Banning Tik Tok and my favourite pasta dish
There is a lot of talk about banning Tik Tok in Australia, but how will that affect the youth?
And I’m not talking about the youth in a oh-the-poor-youth-they-won’t-have-anywhere-to-post-their-cat-videos-and-dance-moves kind of way.
You’re probably thinking, “what does this have to do with her favourite pasta dish”? (It’s garlic basil butter just in case you’re wondering)
If you’ve watched the Good Place (on Netflix), you’ll be familiar with the final episode where the main characters who are currently in purgatory, have to tick off their bucket list (after many reboots at life) in order to pass through ‘the gate’ and ascend for the final time to be at peace.
Watching this episode made me eerily think of a trend that has been happening on Tik Tok. I am not on this particular social media site, so I cannot vouch first hand for the accuracy of these reports.
However, according to some pop-culture articles published online and some posts on Twitter, phrases from teens saying “I had pasta for dinner tonight” aren’t meant to be taken literally.
This phrase is a call for help when that person is depressed and/or having suicidal thoughts.
These code-phrases are known within the Tik Tok culture, with users online supporting those crying out for help, by adding activities of other things they could do.
The premise is that the person who originally posted the comment is not allowed to die until they have completed the list of other things users post. And these can be seemingly tricky things, like “finish your shampoo and conditioner at the same time”.
It’s no secret that mental health continues to be an increasing issue in society. In addition, currently physical limitations due to COVID are exasperating feelings of anxiety and separation.
This is an example of looking at issues through different lenses. We have to consider all aspects of users and stakeholders. It’s a classic case of change management, and change management isn’t something that organisations excel at en masse.
Human behaviour is complex, and the exponential rate of technology dictates the cultural rate of change.
However, the systems through which we govern both are not keeping up with that change.
Increasingly, people are recognising that long-standing paradigms are collapsing all around us at the moment. This is not here-say; it’s fact.
The eco-system has long been telling us through flags such as the extinction of species; our relationship with the earth is broken. The economic system continues to be artificially inflated or ‘corrected’; we have become prime printers in a system where the banks never lose. The education system continues to be stuck in a time warp, serving up a model best suited to the era of the industrial revolution; we continue to persist, unheeding the voices of children, parents and teachers.
So before we engage in fear-based campaigns seeking to gain popular support for banning anything that has been entrenched in our society, we need to look deeper in to all aspects and see what is really going on underneath the surface.
