WSPN's Ryan Chase shares his thoughts and opinions on how TikTok is manipulating American teens.
If you're interested in modern politics, you may have noticed the growing political polarization among our nation's youth. I'm concerned that this is because social media is influencing and worsening the political views of teens.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) conducted an investigation that set up multiple fake accounts on TikTok to understand how TikTok's algorithm works. One of their findings included the term “echo chamber,” which WSJ uses to describe TikTok's isolated, niche space. TikTok's algorithm pushes content that agrees with someone's opinion and only pushes one side of the story. This could be about election fraud, who certain users think should be president, conspiracy theories, etc.
According to the Capitol Institute of Technology, “Users who engage with misleading content are more likely to see similar videos, creating an echo chamber where misinformation thrives.” TikTok is a place where misinformation thrives. We provide an environment where One example is the war between Israel and Hamas. On the platform, the ratio of pro-Hamas content views to pro-Israel content views is 10:1. The algorithm appears to be polarizing young people against Israel by promoting anti-Israel videos and videos that spread misinformation about the conflict. This is not the only example. The New York Times reported, “In Germany, TikTok accounts impersonated prominent politicians during the last national election.” The Times also discussed election misinformation in Colombia, the Philippines, and how election misinformation is now spreading to the United States as well.
Each of the WSJ's fake accounts eventually found itself trapped in an echo chamber where they were fed the same types of videos. TikTok can learn a lot about its users' preferences and beliefs and use that information to quickly influence opinions. Additionally, teenagers are just as susceptible to mainstream and social media as adults, making them susceptible to these echo chambers.
So what's so wrong with the algorithm? Isn't TikTok just showing users what they like? This is true for puppy videos, but not for politics. People are so used to hearing opinions they agree with that they forget the importance of listening to the other person's opinion. There was a time when Democrats and Republicans actually agreed on things and passed bills together. But the 24-hour news cycle and social media, especially his TikTok, changed that. When algorithms force users into political echo chambers, they only hear from others who agree with them, pushing the right wing further to the right and the left wing further to the left.
TikTok pushes you down the rabbit hole of your own opinions and deepens your beliefs. Therefore, by the time your brain is fully developed, these beliefs have become deeply ingrained and entrenched in your mind, polarizing your opinion and millions of other people's, causing a rift among the nation. Masu. But TikTok, a social platform with more than 1.5 billion users, could change that. Teens will be able to hear different opinions and different sides, which will help them form their own opinions and tolerate different opinions of others. That's all you need to do. If anything, TikTok is amplifying the problems that already exist among us, and honestly, the platform isn't entirely at fault.
As teens today, we are taught that in the real world, emotion and comfort are more important than anything else. I think teenagers should learn more tolerance. It's okay to be uncomfortable sometimes and have to work with people you disagree with. Teenagers are supposed to be the next generation of problem solvers and move society forward, but we can't do that if all we know is scrolling until we find the next person who agrees with us.
