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Tracy
Tracy
Aug 24 2026
29Every generation inherits the responsibility of preparing the next for a future it cannot fully predict. That has always been the purpose of education. But while the world has transformed dramatically, our understanding of where learning happens has been slower to evolve.
As we mark #International Youth Day, conversations around young people often focus on education, employability and preparing the next generation for the future. At the same time, Sri Lanka joins a growing number of countries debating tighter restrictions on social media access for children under 16, placing understandable attention on online safety, mental wellbeing and the effects of excessive screen time. These are important conversations, and they deserve serious attention.
Yet perhaps we are overlooking another equally important question. As digital platforms become an increasingly central part of young people's lives, are we paying enough attention to the role they are beginning to play in learning?
This is not an argument against regulation, nor a defense of unrestricted social media use. It is an invitation to broaden the conversation. Learning has never been confined to classrooms alone, and today it is increasingly shaped by digital communities where curiosity is sparked, expertise is shared and practical skills are developed in ways that complement formal education.
Learning has always existed beyond the classroom
One of the biggest misconceptions in the education debate is that learning begins in a classroom and ends with a qualification. In reality, education has always extended beyond formal institutions. Some of life's most valuable lessons have come through experience, mentors, communities and learning by doing. What has changed is not the existence of informal learning, but its reach.
Digital technology has transformed what was once local and limited into something global, immediate and interactive. Today, a teenager interested in astrophysics can learn from a scientist on another continent, a young entrepreneur can observe how successful businesses are built in real time, and a budding photographer can receive feedback from professionals around the world. Expertise is no longer limited by geography or institutional access. It is available to anyone with curiosity and a connection . Communities built around hashtags such as #LearnOnTikTok, which has generated around 51.4 million posts globally, illustrate the scale of this shift, connecting millions of learners with educators, professionals and creators sharing practical knowledge every day.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development argues that informal learning is becoming increasingly important as people continually develop and update their skills throughout their lives. Social media is the latest evolution of that ecosystem, not replacing classrooms, books or teachers, but expanding where, how and from whom people learn.
How social media is expanding the classroom
What makes social media such a powerful learning environment isn't that it gives young people access to information. We've had access to information for years. The real shift is that it has made learning continuous, visual and driven by curiosity rather than timetables. Among the many platforms shaping this shift, TikTok offers one of the clearest examples of how social media is evolving beyond entertainment into a space for discovery, creativity and learning. From science and literature to entrepreneurship and financial literacy, it has fostered communities where knowledge is shared freely and learning happens organically. Used responsibly, with appropriate safeguards, parental guidance and digital literacy, it demonstrates how technology can complement traditional education rather than compete with it.
Think about how we learnt growing up. If we wanted to understand a difficult concept, our options were usually limited to a teacher, a textbook or perhaps someone we knew who worked in that field. Today, young people have unprecedented access to practitioners themselves. They can hear an environmental scientist explain climate change from the field, watch an architect unpack the thinking behind an iconic building, learn financial fundamentals from an investor or understand complex legal issues through practising lawyers who make the law accessible in everyday language. Even digital communities behind #LearnOnTikTok, #STEMTok and #BookTok reflect a broader shift in how young people engage with knowledge, making learning more discoverable, conversational and connected to everyday interests. The distance between expert and learner has never been smaller.
More importantly, these learning journeys rarely begin with an intention to study. Curiosity often starts with a single piece of content and grows from there. Someone searching for study tips may discover a mathematician explaining a concept differently. A budding entrepreneur may come across a small business owner documenting the realities of building a company. A casual scroll can become the starting point for deeper learning, leading people to books, courses and communities they might never have discovered otherwise.
STEM Feed on TikTok
Platforms have recognised this shift. TikTok, for example, has invested in educational communities rather than treating them as a niche interest. Its dedicated STEM Feed gives greater visibility to science, technology, engineering and mathematics content, while BookTok has transformed reading into a global conversation, introducing younger audiences to books beyond the classroom. Across the platform, doctors explain common health misconceptions, museum curators bring history to life, economists unpack current affairs, language creators make learning conversational and entrepreneurs openly share both the successes and setbacks of building a business. Together, these communities show that learning is no longer confined to one subject, one classroom or one teacher.
Perhaps this is less a reinvention of learning than a return to one of its oldest traditions. Long before education became synonymous with classrooms, philosophers such as Socrates taught through dialogue in the public squares of ancient Greece, believing that knowledge was strengthened through questioning, debate and the exchange of ideas rather than passive instruction. While today's digital platforms are vastly different in form, they reflect that same principle. When young people question, explain, challenge and build on one another's ideas, learning becomes participatory once again.
That is how social media expands the classroom. It does not replace teachers or textbooks, nor should it. Instead, it extends learning beyond school hours and beyond school walls, connecting young people with experts they would never otherwise meet, communities they would never otherwise join and perspectives they might never otherwise encounter.
Most importantly, it nurtures something every educator hopes to inspire but no curriculum can mandate: genuine curiosity. Once curiosity takes hold, learning rarely stops.
Like the generations before our time, we too inherit the responsibility of preparing the next generation for a world it cannot fully predict. What has changed is that learning is no longer confined to institutions or timetables. It is continuous, shaped by curiosity, fuelled by access and increasingly enriched by communities that extend far beyond the classroom.
As we mark International Youth Day, perhaps the conversation should move beyond whether social media belongs in education. It already does. The real question is whether we are prepared to broaden our understanding of learning itself. Formal education will always remain the foundation. But preparing young people for tomorrow also means recognising the value of responsible digital spaces that inspire curiosity, connect them with expertise and encourage lifelong learning. The future of education will not be defined by choosing between classrooms and technology, but by understanding how the two can work together.
