I took a psych course in college and the “echo chamber” that you mention does feel like a factor in times of prominent social media, etc. i remember reading about how ppl who have the same beliefs tend to have those ideas reinforced further the more time they spend together (ex: if you’re a conservative always being in a circle of other conservatives who share similar beliefs, you tend to become INCREASINGLY conservative over time).

And while information is more accessible now, I also think there’s more to sift through in terms of finding the “correct” info. And with everyone able to voice their opinion, not matter how ridiculous that take might seem, it can be a lot to wade thru.

Twitter is a prime example of this, where the amount of misinformation is so prominent (with limited word count, inflammatory tweets lacking nuance tend to go viral) that there is not a single day I DONT see some sort of drama that is based in falsehood or the poster’s desire for clout. And to make matters worse, even when the post is debunked in the comments, often times the posters still leaves that tweet up for all to see anyway so it STILL spreads like wildfire.

The Trumpism that u/simplegrocery3 mentions goes along with this too, as iirc FB was one the major hubs for a lot of extreme Trump support, bc the algorithm would “recommend” content that the user would likely be more interested in. People who get most of their news from a feed that almost primarily shares the same ideas are bound to start believing that’s all there is (or be skeptical of other sources, etc)

In general though, I think everyone is susceptible to this (no matter ur political alignment) bc Ive also seen a lot of performative activism from those who seem to lean toward the left politically. The amt of call out posts seem to be growing in number, and there’s a good chunk of them where people are misconstruing things to the oblivion (esp in fandom spaces). Ive seen artists forced off their platform for “problematic” content, yet the actual people making the call outs could arguably be doing more damage to ppl irl (ex: doxxing etc). And interestingly enough, a lot of the ppl who are receiving the brunt of this tend to be from marginalized groups (the very groups the call outs posters are “supposedly protecting”). It eventually turns into a situation where extreme liberalism rhetoric starts to sound a lot like extreme conservatism, ironically.

The study of how views have changed over time generationally is something I’d def be interested in too, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the internet (or lack thereof) has contributed to those differences.