07/11 • MEDIA

Donald Trump is now the President-elect of the United States. In a conclusive defeat of Vice-President Kamala Harris, Trump not only won the 270 electoral college votes required for the presidency, but also won the popular vote, swept crucial swing states and led Republicans to claim a majority in the US Senate.

In the coming days, many media pundits and outlets will try and determine exactly how and why Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party suffered such a crushing loss. From the outside looking in, many will wonder that very same question. How could such a divisive candidate with a laundry list of criminal proceedings against him capture over 70 million people's votes and secure one of the most powerful positions in the world?

The answer to that question is probably in your pocket or in your hands right now. Our devices act as arbiters of the effectively infinite amount of information available to us. In fact, the word "media" has its roots in the latin "medium" meaning an intervening agency, means, or instrument.

Social platforms have come to act as our mediators to information, using algorithms designed to increase engagement by showing us content similar to what we’ve already interacted with. These algorithms create echo chambers, pushing us toward content that aligns with our preferences. This cycle can lead to a “snowball” effect, where repetitive exposure to the same messaging strengthens belief and trust in those narratives.

It's easy to assume that these echo chambers are purely reserved for those 70 million or so people who voted for Trump: politically right wing, conservative voters with a singular focus and homogenous worldview.

However, every single person that partakes in the consumption of information will have their own curated and mediated version of "the truth". And those people are valuable. You're valuable. There's a reason that social media companies command trillion dollar valuations. Your information is someone else's power. If it's free, you're the product.

Echo chambers may have helped to create a self-reinforcing cycle of support for Trump, but selective information and amplified narratives affect us all. It may explain why many people simply cannot fathom how Trump could "pull off" this election win and why Harris could loose. Perhaps that particular echo chamber couldn't entertain the idea that Trump was as popular with the American people as he has proven to be by his election.

Next time you open your social media feed, take a critical look at the types of information you receive. Does it reinforce a particular lifestyle? A particular viewpoint? A particular narrative?

Ask yourself if that is causing you to be less compassionate, less thoughtful and less interested in those who might be different from you. Look different from you. Those who might think about the world in a different way. We must not give into an "us" versus "them" mentality that diminishes the image of God found in the face of every person.