I’ve seen too many youth pastors be like ‘Be careful on TikTok

“I’ve seen too many youth pastors be like ‘Be careful on TikTok, it’s just girls dancing in swimsuits’ and I’m like bro…it’s an algorithm 👀”

@jaronmyers on Twitter

Like all things this needs context. I don’t think anyone wants to dunk on youth pastors but the best way to talk about the algorithm is to talk about the algorithm. I sometimes get lulled into the false sense of community here that we’re all just cool people sharing stuff we like and while that’s certainly part of it; we have to remember that giant multi-billion corporations facilitate this and none of them have our best interest at heart. Yes, we can train the algorithm to serve us stuff that we want to see. Yes, we can flood with this app with edifying and honest content. Yes, we can have truthful and fulfilling dialog here. But the same environment that facilitates all that, will also gladly serve a never-ending stream of “girls dancing in swimsuits” to those who want it. It’ll exploit the young girls with engagement, it’ll exploit the men with content, and it’ll do it non-stop.

Just as we instruct our kids how to navigate the world, we’ll also need to instruct them on how to use social media. It’s like the physical world but just sped up to an amazing degree. Instead of watching one movie we can now watch a hundred of them. Instead of talking to one person we can talk to hundreds (or thousands.) Instead of study and reflection we absorb 15 second theories that sound right in the moment but fall apart when we think about them. But we don’t think about them, we just share.

I don’t think “not using social media” is 100% the way forward. Obviously we’re all here. I think what Jaron points out here isn’t the problem with thirst traps but ignorance in how these algorithms work. I think if we want to help people, we need to try and understand the environments they hang out in. Jaron also subtweets “…we should teach them how to tell if something is fake, out of context, or blatant misinformation” and man is spot on with that.

I have so much more to say on this but my 2200 character limit is rapidly approaching. I’m going to try and put up a video later. 🤔