echo chamber

[ ek-oh cheym-ber ]

noun

1. a room or other enclosed space that amplifies and reflects sound, generally used for broadcasting or recording echos or hollow sound effects: The hallway is a giant echo chamber.

   an open-air echo chamber;

   The hallway is a giant echo chamber.

2. an environment in which the same opinions are repeatedly voiced and promoted, so that people are not exposed to opposing views: We need to move beyond the echo chamber of our network to understand diverse perspectives.

   an online echo chamber;

   We need to move beyond the echo chamber of our network to understand diverse perspectives.

echo chamber

noun

1. a room with walls that reflect sound. It is used to make acoustic measurements and as a source of reverberant sound to be mixed with direct sound for recording or broadcasting Also calledreverberation chamber

Word History and Origins

Origin of echo chamber¹

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40

Example Sentences

Problems like network latency or lag can cause negative effects like the dreaded robot voice or echo chamber without warning.

From Popular-Science

They fostered an ideological echo chamber, boosting one another’s ideas and pushing new or more moderate users further into the extreme.

From Washington Post

So there are lots of these people who truly believe it, not because they saw anything with their own eyes but because they’ve emerged as politicians in that type of echo chamber.

From Vox

The insurrection was a product of a circular and self-sustaining echo chamber of false political claims, propaganda from openly partisan media outlets, conspiracy theories and disinformation that has been escalating — largely unchecked — for years.

From Washington Post

They’re leading people into echo chambers and that doesn’t serve anyone, just the companies.

From Digiday

Today, talk radio hosts and online echo-chamber pundits send talking points to politicians.

From The Daily Beast

This is a story about the toxicity of the right-wing echo chamber.

From The Daily Beast

The phrase became part of the lexicon and the media became like an echo chamber.

From The Daily Beast

Stoke with talk-radio demagogues and the internet echo chamber.

From The Daily Beast

If the freakout is contained within the cable-news echo chamber, we will all be better off.

From The Daily Beast

The room, apparently, was designed on the acoustical principle of an echo chamber or a drum.

From Project Gutenberg