Structure 010: Bubbles

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Today we are going to talk about bubbles. Not the kind that result in economic collapse (this isn’t that kind of newsletter). The bubbles in question today represent the niches, or groups that we find ourselves spending time in both physically and online. Instead of a place it’s rather a mindset or worldview that dominates our thinking. Everyone has a bubble, but the extent to which we are trapped in these bubbles does vary person to person.

It has become easier and easier each day to spot out the people who exist only inside their bubble and have become increasingly numb to the world outside. Whether it be TikTok videos of people guessing the minimum salary in America is ~$150k or tech guys on Twitter saying a US jobs report is false simply due to the fact tech companies are hammering layoffs (thread below is filled with hundreds of replies telling Mr. Sacks he is stuck in a mindset bubble here), it is becoming more and more common to see people stuck deep inside their perfect little bubbles. Let’s talk about it.

Too much time in groups?

I’ve talked at length in a few different pieces about how much I

1. Enjoy the internet and think we often underestimate the ease and access to the world it provides

2. Think the internet and online spaces have become an awesome tool / conduit for meeting people with similar interests you may not have met otherwise due to geographical boundaries

This bubble situation mostly arises from the second point. The internet allows us to connect with people all over, naturally we flock to people that we can relate to. People that work similar jobs, laugh at the same jokes, eat the same kind of food, and watch the same TV shows all fill the “following” section of our Twitter profiles. There is nothing wrong with that, it’s a blessing we’re able to connect with our own in such a manner.

That said, while many bubbles or circles will have their own level of internal discourse there is often a unified mindset to outside topics. When I say unified, I don’t necessarily mean everyone has the exact same opinion, but the general consensus of the bubble is guided by a prevailing thought process or status quo. As an example we can use sports.

• One sports team, let’s say high school football

• Up and down season, team has a trouble stringing wins together

• The offense and defense spend the majority of their time in practice and off the field together in their respective groups (two bubbles)

• Feedback loop and dominant thought processes emerge

  • Offense thinks the defense doesn’t get them the ball enough to win games

  • Defense thinks the offense isn’t efficient enough to win games

• At the end of the day the team is still a team, but within the offensive and defensive groups they are more susceptible to groupthink as a bubble.

While every single player on the offense likely doesn’t hate the defensive end of their own team, with enough time and internal discussion this can be the prevailing mindset. A bubble has formed and now impacts the way offensive players interact with, think of, and respect the other members of their team.

Tangible Impact of Bubbles

This aspect of bubbles is also what has made politics such an adversarial industry in recent memory. The two party system has aligned on massive topics causing lots of moderate voters to simply align to a side out of ease and feasibility. This provides fuel to the fire. The more radical members of each party help push their ideas in the media, and the internet + television being (basically) broken out by political party allows the feedback loop to grab voters day in and day out. If someone spends all day watching one specific news channel it won’t take long for them to adapt a mindset based on the views from that channel, outside opinions are refuted on that channel 24/7 causing the average voter to set a baseline of intolerance to opinions outside of this new bubble they’ve found themselves in.

Politics is one of the largest examples of this phenomena, but not the only one by far. Tech Twitter is the reason this topic came to my mind recently. Morning Brew posted a great tweet putting this whole thing into perspective. It can feel like the whole world is on the same page about a topic when in reality, it’s just your bubble. This specific bubble is near and dear to my heart. Seeing the numbers broken out like this piqued my interest because they really are so drastic. A hugely popular show within one bubble can also be one that most people haven’t heard of.

Sometimes these bubbles can cause us to fall out of touch with reality or result in disrespect towards people who live to choose a different life. Mindfulness here can be a powerful thing. As the Morning Brew tweet mentions, a good internal though process step is to think through “is this just my bubble?”.

Taking the bubble factor into account when breaking down topics, brainstorming solutions or thinking of problems at scale is a great habit I think we could all benefit from. I think a lot of disrespect and intolerance across the world stems from a true lack of understanding. Failing to understand bubbles outside of our own. As a marketer I find it difficult myself to stop thinking of my own target audience and the population I’m targeting (a bubble), but sometimes it’s good to zoom out and look at the bigger picture.

Cheers.

Braxton

Bonus related tweet

Song of the Week

As a thank you for checking out this week's edition of Structure here's a song I've been listening to lately:

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