The Rise of Medical Tik Tok
Illustration by Zoe Gigis
I’ve noticed that whenever I decide on a topic to research and write about, it just so happens that TikTok always seems to have a large effect on the subject. After all, TikTok does seem to encapsulate everything we want to hear and see as teenagers. From home decor, to festive baking, to slow motion dancing tutorials. It’s addictive for a reason, and since it’s launch in 2016, everyone, no matter the age, place or career seems to want to dip their town in the social media phenomenon, even doctors.
From a parent’s perspective, the thought of their children actually learning something educational via Instagram, Twitter or TikTok is mind boggling. I would argue that our generation uses these platforms to gain information about ourselves and the world more than any other platform. Yes, my main news source comes from Twitter and Instagram stories but, at the end of the day, I am just as caught up with current events as my parents are when daily news topics are brought up during dinner. TikTok is a great source for news on politics, social justice activism, and current events. One side of TikTok that is particularly relevant among our young age group is health information, from actual experts in the medical field.
Modern sex education in school classrooms is of course helpful, yet unbearably cringy for many. The very fact that it is placed in a classroom can be a major detriment to the lesson. Kids tend to laugh under their breath and teacher not-so-gently nudge the kids in a certain old school of thought when it comes to sex. In my opinion, the most crucial negative comes from the fact that kids feel unsure whether or not they want to publicly ask questions that they don’t know the answer to. This is where TikTok shines.
I actually looked forward to Sex-Ed as a tween. My friends were starting to make more sexual jokes that I didn’t understand so I hoped that sex-ed could answer some things. Before college, I went to school in Texas. For those that don’t know, statistically, Texas, has one of the poorest qualities of education in the country. My teacher’s sex lesson was very surface level and outlined the most basic steps of sex. Yes, any accurate information in sex education was/is helpful. But, a good amount of these teachers undermined how much kids learned prior due to everyday life, conversations, and the media. When these young sex conversations made me even more curious of my own body, I hoped that I would be able to address my questions to my sex-ed teacher. I was full of “What if my body doesn’t react this way?”, “Is it normal if I don’t like this?” or “When should I do this and this?” questions. I couldn’t get a moment alone with that teacher, I didn’t want to ask friends out of fear of getting eye rolled at and like many, I was uncomfortable asking my mom. In that crusty awkward time, I so wish I would’ve had a virtual platform that unapologetically answered the good, the bad, and the ugly of sex.
On TikTok, Sex-Ed is having a complete transformation. Instead of a well dressed middle school teacher standing up straight monotonously giving us the lesson, it’s a young energetic doctor, sporting their scrubs, voicing information on birth control as they dance to Meg Thee Stallion’s Sex Talk. It’s the goofy form of these TikTok videos that make viewers actually want to listen to what is being told.
Earlier in the summer, I woke up to a TikTok by a certain nurse dancing to the caption “What if you bleed during sex”?. I paused the video, looked at the ceiling and said “THANK GOD.” It’s one of the plethora of sex questions and just that eight second video helped a lot.
So is TikTok the solution to the national sex-ed crisis? No, probably not. Even though social media is doing it’s part to fill the knowledge gap, educators, counselors and parents need to learn from that to better enhance their guidance in their own perspective environments. There are kids on TikTok as young as 12 and 13, and believe it or not, that age is when sex education needs to be introduced or at least prepared. As I’m sure many people do, I have such admiration for these doctors who chose to inform kids on the obstacles of sex through fun and pop while also keeping their professional hat on. It creates a non judgemental atmosphere for both the child and educator.
Don’t let TikTok be the: ”be all end all” for solving sex-ed. Learn from this fierceful form of teaching to better our education and our generation.