“Just delete TikTok” isn’t good advice to students struggling to succeed in school.
It’s easy to imagine some peers in secondary and higher education who are likely to say, “Just delete TikTok off your phone and you’ll have all the time you need to prepare for your classes.” (I am saying TikTok here, but could be talking about Instagram, SnapChat, etc.)
I grant that some percentage of the population is overusing TikTok. That much is obvious. But to me, there are only two scenarios in which TikTok is occupying the time students need to complete their schoolwork, and in both cases, TikTok isn’t to blame.
Scenario 1: People are legitimately addicted to TikTok. Probably true addiction is rare, but if it’s the case, it’s hard to imagine that saying “Delete the app” is going to help. Try telling an alcoholic “Just stop buying booze.” That’s not a viable strategy for real addiction.
Scenario 2: This is the common one. Students are using TikTok because they are utterly overwhelmed by responsibility, landing themselves in a situation where the most they can do is scroll TikTok or binge Netlix. That’s not TikTok’s fault, either. It’s a mental health crisis that can’t be solved by deleting an app.
Is it possible to have a healthy relationship with social media while achieving in school? Sure, of course. But the vast majority of struggling students don’t need to delete an app. The difference in stress level from when I was in school to now is not a difference of degrees – the difference is an order of magnitude. And until we as educators acknowledge and support our students in managing the stress, anxiety, and overwhelm of modern education, we will fail to effectively teach our students so that they learn.