Teen Tik-Tok Brain

"The dopamine rush of endless short videos [makes it hard for young viewers to switch their focus to slower-moving, teacher-guided activities'."

"We've made kids live in a candy store."

Wall Street Journal feature story 

"In the wake of massive pandemic school disruptions, classrooms have been turned upside down. Millions of today's teenagers are more codependent than ever upon smart phones, totally consumed by
TikTok, tuning out their parents, and driving many classroom teachers crazy."

"Successive years of educational disruptions, shutdowns, home isolation, and massive experiments in remote teaching have radically altered the terms of engagement."

"Most teachers and a good many parents are trying to reach a whole generation of kids hooked on cellphones and exhibiting all the signs of a new clinical condition -- TikTok Brain."

Paul. W. Bennett, Ed.D. director, Schoolhouse Institute, Adjunct Professor of Education, Saint Mary's University

The creator of the "Bimbo Manifesto," Fiona Fairbairn, 19, poses for a portrait at her home in Thornhill, Ont., Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022. "I'm sick of perceiving. I'm sick of being observational. I'm sick of being self-aware," Fairbairn told her 8,000 TikTok followers on Dec. 23. "Just let me be dumb, because people with no critical thinking skills be happy as hell." Chris Young/The Canadian Press.

 

A 2018 survey conducted by the OECD under the Program of International Assessment, concluded that one in five 15-year-old Canadian students reported noise, distractions and disorder impacted on their ability to learn in a classroom, to the extent that their classroom experience was considerably less effective. Canada has a poor record with respect to this issue, ranking 60th out of 77 participating nations and educational districts in the OECD 2018 index of disciplinary climate.

The disciplinary climate index is itself based on an international survey of 600,000 15-year-old students who expressed their personal opinions of the state of student discipline in their classrooms. According to a fairly high proportion of students in Canada, teachers are not heeded, the result is that it takes a prolonged period for the class to settle down. Additionally, students regularly skip school, and report in late to class.

The problem has been compounded by the proliferation of cellphones used by students in the classroom. Constant connectivity has had the problematical effect of de-coupling students from the learning environment. TikTok access has had a profoundly education-disabling effect on students. The normalization of the concept of multi-tasking has created additional side effects to impair students' capabilities of concentration. The adverse affect is seen in their abysmal lack of reading prowess.

Little wonder; both concentration and comprehension have been compromised by distraction. It is simply not possible for students to learn or to read in the midst of constant undisciplined classroom sound, of watching their phones to scroll for videos, along with continual interruptions even as they make an effort to pay attention to their teachers.

New evidence-based research emerges connecting the proliferation of advanced cellphones with distractability in workplaces and schools alike, leading to the commission of errors, to higher stress levels, to reduced cognitive ability and lower productivity. Teachers face an uphill struggle to reclaim attention of their students of the pandemic generation.

Recently, a Common Sense Media study discovered children's daily entertainment use of screens accelerated by 17 percent from 2019 to 2021. Daily entertainment screen use in 2021 increased to 5.5 hours for tweens aged eight to 12 and again to over 8.5 hours among teens aged 13 to 18. The situation becomes more prominent among students from low-income families.

The socio-emotional distress students are experiencing is as much a product of the cellphone epidemic as it is of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to American education researcher Doug Lemov as noted in the fall 2022 edition of Education Next. The reported mental health concerns of teens have grown; 47 percent of students report feeling connected to the adults and their peers at school. While 44 percent of high school students report feelings of persistent hopelessness.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, students who felt 'connected to adults and peers' were less inclined to report feeling sad or hopeless.

"Creating a culture of mutual respect and purposeful learning free of constant and unrelenting disruptions will not come easily. It may require a complete change in pedagogical approach with a renewed focus on 'teaching-centred learning'."

"In time, we will see the critical need for a whole new set of student behaviour guidelines geared to building more positive, consistent and calmer learning environments."

Paul W. Bennett, Ed.D., author: The State of the System: A Reality Check on Canada's Schools