EOTO Presentation Review #2

For this second Each One Teach One (EOTO) we had to do research on terms and understand deeply about what they are, its purpose, and how it affects all of us. In my last blog post, I did research on Total Information Awareness where the government uses a system to track people to find potential suspects of terrorists to protect national security. Today I got to learn many other terms that I did not know or understand, but one presentation stood out to me the most. Elias Jimenez, my fellow classmate, gave us an insight on echo chambers and I'll be telling you what I learned from his presentation.

Echo Chambers

Echo chambers is situations in which beliefs are reinforced by communication and repetition inside a closed system and is insinuated from rebuttal. We face echo chambers everyday because any time we use social media, we see things that we want to see or hear. In politics, if one supports a particular party, their feed would show related posts of that particular party or similar views. Jimenez told us how important social media is as a tool, but it is most important to diverse ourselves. If we continue to listen to the same voices, see the same views, and not look at other opinions, our knowledge would not broaden. There are different opinions from our own and it is easy to agree with others who see it our way then branching out to see how others feels on different stances. What I liked most about Jimenez's presentation was his presence and how he made us pay attention. He asked us questions, informed us about echo chambers, the affects it as on us, and showed that he was interested in his topic.

Overall... 

 I am glad that I learned more about these terms because it just shows how we need to be more informed about these issues and what we can do to possibly help ourselves from continuing to be oblivious. EOTO presentations is not just another assignment, it is preparing us to not look at our world in a certain way. It is good to expand our understanding and push ourselves to learn more. All I can say is without having the chance to do these types of research, I would continue to be blissed by ignorance.