Adolescence equals autonomy.
This is what anti-tobacco campaigners figured out in the ’90s and used to their advantage. At the time, teen smoking rates were at an all-time high, so after decades of telling young people “smoking is bad for your health” with limited success, they tried a different approach. They launched advertisements depicting tobacco executives targeting young people to get them hooked. The result? Young people - many of whom smoked as an act of rebellion - began to rebel against the tobacco companies instead.
A study from the American Journal of Public Health of over 7000 Floridian and American adolescents showed that before the Florida anti-tobacco “Truth” campaign, the number of young people in that state who smoked was slightly higher than the rest of the country. Afterwards, the number who smoked in the past 30 days dropped to less than 50% of the U.S. average, while those who 'intended to smoke in future' nearly halved as well. Read that again - half. Nothing in the history of anti-tobacco campaigning has seen results like that. The campaign spread, and saw similar success.
How does this work? You might remember that Sultana Bran commercial that said “don’t tell them it’s healthy, and they’ll eat it by the boxful”. Well, it’s like that in reverse. From our perspective, telling young people what’s healthy and what’s not “should” work. The reality is, it often backfires. As any parent or teacher knows, often the more you push, the more they push back. Showing them the “tricks of the trade”, however, teaches them they are not as in control as they think, and it rattles one of their number one priorities - building autonomy.
This strategy is working with Big Tech. It’s the main thread that runs through the new book for kids by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price The Amazing Generation, it was one of the main messages from the Social Media and Mental Health Symposium at Brigidine College St Ives two weeks ago, and it’s what gets their attention when I run workshops on the topic.
I like to teach the acronym “TRICKS” to give six examples to students and speak to their inner rebel – feel free to use this in your school:
T – Time
The more they are on it, the more the companies get paid. One of their biggest measures of success is keeping eyeballs on the app as long as possible.
R – Rewards
Random (intermittent) rewards are the most powerful psychological trick we know to keep people coming back for more. 'Likes' and notifications create addictive patterns in the brain, and this reward loop was actually inspired by the poker machine industry.
I – Information
Every single action you take on a social media app is captured and stored as part of your personal profile. Every time you pause, click, like, or comment on any post or video, this information is captured, stored and analysed in order to target you with similar and more compelling stuff.
C – Children
Tech companies are in a race to get children and teens on their platforms as young as possible. Some quotes from emails between Meta employees: “Acquiring people when young results in the highest lifetime value” and “the lifetime value of a 13-year-old is roughly $270 per teen”.
K – Knowledge
They know the harms their platforms cause kids, and yet they do it anyway – just not with their own. Steve Jobs didn’t give his kids an iPhone, the CEO of TikTok doesn’t let his kids use TikTok, the CEO of Snapchat doesn’t even use screens at all.
S – Sales
They make money by selling your data to advertisers, who then target you with based off your exact personal profile. Your age, location, interests, hobbies, friends, photos, and more – all of this stuff is used to figure out what to send, when to sent it, and even in which emotional state. For example, Meta’s algorithm figured out that when girls delete selfies that usually means they are feeling insecure about their bodies, so it immediately sends them ads for weight loss, make-up and beauty products.
Big Tech has run the tobacco playbook for decades, and it’s time to turn the tables. Kids are rebels – let’s use it to their advantage.
Written by Nick Kenny. First published on LinkedIn.