Students can no longer converse with people who disagree with them because of a rise in online “echo chambers,” an Ivy League university president has warned.

Sian Beilock, a cognitive scientist who took the reins at Dartmouth College last year, said social media has made it difficult for young people to interact with each other in person.

“We’re seeing that students aren’t practised at having conversations with people who disagree with them, in part because social media puts you towards people who agree with you,” Ms Beilock told The Times.

The Dartmouth College president said that “learning to talk to people who are different from you is a muscle that you build with training” and that it is something her university encourages alongside counselling and wider support mechanisms.

Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, also takes new students on trips into nature in a bid to teach them how to spend time off their phones.

Ms Beilock said students used to debate with people in person who they disagreed with, but now they communicate online and some are even scared to make a phone call.