By: Kayla Simo, 11th Grade Independent Research
For the average River Hill student, a morning scroll isn’t always about catching up on the latest brainrot on Tiktok or celebrity drama on Twitter, it sometimes means navigating an algorithm filled with political warfare and violence. But how closely are River Hill students being affected by this change in algorithms?
As part of an independent research class study, a digital survey was distributed to 333 River Hill High School students from grades freshman to senior year. Students were asked a variety of questions about their interaction with politics online in order to understand the impact on students. Respondents were asked to give estimates of the time they spent daily online and on the weekends, their most used social media platforms, and the platforms on which they encountered the most political violence. Based on the survey results, the majority of students spent anywhere from two to five hours daily on social media platforms, with 76.6% spending the majority of their time on Instagram.
Respondents were then asked, “In the past 12 months, have you encountered any real-world violence on your social media feeds?”
86.2% of respondents answered yes. Almost 90 % of RHHS students are encountering violence on their feeds. A follow-up question then asked students whether the violence they encountered on their feeds had any affect on their political perception, 32.1% of students indicated these violent videos had in fact influenced their political socialization. But that’s not all, when the rankings of the most popular social media platforms used by students were compared to platforms rated as the most violent, the data revealed a striking overlap: the apps students frequent the most are often the ones where they encounter the most hostile content. It further exemplified how the short-video algorithm platforms like Instagram and Tiktok were the most popular and the most violent. Alluding to how the algorithms of these popular platforms are facilitating the spread of political violence to River Hill High School students.
This problem of rising violence persists past the River Hill community. 15 % of Americans say they are willing to tolerate political violence (Webster & Albertson , 2022). That’s 50 million Americans who provided the sobering reality that mirrors how polarized dynamics are seeping into the feeds of River Hill students. These 50 million Americans are no coincidence. Political media is purposely structured and framed to evoke volatile emotions to put viewers in defense and offense positions (Kleinfeld, 2021). The sharing of media has evolved from the purpose of educating to spreading misinformation and hate (Osmunden et. al , 2021 and Mills 2022).
The growth of the digital world has led to new found consequences and spread of knowledge. As Hawks, It’s important to remember the media and politics we receive now will impact our political understanding for years to come: fact check and then believe. We owe it to ourselves as a community to stay educated and vigilant about political media.