Be Well Informed

David Weinberger's A Marketplace of Echos is basically asking if these "coffee shop forums" and "echo caves" are dentramental or helpful to the way we argue.

1. Is the internet giving us more or less diversity?

2. Are these echo caves detramental?

3. Is the internet strengthaning our beliefs of "brainwashing us"?

Im going to address a little of all of these questions.
   Yes i think the internet is giving us more diversity but i feel its what we do with that diversity that defines us.

This is where the "echo caves" come in. The use of these sites and forums I believe are detramental to the way we think and therfore the way we act. Upon entering these forums dedicated to only onesided topics we are immersed in a sea of people that all have the same veiws and opinions as us. This only sterenghtens our veiws making another oppinion seem way more out in left feild than it may really be. At this point the other side of the argument may seem irrelavent to others and once they enter into an argument they may not even stop to concider what the other individual has to say, thinking their oppinon is right no matter what.

That is what I mean when i say "brainwashed". Are these sites helping us to better understand our position or are they just strengthening them to the point that our side is all we can see on that subject? Arguments should be held not only to convey your side of the oppinion but also the see the opposing argument as the other person does. This doesnt mean you have to convert you opinion, but at the end of the argument you should come out enlightened in a sense with a better understanding of the other side of the argument. I think these "echo caves" are brainwashing us in a sense that we can no longer take the opposing argument into concideration, thus loosing the whole point of arguing.

In conclusion I think that the forums mentioned in A Marketplace of Echos are detramental to the way we think and argue. I have always belived in being fully informed on a topic before engaging in an argument with an individual, and these sites are making that very hard for some people.