Marxist memes for TikTok teens: can the internet radicalize teenagers for the left? | Joshua Citarella

I witness horror stories of social media algorithms turning young people into extremists. But why cede this space to the far right?

I've been researching Gen Z's online memetic subcultures since 2016 and, over the past few years, I have watched a generation of young people become politicized online. Many began posting memes around age 15, and now, in their early adulthood, I have seen them decide how to vote, attend college, have children, join the national guard, join communist organizations, go off-grid, prepare for the revolution by running paramilitary drills in the woods and sometimes commit suicide. Everything that happens online is real. All of it has consequences in the outside world.

Related: The TikTok generation of my kids is not only better informed but more politicised