A high school student shared a clip of her peers in a classroom on the third day of their senior year. The video, which shows students focused on their phones rather than interacting with each other, has drawn responses from across social media, including from homeschooling advocates.
The observation was shared by a 17-year-old TikToker on her account @nahla_her. The video featured her peers in a classroom, each locked in on their phones. Some merely had their heads down while others were busy with their phones.
Not one of them was seen engaging in either eye contact or making conversation. There didn’t seem to be any adult supervisor or a teacher in the classroom. So could it be that they were merely checking their notifications before class?
Their apparent lack of interaction prompted debate across social media about phone use among teenagers.
Some commenters, apparently from older generations, said high school did not look like this when they attended. A TikTok user claimed that the students’ behavior from the clip was abnormal. They exclaimed, “High school was NOT like this back then!!”
The user added, “I’ve never seen a classroom so quiet. Back then, everybody tried to have conversations with each other even if we didn’t know each other that well.” Another added a picture from the beloved animated movie Wall-E.
The commenter added an image from Wall-E depicting humans whose lives had become entirely sedentary due to technology dependence. The individual suggestively mentioned that if things progressed in that way, that movie might become our future.
Homeschoolers Weighed In on The High School Student Sharing the Viral Clip
@WallStreetApes shared the video on their X account and highlighted a few concerns of their own. Like TikTokers, the account also highlighted the lack of interaction between students and the focus on their phones.
They mentioned, “High School is supposed to be some of the best, most social times in people’s lives; this just looks depressing.” The caption and video triggered homeschoolers to weigh in and share their insights in the comments.
High School students shows what their 3rd day of senior year looks like inside the classroom
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) August 17, 2026
No one is talking, no one interacting with each other. The entire class has their heads down fully focused on their phones
High school is supposed to be some of the best and most social… pic.twitter.com/pllolMkd89
A user supporting homeschooling mentioned, “At least homeschooled kids would attempt to interact with each other…” Another wrote, “They are literal mobile zombies…” Another commenter wrote, “Everyone keeps asking homeschool parents, ‘what about socialization?’”
Many continued to express concern in the comments, across social media platforms including X and TikTok. The video had drawn more than 4.5 million views and 10,000 comments as of publication.
The details above reflect the claims and comments from the videos shared by @nahla_her and @WallStreetApes on TikTok and X respectively. The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify these claims.
