Social Media and Adolescent Behavior Contagion

[Andrea Giedinghagen] You have this ultrarapid perception of intimacy and cohessiveness in a group. Which, what human doesn’t want that, especially adolescent human, right? And so if the ticket to get in the door is adopting a certain behavior, whether that’s trying a challenge or identifying with a particular illness, that can be really alluring. There’s also the fact that as you’re looking at, you know, YouTube or TikTok, you’re going to be served on your “For You” page more things that are exactly what you have looked at. And so it can become a combination echo chamber/filter bubble where there is just this continuous reinforcement, especially of the more extreme or intense content and I’m not sure the extent to which an awareness of that might be helpful. But as part of media literacy, which should be taught in every school, by the way, letting young people know and sort of tapping into that natural adolescent rebelliousness, which I love, like, “Okay, the algorithm is feeding you this, what do you think about that?”