"Mewing" Is A Viral New Trend Among Students: Teacher says it's "smug" and "rude"

Because of that, students who see other students mew in the classroom are giving encouraging reactions, prodding them to continue making the gesture. Though some people may view this behavior as "kids just being kids," Teresa, who's been an educator for 13 years, says that kids are completely aware of what disruptive behavior looks like. In her TikTok, she addresses this by explaining, "It's so easy for kids to look at criticisms of this gesture and this trend and go, 'Why are you doing all this? Why are you so mad? It's just a joke; it's just a meme.' But in reality," Teresa continues, "they absolutely understand how dismissive and disrespectful it is of the person that's trying to engage with them, especially in a learning environment."

"They also understand how hurtful it can be when somebody's trying to engage with them," she explains. When a kid mews at someone trying to communicate with them, the gesture comes off as disinterested and disparaging.

Teresa elaborates that kids might not see mewing in the classroom as a big deal, but it certainly is for teachers. When students bring disruptive behaviors to the class — even just non-verbal gestures like mewing — and play it off as nonchalant fun, it unwinds the hard work that teachers put into trying to get everyone engaged and focused on lessons. As she puts it: "There's always a place and time to use a meme. But in a classroom environment...for kids to be [mewing] every single day, over and over, to people who are just trying to give them an enriching educational experience, it pisses me off. And I don't find it funny at all."

Ironically, people in the TikTok comments have been using emojis to mimic the mewing motion, seemingly to dismiss the points Teresa has been making throughout the video. One of the problems with this, though, is that the emoji followed by the shushing emoji is a sign in American Sign Language meant to indicate a deaf or hard-of-hearing person. Not only can the mewing gesture be seen as disrespectful in learning environments, but it can also be inappropriately used in a way that is inconsiderate of the deaf community, as it incorporates an ASL sign that has nothing to do with the trend.

But mewing is just one piece of the problem that Teresa has noticed in her years of being an educator. In fact, she believes that the bigger problem lies within kids nowadays not taking "one single second of the day seriously." And though it may be argued that kids never took anything seriously back then, Teresa believes there's a significant difference between kids in the classroom in past years versus recently. As she mentions in her TikTok: "They take everybody's feelings for granted; they don't care how what they say or do makes people feel." And as much as she hates to admit it, Teresa told BuzzFeed that it's more difficult managing behaviors and connecting with students now than before 2020 — and it has more to do with social media than the pandemic.

In an interview with Teresa, she explained to BuzzFeed how social media has played a role in isolating children more in the long run. Because kids at an early age are so impressionable, mimicking the behaviors and actions of the content creators they're watching has made it difficult for them to discern how their actions and words affect others. "Life has become one big content farm," she said, "whether they are pointing the camera and uploading videos or not." But the blame is not wholly put on the child. As Teresa puts it, parents play a huge role in the success of their child in the classroom.

According to Teresa, the choices parents make for their kids at home — specifically surrounding screen time, boundaries and consequences, emotional regulation, and childhood autonomy — correspond with a child's success in the classroom. And it's in those areas where Teresa thinks parents typically drop the ball. "[Parents] give their kid far too little structure around boundaries and consequences, screen time, and healthy ways to handle uncomfortable emotions," she told BuzzFeed. "Kids with too much adult-like autonomy and too little structure in their daily lives are struggling the most right now."

Fellow teachers came in support of Teresa through the TikTok comments, with some of them explaining how they handle their own students and mewing. One user said, "I mew back at them. My students asked if I knew what it was, I did the gesture, and the problem was solved. Now they don't do it."

Other educators took to the comments to express the difficulties of dealing with such a trend, with one teacher saying, "Every day in my classroom. Not only is it that but the literal sound 'mew' from my students. It's hard being a first-year teacher right now."

When asked how she responds to students who display disruptive behavior like mewing in the classroom, Teresa stressed the importance of being consistent in using the same classroom consequences one would use for any other situation where the student chooses not to participate or listen. She also advises that teachers who face these kinds of circumstances shouldn't display outward anger or frustration since those are the kinds of reactions students are looking for. "It’s important, no matter how much you might be ridiculed for it, to have conversations about these trends with other educators and parents so we all stay informed and at the front of it," Teresa explained to BuzzFeed.

