Kids are even more in the bag of social media companies than we think. Many of them have given away their online autonomy fully to their phones. For them, the only acceptable online environment is one designed by big tech algorithms (算法).
As children's free time and imaginations become more and more tightly joined to the social media, we need to understand that uncontrolled access to the Internet comes at a cost. This spring, I visited with a group of high school students in Connecticut to have a conversation about the role that social media plays in their daily lives and in their mental health. More children today report feeling depressed, lonely, and disconnected than ever before.
There are countless problems with children and teenagers using social media. But the high schoolers with whom I met alerted me to a hidden result of teenagers' growing addiction to social media: the death of exploration and discovery. Algorithmic recommendations now do the work of discovering and pursuing interests, finding community, and learning about the world. Kids today are, simply put, not learning how to be curious, critical adults—and they don't seem to know what they've lost.
We all know the journeys in life matter just as much as the destinations. It is the sweat to get the outcome that makes the outcome more fulfilling and satisfying.
What the kids I spoke to did not know is that these algorithms have been designed in a way that unavoidably makes and keeps users unhappy. Social media companies know that content that generates negative feelings holds our attention longer than that which makes us feel good. If you are a teenager feeling bad about yourself, your social media feed will keep delivering you videos and pictures that are likely to produce negative feelings.
We should take some measures. Teenagers and kids are to be inspired to determine if we will really be happier as a species when machines and algorithms do all the work for us, or if fulfillment only comes when humans actually do the work, searching and discovering, of being human.
