TikTok beneficial to students

TikTok+beneficial+to+students

Morgan (Lou) Nations, Reporter

   There are currently 800 million active users on the social Media App TikTok. It grew in popularity at the beginning of the Coronavirus quarantine in March of 2020, originally as a tool to cure boredom, but it soon grew into a platform filled with politics, drama, and COVID-19 updates. Users and nonusers alike question if TikTok should be kept out of the hands of students, because of the effect it could have on them or their mental health. 

  Students should be allowed to continue using TikTok because it affects students positively as an outlet for them to understand, accept, and support the social justice movements of the outside world. 

  One such movement is the Black Lives Matter movement which spread like wildfire thanks to TikTok. May 19, 2020, TikTok Black out day, was a day where people posted videos of police brutality, showed support for black and indigenous artists, talked about black history, raised money for black owned businesses, and spread awareness about the reality of microaggressions and cultural appropriation. Black individuals and their allies also changed their profile pictures to the Black Lives Matter fist symbol.This truly was a day of educating, listening, and unity.  This app also helped update people on Covid-19. As the death toll continued to rise, people on TikTok encouraged others to stay home, wash their hands, and wear their masks. New information on the number of cases, events being canceled, and vaccines were spread with Coronavirus related hashtags in order to keep everyone informed. Also, tips on how to take care of yourself during and after having covid spread around. Some examples are charing an orange, mixing the inside fruit with brown sugar, and eating it to gain your taste and smell back, trying to blow out a candle with your mask on to see if it is adequate, and to take a deep breath before you get a nasal swab Covid-19 test. 

  Teachers on TikTok who have also been going through the learning experience of online classes made videos teaching students about how to use the zoom app, google docs, slides, excel, how to find online textbooks, tips on studying, tips on retaining information, and just simply teaching the same lessons that they taught in their online courses to further explain curtain topics or lessons. One of the most famous TikTok teachers is named Hank Green who talks about biology, physics, anatomy, and politics. 

  Parents, some teachers, and other adults claim that TikTok distracts them from their school work and can even put them in danger, because it allows adults to follow minors, watch videos of them, and private message them. It is very important for students to be educated of the events of the world that are going on around them and TikTok has come out and said that their algorithm for the content displayed on the main ‘for you page’, restricts content based on the information of the user, therefore, grouping age groups with each other, as well as common interests. 

 If these people think students are getting too distracted by the outside world, then they should discuss with their students the importance of school and its effects after the pandemic. TikTok is beneficial for students during the Coronavirus quarantine, and continues to educate and make this difficult time easier for students.