Teens, Social Media Rabbit Holes, and Combating Manipulation

[Lisa Damour] Okay. These algorithms. Dr. Choukas-Bradley mentioned these. I have to tell you, these are the things that scare me on social media more than anything else. And Dr. Choukas-Bradley used to describe them so beautifully, I will not repeat, but here’s what I will say. [Dr. Lisa Damour]: In the early days of kids interactions on social technology technologies, they would sometimes fall down a rabbit hole. With the help of algorithms, kids are dragged down rabbit holes now. They do one search for diet. They do one search for before and after images, and then they are suddenly flooded with content. So these are very dangerous. Talk to teenagers about them. Tell them they are being played by social media outfits. Tell them that their attention is being manipulated for money. David Yeager at UT-Austin does great work. Teenagers do not like to be manipulated. He has showed this. Teenagers will change their behavior when they understand they’re manipulated. So talk to them about what is going on.