Echo Chambers in Online Social Networks: A Systematic Literature Review

Echo chambers, a recent phenomenon in the realm of social networks, have garnered significant attention from researchers due to their profound implications. Their role in propagating information, reinforcing beliefs and opinions, and potentially fostering inequality within networks and societies underscores the critical need for comprehensive understanding. Despite the lack of a clear definition, existing research has primarily concentrated on five aspects of echo chambers: their attributes, underlying mechanisms, modeling, detection, and mitigation strategies. The main objectives of this systematic review are to identify terminology, examine the effects of echo chambers, analyze approaches to echo chamber mechanisms, assess modeling and detection techniques, and evaluate metrics used to specify echo chambers in online social networks. By doing so, this article aims to illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches. To conduct this study, a systematic review was conducted of studies published from 2013 to October 2022, peer-reviewed in five prestigious publishers, including ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Science Direct, Springer, and Nature. The methodology of this systematic review was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. Ultimately, 28 studies were selected for the final review. The findings of this study highlight several main limitations. Firstly, there is a lack of an accurate definition for echo chambers. Secondly, there is a lack of a solid approach to address the components of echo chambers. Thirdly, there is a controversial issue regarding the effect of echo chambers. Lastly, the measures used mostly did not adequately specify echo chambers.