Reading Out of Your Echo Chamber

Since I wrote a post called The Other about my attempt to see the world from a perspective other than my own, I've been trying to think of actual ways that I can help myself and other people catch a glimpse of the world outside of our echo chambers. 

The term echo chamber is based on the idea that we naturally surround ourselves with people and information sources that confirm what we already believe and ignore those who do not (see also, confirmation bias). This is a human instinct that has been made more dangerous by our use of social media as a main source of news. Facebook, and to an extent google, use algorithms to show us things that we like and filter out the things that make us feel angry or sad or less likely to click on ads. 

So we see more and more things that keep us clicking 'like' and commenting "amen" and less things that make us think about the world differently (fantastic TED talk here). 

To which we might think, so what? 

So we lose empathy. So we lose the ability to think about the world from the perspective of a person who is poor, or has a disability, or is a different race, or lives in another country. 

And so our world becomes small. Easy to understand and comfortable. And that feels nice sometimes. But it's not real. And when people live in a world that's not real, they make choices that have very real consequences for themselves and others. 

I know just reading more books is not a solution, but I do believe that it can play a part. When we make the conscious choice to open ourselves up to someone else's voice, there is a little bit of everyday magic in that. 

So this is my list to challenge myself in 2017. Take it, use it, adapt it. It's yours.

Just, please, for me, read.