Abstract

This paper argues that teenagers’ exposure to educational contents on TikTok build communities which have a positive repercussion in what they consume online. Educational contents are not limited to only online learning but also parental mediation, contributing to wise usage of TikTok which can easily transform into distraction. Furthermore, TikTok also help to educate and create awareness on digital activism and mental health which are becoming highly prominent among the youth. The stance of this paper is to prove that educational videos on TikTok do positively influence teenagers’ consumption unlike stereotypes associating the platform as only a form of distraction. Marxist perspectives have been used whereby technological disparities between social class is being discussed. Moreover, many research papers focused on a specific context such as the North American context while ignoring that of developing countries with poorer technological accessibility. 

It can be deduced that educational videos on TikTok can be beneficial to teenagers in helping them to inculcate discipline in their digital consumption. The mindset they adopt while using TikTok will automatically influence their experience. Consequently, they need to have a clear objective of what they want to achieve when using TikTok because if not, it can be easy to go adrift without consistency.

 

 

Introduction

It is an undeniable fact that technology is becoming more accessible to the global population. Accordingly, social networking sites were launched to interact with people worldwide, bridging the gaps which used to hinder effective communication. The creation of TikTok in 2016 by Chinese technology company, ByteDance was made available worldwide (Jargon, 2022). Teenagers which amounted to 30% of global users in 2021 have since been a dominant demographic actively consuming contents (Nguyen, n,d.). Teenagers do use TikTok wisely to educate themselves unlike hearsay statements stressing on their undisciplined social media consumption. Access to a plethora of educational contents on TikTok in terms of sustained attention span with the inclusion of online learning, parental mediation styles concerning cyber security, youth digital activism for voicing out opinions, and mental health awareness accessibility have kindled self-growth among teenagers, shifting consumption away from only using social media for entertainment.

 

 

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The incorporation of educational videos on TikTok has increased the attention span of teenagers tremendously compared to the traditional way of learning at school. As per research carried out in 2022, the average concentration span of a 16-year-old teenager ranges between 32 to 48 minutes (Zauderer, 2022). Considering that TikTok do not allow videos exceeding 3 minutes which is called nano-learning, teachers hence ought to be precise and implement visually engaging content to retain attention of their audience (Khlaif & Salha, 2021). Small chunks of valuable concepts will make it more digestible for teenagers and decrease their likelihood of scrolling to the next video. As a result, their TikTok algorithm which is represented by their ‘For You Page’ will alter if they consistently engage more with educational videos. The ‘For You Page’ is a personalised page whereby TikTok recommends contents which users might like based on the types of content they interacted with (TikTok, n.d.). TikTok expanding into a powerful learning platform, used this popularity to further satisfy audience interests with more educational videos. They consequently launched the hashtag #LearnOnTikTok, which generated more than 7 billion visits, allowing them to raise funds and collaborate with more international educational institutions and experts to spread their knowledge (Ascencio, 2022). Students can access global quality contents which are free of charge without moving abroad. Moreover, when education shifted online during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, TikTok invested $50 million as part of Creative Learning Fund for additional educational contents because they place a great value on community well-being (TikTok, 2020). Educational contents on TikTok enhanced the bond between content creators and audience, thus making the community stronger.

 

However, since TikTok offers a variety of contents, there is a high probability for students to get easily distracted from their initial goal which was learning (Jiménez, 2022). Being glued to educational contents only on a social media platform is difficult and can cause attention span to shrink because better choices of entertainment is available on the same application. According to John Hutton, a paediatrician at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, the involuntary reflex when bored is to seek escapism on social media to boost dopamine in our brain which generates instant gratification when ignoring tasks which demand extensive focus and mental capacity (Jargon, 2022). Huining suggested parental mediation on digital devices until students learn to master self-control, sparring them from distractions and dangers which can be problematic (Ascencio, 2022). Research gaps in papers is that they often ignore technological divide in the context of third world countries which make attention span difficult to monitor. It is an undeniable fact that teenagers’ concentration can be higher with online learning on TikTok than when they learn at school, because they have to process a large amount of information regardless of their brain power.

