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According to a new study, Facebook encourages its users to only consider the information that confirms their beliefs and ignore any incompatible ideas. The study called, The spreading of misinformation online, revealed that the user-provided content that is readily available on social media enables the collection of people who share common interests and narratives. "However, the Web also allows for the rapid dissemination of unsubstantiated rumors and conspiracy theories that often elicit rapid, large, but naive social responses," the study said.

It was also observed that the users who followed conspiracy and scientific stories on Facebook displayed similar patterns of content consumption. "Homogeneity appears to be the primary driver for the diffusion of contents, and each echo chamber has its own cascade dynamics." The study conclusively found that Facebook is a place where people with similar interest form small communities and easily share or spread unfounded information, reported My Broadband

According the research, it is the selective exposure to the content which is driving formation of harmonized clusters, also known as echo chambers. It is the consistency of the group that appears to be a primary reason for flow of contents and each of these echo chambers follow their own set of dynamics. Another study says that social media "could be making you dumber by supplying answers and insights without requiring any actual thinking, so that your analytic powers begin to waste away like an unused muscle," Time reported in 2014.