By: Elayna Jansen 

I could be doing homework, I could be doing chores, I could be studying, I could be reading one of the many books on my nightstand. But when that notification on my phone pops up, what starts out as a quick text response turns into hours browsing social media, and I’m not alone. 

With the recent pandemic, teens and young adults find it easy to spend time on social media. Young adults, with an estimated 88% of which have social media accounts, strive to mirror the lives of those they see on screen. 

I asked Sophomore Madeline Bell, as a student do you ever find yourself going on your phone during a lecture and why do you think you would rather be on your phone then paying attention? She said, “I would definitely go on my phone during a super boring lecture” and “TikTok is more appealing then having my teacher talk about the supreme court”.   

It is estimated that 60% of teens in the United States have the app TikTok. TikTok is an app where people share tricks, tips, and recommendations in the form of short edited videos. Children ages four to fifteen spend an average of 80 minutes per day using the app. Another study shows that the average Tiktok user opens it 8 times a day, and while a larger portion of young adults are reported having the app downloaded on their personal devices, a much smaller portion chooses to upload videos to their accounts.

I asked “88% of the U.S population has TikTok and 83% of that had posted a TikTok video. Why do you think some people choose to post videos and some people choose not to”?  “ I think that some people post videos because they want to get noticed and create attention, while other people just want to be entertained by watching” Said former Lakeridge student, current Oregon City high school student Junior Gina Allen

It’s very important to disclaim that everybody is different, some people are fine with how many hours are spent not only on TikTok, but other social media platforms as well. According to Quora, “Teenagers on average spend 7 hours on social media”