'The internet is distorting our collective grasp on the truth. Polls show that many of us have burrowed into our own echo chambers of information. “This creates an ecosystem in which the truth value of the information doesn’t matter; all that matters is whether the information fits in your narrative.” In a Pew survey, 81 percent of respondents said that partisans not only differed about policies,but also about “basic facts.” In the last 20 years, the internet has overrun news media with a smorgasbord of information sources. Psychologists & social scientists have shown that when confronted with diverse information choices, people rarely act like rational, civic-minded automatons. Instead, we are roiled by preconceptions and biases, and we usually do what feels easiest — we gorge on information that confirms our ideas, and we shun what does not in a landscape of near-infinite choice. "
At www.nytimes.com
