I blame Big Tobacco.
Despite their best efforts, Americans have finally turned up their noses, for the most part, at tobacco products. So Big Tobacco looked for a new market and found China. Yes, that China.
Chinese men are nuts for their cigarettes. I had to toss my exchange student because he was smoking in my house. He wouldn't hear of trying any cessation techniques. And all his exchange student pals smoked like smokestacks too. This is going to be a big public health problem for China in years to come.
You know that nation isn't going to take this lying down. And thus we got TikTok.
Tobacco is a scourge that affects the lungs. TikTok is a scourge that affects the brain. In case you didn't know it, TikTok is owned and run by the Chinese.
My students have the attention span of chipmunks. Instagram has helped, but TikTok reigns supreme in senseless distraction.
But wait. There's more.
TikTok users have been issuing "challenges." As in, October was "Slap a Teacher Month." The idea was to assault a teacher and record it on video to show on TikTok. I feel like the hacking of my online Parent Night Google Meet was probably filmed for TikTok.
Each month has its own challenge.
Last week some TikTok shitbird posted that Friday, December 17 would be National School Shooter Day. This prompted my school district to send a message to all parents, staff, and students that there were no credible threats against our school. The district also promised an enhanced police presence on campus on December 17.
The result? Almost half the students at my school took a nice long weekend, skipping school on December 17.
I didn't see an enhanced police presence at my school on December 17. I can see the arrival of police cars and ambulances from the windows at my school. Shit happens occasionally, and our administration is tight-lipped about it. But I know that there are severe ramifications for any student who threatens the school. We also have an armed cop on campus at all times.
I also know that many of my students know someone who has been victimized by gun violence. It's not a game to them. When you have seen the ramifications of firearms, you're far less likely to play with them the way these troubled white boys do.
All this is my way of saying that I did not feel unsafe at school on December 17, and I understand why so many students stayed home. It was very quiet in the school.
As it happened, I sat in the faculty lunch room with the security guards and lunch ladies that day, which I haven't been doing due to Covid. I love the security guards and lunch ladies. They are by far my favorite people to hang with at school. We had a great time discussing local sports, cooking tips, and where they were going for happy hour. No one mentioned the school shooting business.
I survived the fiasco without a scratch. But I fear that the TikTok scourge has only just begun. Teenagers' brains aren't fully formed in the areas where judgment and reasoning are concerned. They are ripe for "challenges" and inspired by seeing others get away with stuff. TikTok gives them a blueprint for bad behavior.
China wins.
9 comments:
Well, before TikTok challenges, there were those stupid YouTube challenges. Remember laundry pod eating? Kids love trying stupid, dangerous stuff. "National School Shooter Day" is pretty low, though, in terms of provoking fear and dread, not to mention bad taste.
I don't know if we can blame all stupid ship people put on TikTok on China, but that's disgusting that nobody did anything about it. I hadn't even heard of that, but I don't use TikTok either.
China also drives me nuts in my job, but for other reasons. They require nothing but fancy paper documents as evidence and they lose ALL of their mail.
I'm so sorry you have to deal with this. As though you don't have enough going on with all the other nuttiness around.
At least you got a quieter day out of the nonsense. I'm getting to the point of hating all social media.
Commemorate "National School Shooter Day"?
Make a threat to your school?
It's a different world of skewed amusement, and I do not get jokes anymore...
The anxiety level for attending School has made a running battle for us to convince our Grandchild to finish High School and go every day. She has anxiety issues anyway, so Pandemic coupled with not feeling safe due to violence being threatened at the Schools is really traumatizing for these kids and their families. We send them hoping for the best and preparing for the worst... she hates the Drills they now have to participate in but knows how important it is to know what to do if God forbid, some Lunatic with a Gun shows up and has been radicalized... whether by Social Media sites or their own Radicalized Lunatic Families who've raised them to be Domestic Terrorists with a Twisted Cause.
Thank goodness that TicTok wasn't around when my wife and I were teaching. This is a different world since social media, cell phones and the internet. This has all evolved over the last twenty-five years; but has taken such a hold on society that it has brought about a societal change - a new norm.
the Ol'Buzzard
judas priest..don't these kids have parents keeping up with this shit? sigh****
ydg is at yellowdog granny. where my old blog west by goddess texas. put up post today to see if anyone can find it. happy yule
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