Middle schoolers used an NPR podcast comment section as a group chat
Middle school students utilized the comment section of an episode of NPR's Wild Card to communicate with each other after being blocked from other social media platforms.
Students sought out quiet spaces
Host Ira Glass asked one student why they chose that specific podcast. The child replied that they looked for shows without many comments to avoid detection. This approach allowed the group to establish a private communication channel.
Producers initially mistook users for bots
Showrunner Dave Blanchard first thought the activity was caused by automated software. He described the posts as gibberish, weird, and incoherent before deleting them. Producer Hannah Chin later identified the accounts as real children using creative internet tools.
Kids explained their resourceful behavior
Chin noted that they were once a kid who used unusual parts of the internet to talk to friends. They demonstrated this by sharing how they communicated on Google Docs in the past. The group chat emerged as a direct result of restrictions placed on their access to other apps.
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