Echo chamber design on social networking sites: The example of Twitter

The spread of internet and the development of Web 2.0 technologies brought along the transnational dimension of communication. With these developments, in which geographical distances lose their importance, phenomena such as social structure, interpersonal relations and group belonging are also affected. Traditional social relations that continue to exist in daily life are also transferred to the digital environment by changing their form. Relationships between family, friends, relatives and neighbors that are followed on social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, which are used extensively, are based on common interests, common groups, common values, and similarities. These similarities are analyzed on social media platforms by considering many cultural, psychological and sociological aspects. Subjects, people, or products that are likely to be of interest are extracted from the unlimited data stack of the internet and presented to users through a filter bubble. Barry Wellman (2002) calls closed groups created in this way "little boxes". Thus, users build a digital wall against those who are outside of the personalized information flow and design echo chambers where they can only hear their own voices. The designed echo chambers reveal phenomena such as alienation, polarization, and cyberbalkanization. The aim of this study is to reveal how users use Twitter, a social networking site, to create an echo chamber. In the study, observation and document analysis methods were used, as well as interviews with twenty Twitter users selected among Sakarya University undergraduate students.