Teresa clarifies that teachers aren't asking kids not to be kids or to not participate in trends but to have respect and some consideration. Trend or not, she believes that no one in a work and learning environment should respond to someone actively trying to engage with them by using an inappropriate silent gesture. As Teresa puts it: "It's smug, it's rude, and I don't care how much you think it's fun or funny, or how young you are, or how little you take seriously the situation."

We desperately need to bring back the days when you could just haul off and smack these bratty kids.

Just when you thought that kids couldn't be any bigger cunts, they come up with something new to prove you wrong.

R2 is right.

Just smack them across the head with a 2x4 piece of wood.

They'll never disrespect you again.

Do we have a Tik Tok liaison?

OP and the "just smack these brats" rednecks are the same people who believe all that shit about litter boxes in schools

A handful of people doing something does not make it a trend

Are you a fucking teacher, dipshit dumbshit R7?

If not, then kindly SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!

This information is coming from ACTUAL teachers, in ACTUAL classrooms, teaching ACTUAL kids.

Not armchair assholes, commenting from their couch that their fat, atrophied bodies are fused to

Stupid cunt!

Ban Tik Tok. NOW.

So weigh participation more heavily and give them shitty marks.

If anyone ever did that to me, I'd reply, "oh good. Thank god. With your face and jawline, you really need to focus on mewing as much as possible."

I’m really disappointed, I thought they would be making cat noises.

Teacher sounds like a whiny boomer.

This is stupid. You can just get jawline filler.

[quote]R14: This is stupid. You can just get jawline filler.

The kids aren't doing it to adjust their jawlines. They're doing it to say, 'I'm busy and cannot respond to you.' It's a form of dismissal.

It's taken me way too much effort to try to figure out what we are even talking about in this thread...

I've always believed in the efficacy of face exercises.

R16 it’s just a finger to the mouth, then tracing the side of the jaw. Like saying “shhh” No idea what the big deal is.

I'm confusing Mewing with Meowing.

Yeah, I thought cats mewed.

First they got litter boxes and now this! I’m oUtRaGeD!

Can’t wait for TikTok to be banned.

I'd rather be mewed at than mooed at.

maybe the kids simply find her overbearing and controlling

Does mewing really work? Is their a scientific basis for it?

R19, kittens mew; juveniles and adult cats meow.

There seems to be a solution in the problem. Hit the little wokesters with some 'ableist' education and inform their parents they're making fun of the deaf, or hearing impaired populations. There have to be established consequences for making fun of people who are impaired, ignorance not being a defense anyone will tolerate.

Half of the students will ostracize the other, which is what grade school is all about. Jungle order will self-stabalize.

No, R25. None whatsoever. It was started by a “doctor” who is into eugenics.

Why now must *everything* be considered a "TikTok trend"? People have been doing this mewing technique- which supposedly improves your jaw structure or something- long before TikTok. But because it has been seen in a TikTok video, it is now a "TikTok" thing despite being featured on various social media platforms like Youtube and Twitter for years now... so fucking dumb.

Reform school bound brats can go ahead and mew to FAFO from people that have their number. The 2x4 comment is hilarious, my dad used to say that joke and my family used to nearly die laughing

The little shits can't read or do fractions anymore. And they all want to grow up to be Instagram influencers. Who cares what they do with their tongues or fingers?

Can you imagine if somehow the world power grid goes down for a substantial amount of time- what would all these influencers doing to make a living?

[quote] Can you imagine if somehow the world power grid goes down for a substantial amount of time- what would all these influencers doing to make a living?

Eat each other.

One would hope.

These brats are absolutely gettibg this and other shit from TikTok. There is a reason teachers hate TikTok. And cell phones in class. And a bunch of other things that people who aren't teachers say is no big deal. "Rarely is the question asked: Is our Children learning?" No, former President, no, they are not.

Is our Children learning?

