Middle schoolers found in NPR podcast comment sections
NPR staff discovered a group of middle schoolers using their podcast comment section as a social hangout last fall.
Staff noticed unusual activity
A producer at NPR initially thought strange abbreviations and emojis in Spotify comments were bot traffic. The team shared screenshots of these posts with Slack after hearing about them on the show This American Life.
Colleagues identified the users
Audio producer Hannah Chin recognized the activity was not automated but came from real middle schoolers. These students were too young for standard social media platforms and chose the podcast comments instead.
Students explained their choice
One student told host Ira Glass they selected podcasts with few existing comments to avoid attention. NPR had previously spotted similar behavior on the TED Radio Hour show last year.
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