasts on our psychological need for clear cut categories, binary choices, and simplistic explanations. Don’t fall for it. Our shared humanity is too complex. Don’t pretend it’s simple. And may this never be license to deny the obvious when it stares us in the face, but a mandate to engage more deeply.
5. Tell your congregation the truth about cable news and social media. You might even consider joining other congregations who are undertaking digital fasts. Facebook’s internal scientists explain: “Our algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness,” and ‘’if left unchecked,” the site would continue to promote “more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention…” (Hari, Stolen Focus, 164)
6. Get proximate. Get close to people, love them unconditionally, and show others how to do the same.
Next week, Part 2.
Discussion Prompts:
- Which of these bullet points stands out to you, and why is that?
- What could you add to this list, based on your immediate ministry context?
- What are some next steps you or your congregation need to take toward demolishing echo chambers?
- What do you need to ask the Holy Spirit to do in your congregation?
Ivette Toriz Nava
Posted at 13:06h, 25 MarchThank you very much, it is a good tool to support us.