An Instagram post gets an unexpected boost. A TikTok catches in the algorithm.

Sometimes that's all it takes to launch someone into internet fame.

But then what?

This blew up is a new podcast documentary that reveals how social media

start and is made. It's a different kind of fame.

It's not always as glamorous as it looks.

From Spotify and the Ring or Podcast Network, I'm Alyssa Bereznek.

You can listen to this blew up on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Today's episode is a bit of a skeleton key episode.

It's a podcast that pulls together a couple different threads that I've been tugging on for the last few months.

Since the spring, I've done several episodes on the mysterious rise of American anxiety, especially among young people.

Teenagers today are more likely to say they are persistently sad or hopeless than any other period on record.

We've also done episodes on the harms of social media and smartphone use.

We've also done episodes on the mystery of American anti-social behavior.

In the last few years, we've seen an increase in assholery as defined by homicides or fights on airplanes or pedestrian entries.

And then there's the background music of political polarization and ascendant political nuttery.

So you take all these threads and you sew them together.

And it tells me that something is going on.

Something is in the water.

Something is making America go berserk.

And I wonder, what if it's loneliness?

At the moment that I'm recording this open, 307 Eastern on Monday.

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