Rewiring Education: How College Can Combat Gen Z’s Shrinking Attention Spans

BY TRI ANUGRAH RAMADHAN

"Your attention didn't collapse. It was stolen." -Johann Hari. The quote is a quote from a Swiss-Scottish writer and journalist. In the quote, Johann Hari revealed that human attention will always be side by side with various kinds of distractions that will steal our attention, especially in the digital era.

The digital era brings us to a new era where technology products provide us with a wide range of convenience and convenience. Among the technology products in this digital era is social media, which offers ease of access to information. Social media is an online medium where users can easily participate, share, and create content in the form of blogs, social networks, wikis, forums, and virtual worlds.1 One form of social media that is currently popular is the TikTok application. TikTok offers more comfort and convenience by displaying any topic such as fashion, food, dance, and educational information with a duration of 30 seconds to 3 minutes.2 Even so, the unlimited convenience offered by social media can also have a bad impact on students' cognitive abilities.

 The current digital era has triggered a student cognitive crisis in the form of a lack of ability to focus and understand deeply. Recent research conducted by Microsoft and published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior revealed that using TikTok for just 20 minutes can lead to a significant decline in an individual's ability to maintain long-term attention and working memory. This worrying finding certainly shows a fundamental change in the way a person thinks about processing information. As these dopamine-based platforms continue to have an impact, schools must adapt immediately or risk failing to meet the needs of an entire generation. The impact is too risky: UNESCO's 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report warns that declining attention spans threaten to wipe out decades of hardearned literacy achievements around the world.3

In addition, TikTok also has a mental impact, which ultimately encourages the shrinking of cognitive abilities. A study showed that 25.6% of first-year students of the Faculty of Psychology, Diponegoro University, Semarang, experienced anxiety disorders due to the use of TikTok. 4 This is due to the behavior of repeatedly checking what others are doing or what is happening to avoid feeling left behind in the event or news that is happening. These mental disorders certainly have an impact on students' cognitive abilities and concentration levels. Students who have difficulty concentrating tend to be stressed in facing assignments or exams.

Fortunately, innovative solutions are starting to emerge to fight this crisis. An individual solution that can be taken is to manipulate the TikTok algorithm for cognitive needs. TikTok actually provides several features to help its users control the content they will consume, such as Restricted Mode. Restricted mode limits exposure to content that may not be appropriate for everyone, for example: because it contains mature or complex themes.5 By activating this feature, students can filter out disturbing content and replace it with more useful content so that the brain remains active without losing the element of entertainment

In addition, the Campus can also create an environment that supports focus. Campuses can hold educational content competitions or educational content-based video assignments, where students make short videos containing study tips or lecture materials. This can help divert the use of TikTok from just entertainment to a means of learning. This is following Hilmansyah's (2020) argument that video projects are a form of Project-Based Learning (PBL), which makes technology play a big role in helping students in creating their creative projects.6 In her research, Astriani (2020) also argued that video projects can provide effective learning because they bring students to optimal levels of critical and creative thinking.7

The way forward requires nothing less than rearranging the local education system. We must pay attention with the same urgency as the teaching of literacy and numeracy. This is not just an educational issue, but also a civilizational challenge. When we are at this critical crossroads, cooperation between students, lecturers, and policymakers is needed to overcome these issues. According to a psychiatrist from Stanford University School of Medicine, "The first step to breaking an addiction is to recognize that you have control—even if that control starts with just 20 seconds of resistance". The solutions in the essay offered in this essay show that fighting TikTok cognitive impairment is not impossible. What we need is not a total ban, but rather an awareness that every second we divert from scrolling is a victory for our brains. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Amelia Permata Indah, D. A. (2022). MODEL DINAMIKA KECANDUAN MEDIA SOSIAL : STUDI KASUS KECANDUAN TIKTOK PADA MAHASISWA FMIPA UNESA. Jurnal Ilmiah Matematika Volume 10 No 01, 132. 

Global Education Monitoring Report Team. (2023). Global education monitoring report, 2023: technology in education: a tool on whose terms? Paris: the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 

Nicho Alinton Sianipar, D. V. (2019). HUBUNGAN ANTARA REGULASI DIRI DENGAN FEAR OF MISSINGOUT (FoMO) PADA MAHASISWA TAHUN PERTAMA FAKULTAS PSIKOLOGI UNIVERSITAS DIPONEGORO. Jurnal Empati, Volume 8, Nomor 1, Januari 2019, Halaman 136-143, 136, 139-140. 

Rafiq, A. (2020). DAMPAK MEDIA SOSIAL TERHADAP PERUBAHAN SOSIAL SUATU. Vol. 3 No. 1 (2020): Global Komunikasi, 19. 

TikTok. (2025). Keamanan: Keamanan Akun dan Pengguna. Retrieved from TikTok: https://support.TikTok.com/id/safety-hc/account-and-usersafety/restricted-mode 

Wang, Y. (2020). Humor and camera view on mobile short-form video apps influence user experience and technology-adoption intent, an example of TikTok (DouYin). Computers in Human Behavior, 110(February). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106373 

Hilmansyah, I. (2022). The Implementation of Project-Based Learning (PBL): Video Production as a Project in Teaching Speaking Skill. [ Publish master‟s thesis]. Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. 46(2). https://jurnal.masoemuniversity.ac.id/index.ph p/englishpedagogy 

Astriani, M. (2020). Upaya Mengembangkan Kreativitas Mahasiswa Melalui Pembelajaran Model Project Based Learning. Petik, 6(1), 36–40.