TikTok Tech Addiction

If you’re a regular listener to Youth Culture Today, I’m sure you’ve heard me quote the words spoken by media critic Marshall McCluhan several decades ago. He wrote, “We become what we behold. First we shape our tools, and then our tools shape us.” McCluhan goes on to say that we immerse ourselves in our technological tools without giving any thought to what they might do to us in the long-term. And then, when we are hooked and we start to regret the consequences, it’s hard to peel back. I thought of McCluhan when I recently read these words from twenty-three year old college student Jerome Yankey as he thought about his addiction to TikTok. Yankey would stay up all night scrolling on TikTok. He says, I saw me not putting the effort into my own life, rather just trying to live vicariously through what I’m seeing.” Then, he deleted the app. Now, he’s reconnected with his friends, he’s sleeping, and his grades improved. Parents, keep your kids from tech addiction.