Is there any proof that the algorithmic echo chamber is a real thing? I don’t use any social media that has algorithmic curation, but I still get the strong feeling that I’m in a bubble whenever I encounter other internet bubbles. How much is just caused by me choosing to see things I already agree with instead of a computer choosing for me?

For some reason, this makes me think of the difference between dealing with all the recruiter spam that comes at me and actively seeking out a place doing something I want to help succeed. In the former my possibility is constrained by who is paying to serve me up while in the latter I am an active participant in my life, altering my environment to enact a transcript I'm constantly discovering and modifying. I have to remain aware that I'm establishing my own phenomenological context but I find that sort of consideration good for the soul.

Personally, I don't think it's worthwhile to try to game the algorithms that are in place for the experience you desire.

I don't really believe people want out of echo chambers as much as they say they do. I don't find many conservatives dabbling in Modern Monetary Theory or many liberals trying to solve problems in rural America that already don't afflict their own groups. They're quite content sitting just where they are and continuing to justify their disinterest in the rest of the world. In this vein, I don't think what they're in is really an echo chamber. These kind of people seem to be geared more towards getting others to see what they see in their own interests/causes/etc... and if you just aren't that interested, then you're maybe not an enemy but certainly not a friend or maybe even a likable stranger.

I started off with politics as an example because it's the first place I noticed this behavior, but it really stretches into any vein of interest that people have. There's entire rivalries that form around online personas or ideologies in a given domain that are just as divisive as politics, however, they stay penned up in their own domain so you only come across them when you're in communities of a certain mass.

Try to run from whatever this is all you want. The only way I started making friends (and trusting) people of different persuasions and lifestyles from mine was getting out in the real world again.

Also take a look at http://improvethenews.org and the work of Jonathan Haidt.