Everyone points fingers, especially at teachers. Meanwhile, kids (and now adults) learn that nothing is ever their fault.
Education is drowning in blame. When grades drop, teachers are blamed. When behaviour spirals, it’s pinned on staff. If there’s a mental-health crisis, guess who takes the hit. Kids watch this circus unfold and learn the one skill that seems to matter: deflect, deny, repeat.
The Dopamine Dilemma
This is the second post in my series on the collapse of classroom culture. In Part 1, The Erosion of Classroom Civility, I looked at the entitlement, apathy, and aggression now normalised in schools. Here, I want to dig deeper into one of the most toxic forces behind it all: the dopamine economy. Students are chasing short-term highs, scrolling themselves into oblivion, and treating education like background noise. We’re not just competing with social media; we’re losing to it.
How reality TV made emotional detachment aspirational, taught teens that attention matters more than integrity, and sold us connection performed by people who avoid it.
We live in a time where the spectacle has replaced sincerity. Nowhere is this more obvious than Love Island. It’s not a show about love. It’s a fucking marketing machine presented as romance, where emotional betrayal is a plot device and self-worth is measured in abs and airtime. The real scandal isn’t who kissed who. It’s what the show teaches and what students are learning.
The Erosion of Classroom Civility
The classroom, once a space of basic cooperation—however reluctant—has become loaded with hostility, apathy, and arrogance. The respect has gone. Kids walk in late, with no pen, no folder, no clue what day it is, and expect to be entertained. If you challenge it, you get attitude: “Why are you shouting at me?” or “What’s your problem?” The concept of effort is alien. The idea of consequence? Hilarious. School is no longer a space for learning; it’s an inconvenience in their dopamine-chasing day
How Image Obsession is Warping Girls’ Self-Worth and School Culture
It’s a tough subject, but I’m going to say it: girls in schools are spending more time on their appearance than their education. Fake lashes, full makeup, skirts rolled , TikTok poses at break. It’s not “just a phase”—it’s a full shift in values. Where boys have turned to toxic male influencers as a model for behaviour, girls are copying shallow, appearance-focused ones. Looks now carry more weight than effort. Schools are avoiding the issue for fear of backlash. Meanwhile, girls are being shaped by an attention economy built on insecurity.
What TikTok Is Doing to Education
We’ve normalised dysfunction. Cinemas are shutting down screenings because teenagers are acting out TikTok trends during Minecraft: The Movie. They’re not just loud — they’re organised. Filming each other, throwing things, chanting catchphrases for views. It’s not quirky, it’s not harmless, and it’s not going away. This is what happens when attention becomes currency, and social media is the mint. Schools are dealing with the fallout daily. Behaviour is deteriorating, empathy is collapsing, and nobody in power seems willing to admit what’s happening. Social media isn’t just a distraction. It’s behavioural sabotage at scale — and we’re being fucked over by it every single day.
