“Turn your cameras on.”

Every day we hear this same sentence repeated. Students wake up and head straight to the computer. We are stuck at conferences all day; cameras on at all times. Our parents question why we are in our room all day. The usual answer is “I’m doing homework.” We are repeatedly told to take breaks and go on walks, and we promise we will, but it just never seems to happen. Most of my peers have spent days at home, as we never have the time to go out. We usually just end up being in a bottomless pit of homework and missing assignments. Everything just seems so distant. Remote learning is a destructive concept to student’s mental and physical health.

WE GET UP, NOT EVEN ATTEMPTING TO MAKE OUR BEDS, AS IF ALL MOTIVATION IS GONE.

Life is being drained out of us and we know it’s not going to end anytime soon. There are many things that we could do to improve remote learning. For one, we should be able to take small breaks during school. Back when we were actually in school, we would get two minutes in between each class. If we keep this routine the same, we could get to stretch and pull our eyes away from the screen. We are always glued to the screen and moving from one conference to the other. It is best if we take short breaks during the day. Another suggestion is to let us be able to eat during class. The only reason we couldn’t eat during class in school was because of the mess. Now that we are home we should be able to eat. We have a very early lunch at 10:30 and never get to eat until much later in the evening. We should be able to have snacks in between. My final suggestion is that classes like health, gym, and SEL should continue to be live. I enjoy getting instruction directly from someone. I also miss the live SEL talk show stream!

But since these changes are not going to happen immediately, we have to make the best of the situation. So what can we do to make it better? I am sure you have heard this question a thousand times before. But have you really thought about it? One of our guidance counselors at I.S.98, Mr.Caiati, offered me some tips for handling the loneliness of remote learning. He said, “Try to connect more with others. You may FaceTime with your friends after school, call someone on the phone, put all of your friends in a group chat, or even hang out on the weekends at someone's home (socially-distant of course!) Make a greater effort to connect with those that you enjoy spending time with, it will help your remote-learning not seem so remote after all.” At the very core, it’s your mindset or perspective that really changes how you feel. And I get it, just waking up and saying “I’m going to have a great day!” is not going to cut it. Affirmations do not just suddenly make your life magical. You have to truly believe that you can do it and that everything is going to be fine. If I’m going to be honest, that’s something that is not easy to do; it takes time and practice. However, just going into something like class or homework with a negative attitude towards it, is not going to work out either. Here is a trick: if you’re going to have a negative thought, make sure to think something positive too, or look on the bright side. Although it isn’t much, it’s a start to developing a positive attitude. Time management is another significant part of maintaining good mental health. If you sort out your priorities in a specific order, like what is due first or what will take the most amount of time and effort, things will get done in a much more efficient way. This may help clear up some time for you to focus on yourself and relieve stress. Make sure to distance yourself away from objects that may cause you to become distracted. If you still can’t focus, play video game soundtracks while you work. They were made to help players concentrate and can apply to doing homework as well.

AND FINALLY, MAKE SURE TO LOOK BACK ON WHAT YOU HAVE, NOT WHAT YOU ARE MISSING.

We have amazing teachers at The Bay Academy who are working their hardest to make sure we are successful, happy, and healthy. On a final note, I encourage you to tell a teacher of yours how much you are grateful for them and their hard work. It will make their day, and it may make yours too.

TikTok is a place for creating content, and funny enough, it doesn’t even have to be good. This platform was originally created in September 2016, starting from the popular social media platform Musical.ly. This turned from dancing to all different types of talents. Those talents include drawing/painting, cooking, comedy specials, singing, and more but the best part is, people can get paid. If you get famous enough, you can get money from the app, which is obviously a big plus. Opinions and worldwide views are shared within the app, which can either be very uplifting or very depressing to some people. However, within the walls of popularity, it isn’t that great. Here’s why:

TikTok is known for its famous creators such as Charli D’amelio, Addison Rae, Josh Richards, Nessa Barrett, and many more. And yet, what did they do to deserve this fame? Their fame isn’t for any real talent, it is just out of luck that they got famous. However, they create something out of their initial popularity that can honestly go either way. Some creators aren't problematic and try to make their popularity a helping hand for the less fortunate but others are… something else. They create too much drama for people to handle and then they create a fake apology video and then do the exact same thing again a few days later! Popular dance structures aren’t even supposed to be considered dancing, just twerking in multiple different ways and people apparently enjoy that?! Honestly, the worst part is that people who are actually funny and or have some sort of talent go unrecognized by the public! They are considered either somewhat popular or never seen side and their precious talent goes to absolute waste.

