From my students, a warning

As I was about to write this piece in a restaurant inside a mall, I noticed a food delivery rider watching on his phone a clip of the former president in what appeared to be a pro-Duterte reel. This is not the first time I have seen it.

Our people are regularly exposed to online propaganda through engaging reels. It feels as though some larger force is at work, a disciplined, well-resourced influence operation that knows how to seize people’s attention.

It floods our feeds with emotionally-charged, endlessly-shareable content, then anchors that content to a familiar, charismatic personality to make the message feel personal and trustworthy. What seems simple entertainment is, in fact, a sophisticated form of persuasion. The result is a slow corrosion of judgment and civic trust, carried quietly into the minds of our countrymen through social media.

To better understand this, I have long wanted to hear first-hand accounts from young people about their social media use and their reflections on it. I had the opportunity a few weeks ago when I asked my senior high school Media and Information Literacy class to write a reflection paper on the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma.” I asked my students for permission to share some of their reflections here.

Across their reflections, members of Gen Z describe a similar experience: social media is engineered to capture attention through personalized, endless feeds, leading to time loss, poorer sleep, shortened focus, and a habit-like dependence that affects schoolwork, mood, and even family presence.

Chauncey sees the importance of recognizing media as an environment. “It shapes how we think, what we believe, and what we value,” she says, “if algorithms determine what we see, then we must be intentional about how we engage with them.”

For Zach, if something is free, then we are the product. “Our clicks, pauses, likes, and shares become data. That data is analyzed and sold, and in return, we are given more personalized content that keeps us scrolling,” he says, “over time, this creates echo chambers where we mostly see opinions that reinforce our own.”

“It feels like the (social media) app understands me,” says Krissa, “when I am feeling down, it shows motivational videos. When I am hungry, it shows mukbang videos. When I am bored, it shows funny or entertaining clips. The algorithm seems to know exactly what will catch my attention.”

When I asked my students to reflect on the cost of this targeted information ecosystem, they described a daily loss of hours that should have gone to study, rest, and real life. Says Angel: “The more I use social media, the more time I lose. It takes up 2 to 6 hours of my time.” Princess says for that as a graduating student, time is one of the most important things she has, yet social media takes so much of it away. For Jandele, even when she plans to use social media for just a few minutes, she often ends up spending much more time than intended. “It has become a habit that is already so difficult to control,” she says.

Cedric points to social media’s effect on his attention span. “It is harder for me to focus on long readings or important tasks without feeling the urge to check my phone,” he says. Giving in to that urge feels satisfying, but Cedric adds that he now realizes the platform is designed to trigger it on purpose.

I then asked them, “What will you do differently, starting now?” I will share their answers in my next column.