10 Ways To Eliminate The Echo Chamber

Chris Pirillo:

1. Don’t live inside your news aggregator. Doing this has largely kept me from commenting on commenter’s comments on commenting comments commenting on commenters.


2. Say something original at least once a day. Believe me, this is a tremendous challenge. If you think it can’t be done, you’re not thinking hard enough.


3. If warranted, quote an “unknown” source. Instead of going for the pundit’s line, why not elevate a non-pundit instead?


4. Don’t link to the same site more than once every two weeks. Force yourself to stop seeing and seeding the same stuff over and over and over and over again.


5. Wait a week before publishing your thoughts on hot topics. I realize this point could be taken as an anti-social move - but when everybody’s talking and nobody’s listening, what are we really accomplishing?


6. Create, don’t regurgitate. It’s fun to talk about new stuff, especially if everybody else is linking to it (and it’s of interest). But what about creating something new every once in a while?


7. Think twice before using buzzwords. There’s a time to employ jargon, and there’s a time to destroy it.


8. Make yourself uncomfortable. I don’t do it often enough, but whenever I step outside my comfort zone - I grow. When you force yourself to do something that you don’t understand, the results might be messy - but they’ll be genuine.


9. Stop whining (or worrying) about what list you’re on (or not on). People know who you are and where to find you - and no matter what you say or do in the future, their conceptions and misconceptions are ultimately going to cloud their judgements of who you really are.


10. Stop saying we need to get out of the echo chamber. We all realize that we need to get out of the echo chamber, so what are YOU doing to help us get out of the echo chamber? Just saying we need to get out is not actually going to help get us out.