“reading the comments. For the rest of the day Jesse’s ‘For You Page’ was filled with videos of a similar nature. These videos contained images of how beautiful the world was and hope core videos to (ironically) Kanye West’s ‘God is’. For hours on end Jesse scrolled through these religious videos talking about God and felt as though she finally had an escape from the group chats and annoying emails she so wanted to avoid.
From TikTok to instagram, Jesse’s algorithm had adjusted accordingly. Jesse wasn’t entirely sure whether she was interested in the message of the videos as much as she was the songs.
Jesse liked the idea of being part of something, something bigger than herself or her friend group or the menial tasks of her everyday life. So she joined group chats and reposted videos preaching the message of God as our creator.
But, as with most things in a teenagers life, this phase passed.
Just the next week Jesse came across a Meal Prep inspiration video and so once again, the algorithm shifted along with her attention. And the profound message of God that had dominated her socials slowly filtered out and readjusted to the interest of the week.”
This story was submitted as part of the Oxford Pilot Phase of the Gen Z Role Models Project.
“reading the comments.” (S128) © 2026 by The Gen Z Role Models Project is licensed under CC BY 4.0
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