Ideological Isolation and the Millennials Values Survey

This struck me for many reasons. One, I am personally very passionate about Christian-Muslim relations, and I was disheartened at the figure, but more fundamentally it made me stop and think about the people in my community and how they would respond to a similar question. I sincerely doubted they would reflect the survey’s findings. As I thought about this, my reflections became less about the perception of American Muslims and more about how we surround ourselves with people who reinforce our worldview. When we see contradictions to the values we hold closest, we write them off as fringe beliefs. We struggle to understand opposing viewpoints because we rarely have to put a known face to the ideals. Ideological isolation is a reality in our geographic communities and in our online interactions.

One of the great paradoxes of the internet revolution is that as more and more information has become available to us, we have also have the opportunity to self-select the sources of our news, to avoid virtually interacting with opposing view points. I honestly cannot remember the last time I actively engaged someone who felt radically differently than I did about the place of Muslims in American society, yet clearly those views are part of the conversation.

This survey serves as stark reminder of the ideological diversity of America, that we cannot make assumptions about the country as whole based on the people we see every day. I believe our isolation is contributing significantly to our political polarization because it allows us to diminish the importance of opposing viewpoints. I greatly appreciated the experience of really reflecting on what this survey said about my generation and where I fit into the larger picture. The more we think about these statistics as our peers, the more we can work on eroding the barriers between us. My views and the views of my community are one small segment of the American population. I simply cannot assume I am right because the people I surround myself with all agree. The survey has encouraged me to work harder to think about the voices and the experiences I do not hear every day, regardless of how deeply I disagree with their assertions.