The Invisible Editor
Every time you open TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube, you aren't seeing "the world". You are seeing a tiny slice of it, curated by a mathematical formula (an Algorithm).
🎯 The Goal of the Algorithm
The algorithm has one job: To keep you on the app for as long as possible.
It doesn't care if the content is true, helpful, or kind. It only cares if it is engaging.
The Engagement Trap
(It makes you angry/scared)
(Comment, Share, or just Watch longer)
"Show them more of this!"
Result: Anger travels 6x faster online than joy.
Key Concepts
🫧 The Filter Bubble
When the algorithm only shows you opinions you already agree with. You start to think everyone thinks like you.
🕳️ The Rabbit Hole
When you click one video on a topic (e.g., "Earth is flat?") and the app keeps serving you more increasingly extreme videos.
Te Ao Māori: Kaitiakitanga o te Hinengaro
🛡️ Guardianship of the Mind
Kaitiakitanga usually refers to guarding the land. But we must also be kaitiaki (guardians) of our own hinengaro (mind) and wairua (spirit).
If the algorithm is feeding you "junk food" (hate, fear, fake news), you have the right to protect your space.
- Curate: Unfollow accounts that make you feel whack.
- Diversify: Deliberately follow people who disagree with you (respectfully).
- Disconnect: Put the phone down to reconnect with the physical world (Taiao).
Mahi: Audit Your Feed
Open your favourite social app right now. Look at the first 5 posts.
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will investigate digital activism as a form of civic participation and political power, examining how social media and online tools have enabled new forms of resistance, solidarity, and community organising. This unit connects to Māori traditions of protest, hīkoi, and political action in the digital age.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ I can evaluate the effectiveness of digital activism strategies and identify their strengths and limitations.
- ✅ I can analyse how power operates in digital spaces and who controls information flows.
- ✅ I can design a digital activism campaign for a cause I care about, applying ethical communication principles.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide campaign planning templates and analysis frameworks for entry-level learners. Offer extension tasks requiring students to critically evaluate a real activist campaign's digital strategy and propose evidence-based improvements.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach political and digital literacy vocabulary. Leverage students' knowledge of activism in their home countries as a comparative lens. Allow discussions in home language to process complex political ideas before English writing tasks.
Inclusion: Use multimodal texts — videos, images, social media posts — to make political concepts accessible. Neurodiverse learners benefit from structured analysis frameworks and choice in how they engage with potentially charged political content. Create a safe classroom environment where diverse political perspectives are respected.
Mātauranga Māori lens: Situate digital activism in the long whakapapa of Māori political resistance — from the Kotahitanga movement to the 1975 Māori land march, to contemporary digital campaigns for Te Tiriti justice. Explore how hui, karanga, and whaikōrero function as forms of community organising that preceded digital networks, and how Māori activists have strategically adopted digital tools while maintaining cultural grounding. Discuss tino rangatiratanga as the ultimate goal of political participation.
Prior knowledge: Best used after foundational social studies and civics concepts. Benefits from prior exposure to media literacy.
Curriculum alignment
- Social Studies — Understanding: Students understand how digital technologies shape political participation and how communities use online tools to advocate for rights and social change.