Shauna Pomerantz, Associate Professor of Child and Youth Studies at Brock University, had a piece recently published in The Globe and Mail about research she and her 11-year-old daughter are conducting using the web-based app TikTok.

She writes:

“My 11-year-old daughter, Miriam, cradles her cellphone like a newborn. Her iPhone, purchased second-hand with carefully saved birthday and babysitting money, is her perpetual companion. But during the social isolation brought on by a pandemic, it has also become her salvation.

‘What are you doing?’ I ask when I see her curled up on the couch. I already know the answer. ‘Watching TikToks,’ she murmurs dreamily. TikTok is her favourite activity once home-schooling has wrapped up for the day and a swath of free time has opened for everyone in the house. She feels most cheered, entertained and safe in the TikTok universe. ‘Why don’t you read a book?’ I suggest. ‘Mom,’ she sighs, ‘everything is so depressing, I need TikTok. I need to escape into that world right now.’

Who could blame her? I want to escape, too.”

Continue reading the full article here.