The method found by a school to convince students to leave TikTok: “You can see a big difference”

At Southern Alamance High School in North Carolina, they don’t mess around. In recent days, the authorities of the school district to which the institute belongs have implemented a drastic plan to prevent students from using TikTok during class hours.

The strategy, carried out by the Alamance-Burlington district in the United States, has borne fruit.

What is it about? Eliminate bathroom mirrors to “reduce distractions”.

They executed him after realizing that some students were going to the bathroom up to 9 times a day to record videos and then upload them to that social network.

“Students were going to the bathroom for long periods of time and making TikTok videos,” he told WFMY Les Atkinspublic relations manager for the school system.

And the strategy worked. “There aren’t that many bathroom visitsthey don’t stay that long and students are held accountable and then when there is accountability, you see a big difference,” Atkins said.

Another measure taken by the district was to implement a digital pass system in the corridors so that students register their entry and exit from classes and, in this way, the authorities know how many times they enter and exit classrooms .

With its “digital citizenship” plan, this North Carolina high school “seeks to educate students.” “We all have cell phones now. We have to learn how to use them. We have to learn when to put them away,” Atkins explained.

TikTok addiction

A study published on the Statista website in which 1,000 Americans were interviewed between April and May 2023 showed that 77.7% of Gen Z users reported that they thought TikTok was addictive. About 72% of Gen X respondents have the same opinion.

Millennials are the group that suffers most from the negative effects of the platform on mental health (37.3% of those interviewed).

The source identifies Generation Z with people between 11 and 26 years old, Millennials with people between 27 and 42 years old and Generation X with people between 43 and 58 years old.