Middle-school children reportedly used the Spotify comment section beneath an NPR podcast episode as an improvised group chat, apparently because access to other social networks was restricted. The behaviour became the subject of a new This American Life episode, highlighting how young people repurpose overlooked online spaces to communicate.

The podcast’s showrunner initially mistook the comments for bot activity because they were fragmented, emoji-heavy and difficult to understand, and deleted them. Staff later recognised them as children’s conversations after one user complained about a deleted comment; similar behaviour had previously appeared under Ted Radio Hour, while one producer recalled using Google Docs to chat with friends.