 

 

 

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Secondly, the parental mediation approaches adopted while using TikTok can shape the experience of teenagers. In 2016, 61.73% of Chinese millennials was active on TikTok for entertainment (Qin et al., 2023). To help curb children’s problematic use of TikTok, most parents in China have opted for active parental mediation strategy to mitigate addiction, developing violent attitudes or distortion of the real world (Qin et al., 2023). Active parental control consists of parents actively discussing about decent behaviour online (qin et al., 2023). This exchange between parents and children demonstrates that although the latter does not have complete autonomy over the use of TikTok, positive advice from parents result in responsible media use. The cause-and-effect relationship between an increase in active parental mediation result in lower problematic TikTok use among teenagers (Qin et al., 2023). In Singapore, fathers, are overprotective over their children which push them to opt for active mediation because they believe that the role of good parents is to offer parental guidance (Lwin et al., 2021). This indeed depicted that parents care for their children safety. Active parental mediation is a way for parents to remind children to not breach their trust by using social media negatively. The Authoritative behaviour is not entirely a bad thing because parents still have good intentions towards their children’s academic performance which could have worsened if parents were carefree. Irrespective of parents preventing children from excessive social media use, students in Singapore still work relentlessly to achieve top-notched results because competitiveness intertwined with academic supremacy forms part of the Asian culture (Lwin et al., 2021). Contrarily to teenagers who use social media irresponsibly, Singaporeans use it as a reward after completing their schoolwork (Lwin et al., 2021). Although a healthy family environment can curb addiction, the Southeast Asian community seems disciplined enough in using social media

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Prior the ban of TikTok in India, parents irrespective of background had a strict control over their children. Control for children from lower-income backgrounds was linked to economic reasons because of the costs of mobile data (Sarwatay et al., 2022). Middle-class children were restricted to be on TikTok only for access to any educational or productive activities (Sarwatay et al., 2022). Livingstone and Blum-Ross argued there needs to be consensus between children’s digital needs and parents’ concern for their safety (Sarwatay et al., 2022). The paradox in parental mediations is that they argue that teenagers are not matured enough but digitally savvy (Hampton, 2015). Parents’ lack of digital literacy in an era where technology is crucial makes them feel inferior which may be the reasons, they impose uninformed restrictions upon children. Moreover, since community before technology was built among close friends and family, parents fear their children get closer to people they have never met rather than preserving familial values (Hampton, 2015). Indeed, parental control can help children to use TikTok effectively but digital knowledge amongst parents’ is as important.

 

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Youth activism became more prominent on TikTok because the space can connect teenagers together to peacefully fight for a common cause. The Fridays For Future movement (FFF), created in 2018 by Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate activist has expanded worldwide whereby the youth engage in school strike on Fridays (Belotti et al., 2022). The FFF movement in Rome was initially reluctant to create a TikTok account because they considered engagements on the platform as being shallow and not aligning with their motives (Belotti et al., 2022). Being conscious that if they resist from using digital activism techniques, they might lose a large percentage of teenagers who are active on TikTok. To defy negative connotations associated with teenagers using TikTok irresponsibly and passively, FFF activists did not surrender from creating a TikTok account to increase visibility among youngsters (Belotti et al., 2022). Despite their online presence, FFF activists did not ditched their offline presence (Belotti et al., 2022). Using both platforms to sustain political tension, will continue increasing media exposure because activists remain consistent in fighting for climate change issues. From September to November 2019, TikTok’s most popular videos used the new slogan “#forclimate campaign” (Belotti et al., 2022). This indicates the power of the youth climate activists’ community in using TikTok to fight for a pressing issue affecting everybody. In line with climate action, the Black Lives Matter online campaign on TikTok arose following the death of George Floyd because of police brutality. (Subramanian, 2022). As a sign of solidarity with the black community, the hashtag #BLM was used among many users on TikTok while also condemning police brutality (Subramanian, 2022).

