The Eco Chambers of Society in In Being and Time by Martin Heidegger

In Being and Time by Martin Heidegger, on pg.164 it is stated that the 'who' of everyday Dasein is the 'they”. To explain, the line begins with explaining that who is not to be referenced as a singular entity, whether it be oneself or another, nor is it a collective entity or a combination of entities, but is a construct that can be called “they.” The meaning of “they” can be interpreted as, how we would judge ourselves in the eyes of those around us all the while representing the ideology of the mass. In the following paragraph after this line, Heidegger goes on to explain this concept in more detail. This interpretation can be explained by deriving the meaning of each sentence in this paragraph line by line.

The first line in the paragraph references how the environment in which we grow in nurtures many aspects of one’s way of thinking. Due to someone being in a certain created environment, they are forever influenced by it. This is true in many aspects of our world. If someone is in a certain environment, they are much more likely to adopt and/or adapt to its own specific “rules.” For example, if someone is born into a highly religious family. Religion is introduced to the environment whether the individual likes it or not and must confront it. The outcomes to one’s take on religion may be either subservience to religious practices and rituals, or distrust and rejection of religious ideology. No matter what happens from then on, one’s experience in this environment will always affect how they will be in the future. The point being, no matter how one lives the rest of their life, where they are born into, or consequently where they now live, their manufactured environment will always influence how they think and act.

The next line backs up this statement. It uses examples of how the media in an environment can be used to influence how one thinks and acts. When one is born in, introduced to, or lives in a certain environment, they will be subjected to its unique ideological echo chambers. The ideology will always be present so matter where you go, even if you are not apart of it anymore. One such example being Natzism. It may start off as a place where one finds comfort in a place where they can be accepted in their current state, and may end up as simple puppets for their ideologies, one who lives to do nothing but spread evil. There may be variations in what eco chambers may exist. Seperation of Natzism from “Alt-Right”, or self proclaimed “Centrists”, but at their core they will always be affiliated with whatever ideology it is associated with, even if one isn’t actually directly affiliated with the ideology.

This idea is further explained in the next line where Heidegger explains how one loses their sense of “self” when they assimilate into the “others” that exist within the ideology. The echo chambers exist to indoctrinate those who exist within it, to become the ideology itself. This is done by turning those who exist in it to trumpet its way of thinking, and it is the responsibility of the individual in how they choose to adapt to this environment. In the event this adaptation results in assimilation and indoctrination, the individual slowly becomes more and more like the “others” that exist in the environment. Over time, the concept of “others” vanishes as you yourself become the other, you become “they”, the eyes that judge others and yourself since there exists no other when you are no longer an individual.

The following line states how truly frightening this chiseling of a person’s ability to act independently from the “they” becomes. Heidegger states how the “they”, oneself post indoctrination and the manifestation of the ideology itself, can become tyrannical. This is done because once there exists no “other” in the “they”, the people in the “they” begin to feel a sense of anonymity, and with that anonymity, comes a lack of responsibility. It creates a malicious and carnivorous entity that would even resort to a sort of cannibalism to those who stray from the “they.” Ideas become unified, and thought becomes robotic. When thoughts and ideas become muddied in this manner, one ceases to be a free thinker. They stop being someone who they can call themselves.

This line exemplifies this form of the “they”. Our presence in the “they” becomes universal. We accept only what the ideology seems to be acceptable. We take part in literature, media and art as the ideology sees fit. We virtue signal by rejecting what the ideology rejects. We are “triggered by” or “offended by” what the ideology finds triggering or offensive. We cease being individuals and become the ideology, we become the “they”, and we transform into the eyes that govern ourselves through the eyes of what we perceive to be “they”. As a result we begin to see other people as the manifestation of the ideology, not as the individual who totes it, at which point there ceases to be communication, just a battle of ideologies.

Finally Heidegger proclaims how the “they” in which we strive to become in the echo chambers we exist in are nothing but a misconstrued ideal us. That the “they” we create and define is what allows our being, our ability to understand our place in the world, to function at all. That through the process of entering, living in, or escaping the environments in which the echo chambers exist, then facing the “theys” we create in these different ideologies, we become who we currently are, even if who we are is still currently “they”.