TikTok is also a worldwide platform and so opinionated beliefs are spread out for everyone to see. However, the world is split into many pieces and so when someone shares an idea, people may disagree and it always ends in a harsh and cruel way. This leads to bullying, oppressing people's rights, and criticizing races, genders, and everything else that makes every person in this world more beautiful and unique. Our world is messed up how it is with everything split up into different beliefs and fighting for their perspective to be right. Yet, how would people communicate like that if phone numbers aren’t given out? One word- TikTok. This is the battlefield for feuds and most people aren’t even accepting others’ points. “Sticks and stones won’t break my bones but words will'' is a common expression used to show how words aren’t just random letters but have meaning behind them. Some people on TikTok have words that they share that aren’t PG and other words that have more meaning behind them than what people think. Then there are body preferences that say how women and men should look. People criticize that women are needed to cover up but then to be dressed up. They should be not skinny but not chubby or fat. They should be girly and be curvy but are also responsible for not their bodies to be a certain way. It’s honestly not possible for girls and women to keep up with everyone’s beliefs but people do, which ruins them. Not only that, but people criticize how men should be like too! They suspect men to be masculine, manly and be strong. They can’t be too smart, have to be smelly and dirty and they can’t do “girly” things! Each man and woman are special as they are and this negativity leads to people doing harmful things that aren't right.

No matter what you look like, you are perfect the way you are and these people who like to suppress others' confidence got to go.

TikTok is also for all ages and so, people from ages 6-80 can be on this app, which is honestly terrifying. People can target kids and gullible teenagers to scare them into doing stupid things, such as the Momo challenge, harming themselves, and looking up to body perspectives that can tarnish them for life. Not only that but the dances on TikTok are also not child friendly, and so when these kids do these provocative dances, it brings them farther away from their childhood and closer to adulthood even though they can be 8 years old.

Ok yes, my argument will baffle and anger many people and they can argue many things. Some of their arguments can be how it's fun, it's a way to bring people together, and how it's a way for people to join together and to feel like they belong. Some people on social media spread kindness and show that everyone is safe and even show tips for working out but also to ignore the haters. This is an understandable claim that can be supported by many facts but honestly, does it compare? Yes, it is a fun app but with these cons, it is really hard for the pros to overpower the cons. You can’t control who comes up on your FYP and so this comes to the result of very mixed opinions. Then when people share a belief on TikTok, people can’t accept it and fight to prove how they are right. This leads to offensive language as said before. TikTok is a way to connect people so it can connect to people in multiple ways. In the end, it leads to the conclusion of someone always getting hurt, even though it comes from a good intention. A counterclaim can be said that spreading kindness is also the main point in this app but kindness doesn’t always win. In the end, it loses most of the time due to the powerful words that decrease the confidence of good. Then, it brings down your mental health. This app is very addictive and takes it from someone who gets barely any sleep due to this app. It can make you sleep deprived which can lead to the conclusion of many, many headaches, low productivity, and missing information in class.

In the end, the whole point of this argument includes being that TikTok isn’t that great. It shows inappropriate stuff, too young for elementary and middle schoolers to see. Not only that but the words that are spread to others may be PG but they hurt on a level that isn’t understood by the simple-minded. The end result of my article is that don't download TikTok. Its negativity ad brutalizing energy ruined innocent lives. However, most people already have the app and if you really don’t want to delete it, then I suggest a private account. Yes, you will not be as famous as someone with a public account, but you would be safer. You can control who follows you, your content doesn’t have to be shared with strangers and you would honestly become happier without the worry of danger. So guys, to answer the initial question, we don’t like TikTok’s vibe right now.