 

There has been a burning debate on teenagers engaging in slacktivism which is about the satisfaction of being involved in a social cause instead of actively participating to bring social changes (Subramanian, 2022). The common reasons of digital slacktivism among teenagers are due to time constraints from high school commitments although they are honestly willing to participate in digital activism (Subramanian, 2022). Garcia and Mirra states that although teenagers are engaging in slacktivism, their use of hashtags while reposting videos on TikTok, can connect them to specific communities and educate themselves (Subramanain, 2022). While sharing hashtags on TikTok, teenagers can contribute to spreading awareness to their followers.  Lauren Ashe refutes that the 29 million people who posted black squares and the hashtag #BlackOutTuesday on social media to reflect their support to African American equality did not alleviate racism (Subramanian, 2022). Everybody sharing similar content online can appear as superficial activism because it does not necessarily reduce racism, but it does educate netizens about the issue. Teenagers dominate digital activism on TikTok as they fluidly build online communities. It allows them to connect with people of different ethnicities and social backgrounds which can expand collective intelligence, improving mental state.

 

 

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Mental health professionals extending their reach over TikTok made teenagers feel more supported. Teenagers gain more trustworthiness when certified mental health therapists give advice about mental health online rather than if a regular person do so because the latter may be subjective in his approach (Mordecai, 2023). Reluctance for some netizens to rely on regular users’ mental health contents is because they could be spreading misinformation worsening anxiety levels of the audience. Teenagers active consumption of TikTok combined with mental health professionals offering free mental health enlightenment is an opportunity for them to discuss about their issues (Mordecai, 2023). Unfortunately, mental health accounts may not be able to educate users entirely on mental health literacy because it requires years of psychological studies to know how to treat specific mental health problems (Pretorius et al., 2022). Mental health contents disseminated on TikTok are generalised information to educate users, but personalised information could be given during one-to-one private sessions. The point of an upsurge in mental health accounts on TikTok is to fade out the stigma formerly linked to mental health and normalise voicing out what is going on in their minds (Pretorious et al., 2022). Teenagers’ self-esteem may increase when they realise that other people of their age have similar struggles as them. Therefore, mental health accessibility on TikTok can make teenagers feel more valued and supported because other users are all ears (Mordecai, 2023). Establishing a community with like-minded people decrease the feeling of isolation and help improve mental health state. Enhanced mental health can positively affect teenagers’ performance at school and interaction with others (Pretorious et al., 2022). Research gaps in this journal is that they focus only on the impact of mental health guidance on TikTok in North America. Also, since TikTok is a relatively new application, further research is required to demonstrate the effectiveness of mental health contents to users, especially teenagers.

 

However, oppression and social exclusion still exist among minorities with regards to mental health issues which were formerly associated to specific ethnicities and viewed as shameful (Mordecai, 2023). Constantly being belittled by colonists undoubtedly created a trauma among marginalised populations to talk about their mental health nowadays. Post-colonialism, minorities still feel insecure to express themselves when it comes to talking about their health issues because they fear being reduced just like in colonial times contrarily to the whites who might depict their social privilege to increased accessibility to private counselling (Mordecai, 2023).

 

 

Conclusion

To sum up, teenagers have impeccably refuted the negative assumptions associated with TikTok as a distraction that ultimately becomes an addiction for them. They proved that TikTok can be an educational platform which can positively shape their consumption and online identity, sparing them from indulging in negative behaviours. Online learning helped to improve students’ attention span due to its visually appealing and engaging videos contrarily to traditional learning style which is static in classrooms. In contrast, those without parental support and more likely to develop digital addiction, active parental mediation can prompt children to use TikTok judiciously. Youth digital activism can be as impactful on TikTok as much as physically participating in protests. Mental health awareness accounts from professionals can help teenagers to receive free mental health support and build a community. Digital divide between minorities can affect the credibility of TikTok as positively educating teenagers.

 

 

 

 

 

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