To the casual observer, people just like what they like, and such preferences should not be given much meaning as it relates to one’s favorite social media platform.
To the astute observer however, a new tech paradigm appears to be emerging.
One can search for a root causes or watershed event as the inflection point (Tipping Point?), but root-cause analysis is foolhardy when trying to analyze complex sociological phenomena. There were many shifts and changes, including the drastic and chilling transformation of Reddit under Ellen Pao, and Zuckerberg's purchase of Instagram just to name two. There is no single event or smoking gun; it has been a slow inexorable shift that appears to be crystallizing now in 2025 into a permanent divide that may never be undone.
For lack of a better name, let’s call this the Platform Chasm.
In years past, platforms like Facebook and Reddit attracted a wide spectrum of people. Folks either argued or kept to themselves, but they all consumed relatively similar content. Moving from one platform to the next, one still encounter the same popular memes and pop culture references – age and generation differences notwithstanding. There was an array or spectrum of beliefs and views on each of the major social media, and everyone sorted themselves out.
Now, entire platforms have been created to attract one side of the political aisle or the other. The current divide between X.com and Bluesky is one such example of people choosing their own echo chambers. In this case, the center-to-left crowed enjoyed nearly a decade of a highly curated and censored platform with little dissent allowed. Twitter, like Reddit became far left, arguably extremist platforms for all things race-baity and Trump-hatey. With the changes wrought by Elon Musk, the platform called back some of those who had been shut out.
Most Americans who were right of center had no refuge and no platform upon which to commiserate.
As X now, the platform still throttles some content – although it appears to be inconsistent and anecdotal. Nonetheless it has become somewhat of a last bastion for free speech. And that’s where things get weird. Bluesky was created to serve as a counter to the tumult of an open free speech platform. In other words, it attracted left-leaning voices who do not wish to have their ideas challenged in public forums.Few would acknowledge or admit this, but that has been the ultimate effect.
People are self-selecting into their own echo chambers. Whereas there were once a dozen major platforms where people mixed it up, the middle ground as given way and left a chasm between left and right.
One might reasonably counter with “Sure, but that has always been true – subreddits were essentially the same thing”, and that is a fair rebuttal, but now it has become systemic. Entire platforms are being created to not only attract like-minded perspectives, but to exclude “forbidden” ones. Bluesky and Truth social are two such examples. Call them silos, echo chambers, or far left/right platforms – all apropos.
X.com is somewhat unique in that there does still seem to be legitimate debate and discussion. To a Democrat, however, such pushback to their ideas is routinely labeled “alt Right” and dismissed. This is hardly a recipe for finding common ground. Now for the crucial component – AI. I asked ChatGPT which was the best ai platform. It did a good job, but completely ignored Grok; which was what I was expecting to happen. When prompted “why did you not mention Grok” it backpedaled, offering “Ah, good catch! Let's talk about Grok, Elon Musk’s AI, which lives inside X (formerly Twitter).”
Good catch indeed.
The bias is already baked in; bias of some sort can be expected on all these tools whether Copilot, Gemini, ChatGPT, or Grok. There is a lot to say about this – how these tools are trained, who trains them, what is disallowed, and how they are embedded are a few of many facts of the conversation worthy of consideration.
As these things evolve, it is conceivable that a combination of algorithms, explicit personal preferences, and guidance driven by corporate policy and political perspectives may result in permanent bubbles. These bubbles, once formed, can easily lead to humans living next door to each other in real life, yet their “realities” are truly their own.Highly focused and curated content coupled with deeply embedded propaganda and censorship appears to be leading us to a possible future in which the physical brains of people may develop differently based on such content. Somatic markers and myriad cognitive biases could metastasize and crystallize to a point where there may be no cure.
As I write this, it is clear that this piece is less of a prediction of the future, as it is an observation of the present state of online life. What remains to be seen is the long term impact of the tech and this Chasm on the physical human brain.
Tip deeplydisturbed for their post.