That's a good point about emotional suffering and I hadn't really thought of it. I was definitely thinking of the basic needs in Maslow's hierarchy.

Echo chambers are self-sorting into tribes, so I think the essay addresses that.

There's another point which is that self-examination is a form of critical thinking and people looking to maintain power in any given society often don't want a whole lot of self-examination and critical thought... that sort of thing could lead to revolution or is at least de-stabalizing. The essay mentions the gay marriage issue, but a few years later and in America we're now arguing about, for example, teaching a more wholistic view of America's history.