I didn’t understand what the site was or how it worked, but I was desperate to fit in and make a mark in my new environment. The alt-right and the tech platforms that enable it became the community I needed-until I finally opened my eyes and realized it was turning me into someone who I never wanted to be.Ī few weeks after I started going to my new school, I noticed that a bunch of the guys in my class were browsing a website called Reddit. But unlike others, I found that validation on the alt-right corners of the internet. Like anyone pushed into unfamiliar territory, I was lonely and friendless and looking for validation and social connection. My own transformation started when I switched into a new school in the middle of eighth grade. My brief infatuation with the alt-right has helped me understand the ways big tech companies and their algorithms are contributing to the problem of radicalization-and why it’s so important to be skeptical of what you read online. Now, I’m 16, and I’ve been able to reflect on how I got sucked into that void-and how others do, too.
