Algorithmic Literacy as the Key to Digital Resilience in Adolescents

Adolescent digital experiences are highly regulated today by opaque algorithms that prioritize engagement over well-being, thereby creating a structural mismatch that negatively impacts mental health through exploitation of key developmental vulnerabilities. This opinion paper argues that traditional digital and media literacies are insufficient to address this challenge. We propose Algorithmic Literacy—a critical understanding of how algorithmic systems select, personalize, and influence online content and user behavior—as a distinct and essential competency for adolescents. The paper outlines how such algorithms can impair stress regulation, distort authentic self-concept, fragment cognition, and skew perceptions of community among young people. We contend that Algorithmic Literacy is foundational to digital resilience, equipping adolescents to recognize, interpret, and respond to algorithmic influences, thereby shifting them from passive recipients to empowered navigators of their digital worlds. This literacy fosters cognitive and emotional agency, reframing digital distress as contextual and modifiable. Given emerging evidence of its teachability and growing global implementation, we conclude that integrating Algorithmic Literacy into educational and mental health initiatives is vital for fostering genuine digital resilience in adolescents, enabling them to cope with and actively shape their digital environments.