WHO YOUNG PEOPLE TRUST
The issue at stake partly revolves around control of the so-called “social graph”, or users’ online data and digital footprint. In recent years, prominent voices such as McCourt and Haidt have lashed out at Big Tech’s control of the social graph, arguing this is being used to manipulate us all in unhealthy ways, via opaque algorithms, like the one inside TikTok.
The instinct of most policymakers – and parents – is thus to want to turn back the clock and curb social media.
But this seems unrealistic given that the digitisation of our lives has not just changed our daily habits, but also our cognitive maps and innate cultural patterns in at least two important ways.
The first is a shift away from so-called “vertical” trust relations to “lateral” ones – from garnering advice from institutions and authority figures to a networked peer group. The second is rooted in what I call the rise of “Gen P” – Generation “Pick’n’ Mix” or “Playlist” – whose members are becoming addicted to customising their cyber lives according to individual consumer choices, and doing this in a way that is amplified by the rise of artificial intelligence tools.
These two shifts are leading internet users to cluster in like-minded tribes online, where they decide what is “true” by scanning peer group feelings and experiences, with startling results. A poll by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, for example, shows that teenagers are the most conspiracy-minded generation.
And striking ethnographic research by Jigsaw, a branch of Alphabet, and others suggests that young people now trust their peers for advice in most spheres of life, valuing them more than doctors for medical information, say. Indeed, AI bots are increasingly trusted more than human authority figures, because of the love for customisation and peer advice. Yes, really.
