Intern column: TikTok offers valuable platform for engaging wider audience about waterway education

The following column was written by Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association summer intern Sarah Joy. You can contact her directly via email by clicking here. 

With the world at our fingertips, social media platforms have changed the game when it comes to expressing new ideas, information and reporting news to a broader audience.  The social media app, TikTok, used by roughly 1.8 billion people worldwide has the ability to connect people together like never before.

While there may be a stigma surrounding the usage of social media, believing it turns users into screen addicted zombies, there are far more people that believe in the good this platform can bring about regarding its use as a vessel for informative and educational outputs.

​According to a 2022 TikTok analysis, “1 in 4 Americans use TikTok to enrich their education, with over half doing so because it's easier to understand.”

In 2020, TikTok invested $50 million into their Creative Learning Fund, with and end goal of promoting educational content. Furthermore, the social media platform has since collaborated with 800+ public figures, educational institutions, and professional experts on various topics, all in the name of educating their users on a wide variety of STEM related fields.

There are many reasons as to why people enjoy using TikTok to learn new topics; mainly being the fact that this information comes in the form of bite-sized short videos, capable of conveying a large amount of information in a short amount of time.

Originally, TikTok’s maximum allowed video time was only 60 seconds, thus forcing content creators to adapt to adequately inform their followers or users scrolling by. Fortunately, this social media company took notice to their users' requests for longer videos, making video length capped at 10 minutes as of 2022. What they sacrifice in conciseness, these longer videos make up for in quality of content, and their ability to go further in depth on a particular subject.

It should be noted, however, that these videos are not all long droning lectures trying to guilt their viewers into caring about subjects proposed, but rather, fast paced, engaging segments targeted towards their viewers. Some accounts take advantage of trending audios or skits to attract their intended demographic in the hopes of encouraging them to explore their page more and engage with that organization.

For example, the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association’s TikTok account, @midsusriver, primarily creates videos utilizing these trends commonly used by younger generations, as that increases the videos chances of coming across their feed.

According to the platform's 2024 statistics, TikTok’s largest age demographic consists of 18-24 year-olds, and with the goal of engaging our rivers youth with nature, using these trends has proven to be extremely helpful. One of our videos has reached well over 30,000 views, promoting engagement with our organization as a whole.

Furthermore, TikToks often utilize visual aids, models and graphics to explain concepts visually. Educators can use TikTok's creative tools like filters, music and effects to make learning more compelling and memorable. This creative freedom encourages innovative teaching methods that other platforms might not support. These forms of teaching can engage a much wider audience through these practices, promoting understanding and retention, while simultaneously being suitable for both visual and auditory learning styles.

TikTok educational videos are not all one-on-one instructional videos and lectures. Most encourage seeking other forms of learning to validify the points made in their own videos. One of the things that users value most from this social media platform is the sense of community it has given them. Through this app, many educators, students, and enthusiasts have found a space to interact, share knowledge, and collaborate on projects.

By watching videos to their full extent, liking content and leaving comments, TikTok is able to recognize that these types of videos are the ones that their users would like to continue watching, thus increasing their prominence on the users feed, also known as the ‘For You’ page.

Because of this, users will continue to see these certain types of videos, promoting a thirst for knowledge, leading to richer learning experiences through discussions and shared resources.

Riverkeeper's note: As we transition to a new season, we will intentionally be adding more educational content to new platforms to raise awareness of our waterways and the issues they face, including TikTok. Please continue to check out our TikTok feed for updates in the near future with additional new content: www.tiktok.com/@midsusriver