TLDR; I've done what you've done on a massive scale.
Most things end up depressing me if I follow them, knowing people are willingly participating in such an absence of brain activity. I had to stop myself from constantly scrolling down on facebook when I was bored (I realized I don't even actually read what people post most of the time because I'm looking for something interesting, but I still subconsciously notice what people are doing somehow.) I'm not against this by any means, so don't take this as me complaining. I don't know what's popular right now, I don't know what is trending on twitter. What's left is my little bubble where I have what I need to explore what I'm interested in. I can find interesting articles, I can find new music, and I can talk to people who actually are interesting to talk to. I've completely cut off any noise and am completely left with pure signal.
I'm completely out of touch with most everybody, and I've never felt better. I guess this goes hand in hand with being super introverted, I couldn't imagine actually holding a conversation with anybody around me with the information I know that wasn't super technical or completely shallow. I've lived with this obvious gap between me and other people my entire life though so it doesn't even feel lonely anymore when I can just find whatever I need to keep myself occupied when I'm bored.
It means passively absorbing information can make you dumb because you're not demanding brain power (lack of using a muscle atrophies). Compare scrolling on Facebook to watching Television -- completely passive.
It means that they are adapted to a much higher stimulus level and lose interest if they have seen something beforehand. Also that they are a conceited brat who is convinced that they are the center of the universe. Or at least that's how I read their comment.
To the contrary, seems he built an anechoic chamber. The only signals he perceives is what he wants, cleanly. He has decided what he doesn't want, knows that most signals out there are just variants on the same such content, and blocks it all.
I'm approaching half a century old. Comes a point where you realize you have heard it all, and are not interested in anything "new" because it isn't. I'm this -><- close to shutting it all off and going seriously minimalistic. The tipping point would be a news service which presents only actual need-to-know news, and a stream of new music.
Address, enumerate, and centralize your core axioms. Build from there. Stop letting others dump $#!^ in your head.
The purpose of the anechoic chamber is not to keep out sounds from the outside, but to allow you to differentiate the direct sound you're making from the environmental reflections.
Since it is impossible not to live in some variant of "chamber", always has been, and always will be, this is an accusation without teeth. Which is probably a good thing, since it's also hypocritical, but fortunately, it can't bite you back; it's toothless.
The interesting question is whether you have built a good or a bad one, and what exactly "good" and "bad" even mean in this context. But there is no "not in a chamber" option.
The problem is, it's becoming necessary to live in some kind of chamber in order to stay sane. Staring into the infinite void of indiscernible and contradictory truth forever is more than the brain can handle. More than mine anyway.
The challenge is to maintain the right mix of echoes in your chamber.
It's the nature of information at this point in history that you cannot possibly consume it all[1]. Therefore, you have to have some selection criteria, which will obviously be biased. If you want to call that an "echo chamber", well I don't know what to say to that.
Most things end up depressing me if I follow them, knowing people are willingly participating in such an absence of brain activity. I had to stop myself from constantly scrolling down on facebook when I was bored (I realized I don't even actually read what people post most of the time because I'm looking for something interesting, but I still subconsciously notice what people are doing somehow.) I'm not against this by any means, so don't take this as me complaining. I don't know what's popular right now, I don't know what is trending on twitter. What's left is my little bubble where I have what I need to explore what I'm interested in. I can find interesting articles, I can find new music, and I can talk to people who actually are interesting to talk to. I've completely cut off any noise and am completely left with pure signal.
I'm completely out of touch with most everybody, and I've never felt better. I guess this goes hand in hand with being super introverted, I couldn't imagine actually holding a conversation with anybody around me with the information I know that wasn't super technical or completely shallow. I've lived with this obvious gap between me and other people my entire life though so it doesn't even feel lonely anymore when I can just find whatever I need to keep myself occupied when I'm bored.
The beauty of the internet.