This just isn't being talked about enough. Educating people is one way to help the individual combat deceptive media practices, dark patterns in games and UIs, and much more. Luckily, my parents taught me to loathe commercials, and later political ideals led me to read a lot on the topic of the interaction between media and advertising and ideas, and how propaganda actually works (hint: effective propaganda isn't about lies, it's about showing some truths and not talking about others).

And this was all before the Internet boom and the terrible ad-tech hell we find ourselves in.

Anyway, kudos to your high school.

Do you recall what the required reading was?

This is truly a fantastic place to start (there is a book of the same name):

https://youtu.be/AnrBQEAM3rE

Outstanding. A 1992 documentary that describes fb and all modern media down to a T.