The keen awareness of bots' tendency to praise and please — and the targeted reading to get what she needs. That's literacy and agency right there.

Carrie James, CDT

Yes, I love seeing this level of literacy and it reminds me of having to pick a healthy piece of food amidst a bunch of appetizing junk. We deserve tighter control over the models behavior.

Beck Tench, CDT

"[I go to ChatGPT] because sometimes it’s not something that I want to go talk to my friends about. Sometimes it is [about] the friend that I would talk to... So, I'm like, okay, where can I get a third opinion, a second opinion, where it'll probably hopefully be objective? … [But] when I read his [AI’s] responses, I skim over it. So, the sentences that sound like it's trying to please me where it's like, ‘you're amazing.’ And ‘no, you didn't mean this.’ I'm like, no, I don't want to read that. The ones where it's actually giving me steps and reasons. Those are the sentences that I'll read.”

Teen Interviewee | Age 18 | Grade 12 | Girl | Black or African American

Citation: Nearfield. (2026, April). Spring 2026 Gen AI and social media listening loop [Collection of participant quotes]. Nearfield Listening Library. www.thenearfield.org/quotes/seeking-objectivity

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A record of youth quotes from our listening sessions, updated continuously. Preserved with care.

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