After many solitary days in quarantine, and then thrust into the traffic of classes, work, and life, I often find myself escaping to digital spaces like Tik Tok. 

It’s easy to get lost in a endless stream of personalized content. 

While many often welcome this escape, our society’s reliance on social media is bordering on dangerous. We depend on the app to entertain us, connect us and inform us. Though social media can be an effective way of disseminating information -Donald Trump can attest to the power of TikTok teens- TikTok falls short at creating the societal change necessary to address climate change.

Sure, that’s not specifically what the app is meant to do.

But what about the 29% of users who use the app as a news source? And the 48% of Americans who get their news from social media? If these platforms serve as a means of getting information, how do we navigate using and viewing this content?

Online social media platforms have become ingrained in our society and impact how we interact with each other and the world around us. Whether or not you like it, many Generation Z youth have grown up in a society interdependent on technology. Now, most of our social interactions are digital. 

It is no wonder then, that 50% of Gen Z and Millennials use social media to get their news on a daily basis, and 77% check it weekly.

Scrolling on my personal feed there are a lot of nature and environmental related Tik Toks. This makes sense for me, as an Environmental Studies major I routinely interact with content addressing sustainability, conservation, forestry and many other environmental topics. 

Additionally, being environmentally conscious is now more mainstream, and consumers of media and products are rushing to participate. The efforts of youth activists like Greta Thunberg are highly visible and engage young viewers. With these types of topics, it makes sense that users feel as though they are being informed about pertinent events through Tik Tok.

Despite these important topics, content creators themselves recognize that social media platforms should really serve as a starting off point for individuals to do their own research. 

The short video medium on Tik Tok allows creators to share video content much more easily than other social media sites like Twitter and Instagram. The filters and video editing options allow users to create their own content, regardless of experience, greatly broadening the types of videos featured on the app. Despite this expansion, a three minute video is still an exceptionally short amount of time to convey important information. 

The surface level information that can be communicated in that time frame is great for raising awareness and exposing individuals to new ideas, but not enough to galvanize action. It needs to be paired with the motivation and access to educate yourself further on the topic you learn about. 

Similar to other mediums, alarming and engaging content on Tik Tok attracts attention. This can lead to users dramatizing events and some even exploiting their subject and viewers for personal gain. 

Popularity and visibility go hand in hand on social media.

Sharing content about extreme events and our limited time left to make change can be successful on Tik Tok, but can often leave viewers feeling uneasy and anxious. Research by Pew showed that 69% percent of Gen Z and 59% percent of Millenial social media users said that the last content they saw on social media addressing climate change “it made them feel anxious about the future”. 

There is an unimaginable amount of information that is accessible through technology that can be daunting to just consider. Pair that with an imminent threat to the livelihood of our entire planet to make a nice cocktail of stress and anxiety for the future. As users of social media we need to understand how to process, evaluate, and internalize the information we find online without becoming overwhelmed. 

We each have a responsibility to fight against climate change. Individuals across the country are fighting to fix a system that is leading us down a path of injustice and devastation. 

Sometimes, however, it is enough to just put down your phone,

go outside,

appreciate nature,

engage  with your community,

learn something about the land you live on,

and actually

you should probably go grab your phone someone might have commented on your Tik Tok.