Our world today is run by the media we consume, from young to old and from TV to social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. While it is already known that television and news stereotype African American or Black individuals, the relation of social media and how that increases our stereot ype activation and application also appears to be high. In social psychology, stereotype activation is the triggering of a stereotype, making it come to mind, and stereotype application is the use of that stereotype to judge or evaluate a member of another group. Repeated exposure to all types of media is shown to not only inform us of the world, but shape the way we think about certain groups and people. Media scholar Travis L. Dixon surveyed college students to test the relation of stereotyping Black violence and social media use. Dixon found that students who consumed more social media content were more likely to endorse the stereotype linking Black individuals with violence. Since the first step of stereotyping is endorsement of the stereotype, we can see how this repeated exposure of biased media transforms into stereotype activation and ultimately application. However, this may be an intended result of social media companies, making these biases more prevalent in the media we are shown. You might think that the concept and reality of social media would seek to unify and expose users to different social and cultural groups. However, social media sites, through their use of content-suggested algorithms actually perform the inverse of that expectation. Research done on social media algorithms demonstrates how these programs can actually reinforce biases or views that we already hold. A term that best sums up this whole process and the reasoning behind this is homophily. That word refers to the tendency to only connect to people of similar backgrounds or shared opinions to ourselves. This can create a sort of echo chamber effect where we get repeated high levels of exposure to only the ideas or bias we may already have. The recommending algorithms thus further bury other views or people from the non-dominant culture down and out of sight of others. These predictive algorithms which recommend everything we watch are often thought of as objective, and neutral sites but instead put forth a quantity of biased, and overexposure to the dominant viewpoint. The rise of social media has normalized constant online engagement among youth, fundamentally shaping how race is portrayed and perceived, often in harmful ways. As screen time increases, young people are exposed to a steady stream of content that reinforces racialized imagery and narratives, subtly activating stereotypes in the process. For youth of color, particularly Black youth, this often means direct encounters with racism in digital spaces, including exposure to racist memes and negative messaging about their identities. These repeated exposures do more than offend. They condition the brain to associate certain racial groups with specific traits, making those stereotypes more cognitively accessible and likely to be triggered in future interactions. At the same time, social media platforms do not just reflect bias. They amplify and organize it through racial hate groups with tools to recruit, teach and indoctrinate youth through strategic messaging and coded language. Through repetition and algorithm-driven reinforcement, these messages introduce stereotype activation into everyday scrolling. This is important because once someone develops stereotypical beliefs, they can be reactivated by small amounts of subsequent exposure. In this way, social media becomes a powerful mechanism through which racial stereotypes are not only experienced but continuously learned, reinforced and automatically activated in how young people perceive themselves and others. Social media plays a significant role in reinforcing stereotypes by repeatedly exposing adolescents to racial discrimination, both directly and indirectly. The constant exposure makes race more noticeable in everyday interactions and increases the likelihood that stereotypes are automatically activated when people encounter social situations. Over time, users may begin relying on these stereotypes to understand other groups’ behaviors, often without realizing it. This matters because social media is not just a space for people to connect, as it actively shapes how people learn to see and evaluate one another. When biased messages are constantly repeated online, they can become normalized and harder to challenge. For adolescents in particular, repeated encounters with racial discrimination online can contribute to stress and negative self-perceptions, which can have lasting impacts on mental health and development. Social media needs to be held accountable for the role that they play in cultivating stereotypes and biases. Repeated exposure to all types of media is shown to not only inform us of the world around us, but shape the way we think about certain groups and people. Their algorithms, which are currently set to decrease diversity in viewed material, should be looked at to either limit the effects of that or inversely recommend instead more diverse material. Increasing diversity online is an important step towards decreasing overall prejudice and bias. Social media networks can start by promoting diversity through their algorithms and continue to promote differing viewpoints instead of remaining the echo chamber of opinions that it is today. As consumers, we can be aware of the biases we consume on social media and understand that it is not an accurate representation of our world today. Co-authors are Carter Peetz, Madison Larson, Micah Lear, Claudia Nichols. They and Dylan Woodbury, who grew up in Park City, are Marquette University students. The post How social media is making us more unaccepting appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less