Based on reporting by The Verge.
What happened
Middle schoolers turned the Spotify comment section under an NPR Wild Card episode into an impromptu group chat because the episode had few comments and the children were likely blocked from other apps and social networks.
Showrunner Dave Blanchard initially thought the comments were generated by bots, describing them as gibberish, clipped, weird, incoherent and full of emoji and shorthand, then deleted the comments; one account later noted that the comment had been deleted and Blanchard posted screenshots of the thread in NPR’s Slack.
Producer Hannah Chin recognized the activity as coming from kids rather than bots, and the students also used Google Docs to talk with friends as an alternative communication method; the phenomenon is discussed in a new episode of This American Life.
AIBeat analysis
This could indicate that when young people are restricted from mainstream social platforms they will repurpose other digital spaces such as podcast comment sections for peer interaction, suggesting educators and platform designers may need to anticipate and address unintended communication channels.