TikTok and the Peril of Shaping Algerian Teen Consciousness: When Algorithms Forge the Future of Nations
✍️ BY: Maamar Gani
Algiers – November 2025 – The dangers posed by social media platforms are no longer a matter of intellectual luxury or exaggerated alarmism; they have become a central global concern tied to cultural security, identity, and the future of generations. While some countries have adopted strict, strategic policies toward these platforms—China being the leading example—the Algerian digital sphere remains wide open to algorithms concerned solely with capturing attention, even at the expense of healthy cognitive development among adolescents and youth.
On the Chinese version of TikTok, and under local regulations, users under fourteen are limited to forty minutes per day, and the platform is entirely inaccessible from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. This is not a random measure; it is part of a strategic vision built on the premise that children embody the nation’s future. As such, the algorithm directs young users toward scientific experiments, museum tours, historical narratives, national education, and academic content. The results speak for themselves. In a comparative study conducted after one year of using their respective platforms, most Chinese children reported aspiring to become astronauts. In contrast, the prevailing answer among the comparison group was: “I want to become an influencer.”
This contrast is far from trivial—it exposes the profound difference between a society that invests in cultivating children’s minds and another that leaves them exposed to algorithms that amplify triviality and reward controversy simply because it drives higher viewership.
In Algeria, adolescents and young people are immersed in the latter environment. TikTok’s globally oriented algorithms—which include Algeria in their generic programming—have no interest in culture, ethics, or educational value. They prioritize content that maximizes watch time, pushing forward a new breed of digital role models: influencers pursuing fame at any cost, promoting superficiality, and normalizing moral deviance through shocking challenges and sensational clips. More dangerously, many teenagers have begun to view such figures as “ideal role models,” mirroring their fashion, speech, interactions, and even reckless behaviour that garners online engagement.
Without conscious algorithmic guidance, success for a large segment of youth is increasingly measured through follower counts rather than books read, likes rather than skills acquired. These false benchmarks have distorted adolescents’ perception of effort, ambition, and achievement. Instead of aspiring toward scientific or professional paths, many share a singular dream: becoming “influencers,” even if it means sacrificing privacy, dignity, and personal growth.
The phenomenon is compounded by social and economic transformations in Algeria that heighten adolescent vulnerability: widening generational gaps, absence of cultural and recreational alternatives, erosion of role models, a deficit in youth-oriented media content, and school environments that fail to provide inspiration or psychological safety. Added to this is the looming threat posed by drug traffickers who target this fragile demographic with psychotropic substances. Into this vacuum, TikTok steps—not with content that elevates awareness, but with material that erodes the core values of society.
Meanwhile, China offers a compelling reminder that algorithms are not fate but sovereign choice. A nation that views its children as a strategic project will not permit commercial algorithms to shape their consciousness. In Algeria—where youth, adolescents, and children constitute nearly three-quarters of the population—this generation is effectively being shaped in the digital realm without cognitive protection or clear policies to curb digital addiction or guide content.
The danger is not merely moral; it is strategic. A generation whose aspirations hinge on rapid fame and visibility risks losing the capacity for long-term self-investment. Its scientific and professional ambitions may decline, impacting schools, universities, the labour market, and the cohesion of societal values. The future imagined by today’s adolescents will ultimately become the society lived two decades from now.
Protecting youth from TikTok’s influence does not mean banning or repressing the platform. It requires a deep understanding of the nature of algorithms and the implementation of digital policies that safeguard identity and culture while steering content toward genuine value. The goal is not to boycott the platform, but to boycott triviality—establishing digital protection standards, encouraging high-quality educational and entertaining content, and developing nationwide digital literacy programs for schools and families.
China has recognised that “the children of today are the future of the nation.”
The question Algerian society must now confront is: What kind of generation do we seek to build? And will we entrust that mission to algorithms, or will we decide—intentionally and collectively—what our children should be exposed to, and what they should dream of becoming?
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