If Joan Crawford were the teacher, she would definitely say....

Stupid asses. I can’t wait for TikTok to end

“Sorry, but I nay when I’M vexed!”

I've never heard of this. Any teacher using Buzzfeed or TikTok to complain about classroom behavior deserves whatever they get.

At the risk of hijacking this thread...What will happen when we can't find teachers to teach? I'd rather clean bathrooms for a living than teach children. I used to teach grad school and they drove me nuts with their grade grubbing and inability to problem solve. They asked me to come back last Spring and I declined again. I am way to intolerant to be in a classroom so i removed the things I could control. Me. Does anyone else feel like everything and everyone is coming apart at the seams or is it what "they" want us to think?

Bring back corporal punishment. It's all these asshole kids understand. Hell, give the parents a good beating too.

R40 I think kids have always been obnoxious and there has always been a subgroup of kids who not interested in learning. This is just sensationalism. Social media is creating some annoying trends but it's not ruining a whole generation, imo.

R42 Yep, kids have always been obnoxious, which is why they all need a preemptive beating for posterity's sake.

I was a university professor for 30 years (retired Aug ‘23.) Never heard of this and certainly never aware of this.

What does come to mind is HR and admin coming to our department and telling faculty that we had to have a presence on Twitter and brand ourselves on social media. I was also told that my career would stall without visibility on LinkedIn.

I never did a thing they said and continued on with a very successful academic career replete with professional contacts and long term relationships with students I taught, mentored and collaborated with.

II still receive 20 emails a day from media and academic publishing (journals) for this and that as well as student looking for advice..

I never was interested in, never needed, nor paid a second of attention to any social media platform. I did my job, I taught, I did research, I published, I mentored and I collaborated.

If I had a class that was mute- I kicked them in the butt intellectually… held them responsible for their work or lack there of, and rewarded only good work.

If they did not respond to my questions- I dug into them intellectually, not personally until they realized why they were there. Worked most of the time. When it did not, that student fell off my radar which hurt both their academic and future careers. Their choice.

Mewing is nonsense made significant by social media bullshit.

I might add, any student who comes to a class and ignores their instructor and/or their peers… should drop the class, drop out of school. They are wasting their time and certainly the instructor’s.

As I said, these students in my long experience go nowhere. I give them a “kick”, but their response is up to them.

I read this whole thing and I still don’t know WTF it is.

[quote] I read this whole thing and I still don’t know WTF it is.

There was a doctor whose name was Mew. Dr. Mew.

He came up with a technique to make your jawline more "sharp," by sticking your tongue on the roof of your mouth. It's like a mouth exercise to make your jaw more prominent.

Kids took this technique, and basically co-opted it. They started to call it "Mewing."

But rather than having it mean what it originally meant, they basically just stole the name from Dr. Mew, and called it "Mewing."

And they changed the meaning completely.

Instead, they started running their finger along their jawline, and called THAT "Mewing."

And what they meant by it, is a sign of disrespect.

So whenever someone started lecturing them, or saying something that they didn't want to hear, they would simply run their finger along their jawline, and brush off the person speaking to them.

That's why the teacher called it "smug" and "rude." Because by "Mewing" - running their finger along their jawline, while someone is speaking to them - it's essentially saying, "Shut the fuck up, because I'm not listening to you."

According to the article:

[quote] According to Teresa, though, mewing has evolved from a face-shaping trend to a non-verbal, dismissive gesture. The action consists of a shushing motion followed by pointing to your jawline and tracing the outline of it — and Teresa notes that her students have been doing it in the classroom.

[quote] "Mewing is a gesture that kids are making toward other people that signals to that person that they don't care what they have to say, or they're too busy being silent doing the mewing technique to respond to them," Teresa explains in her video. "It's basically just another way to be dismissive of somebody."

[quote] Essentially, when a teacher is asking a question to a student or trying to tell them something, the kid will mew at them to indicate that they're "unavailable" to listen or communicate because they are mewing.

It's completely stupid, and completely non-sensical, in relation to the name of trend.

That's why you're confused.

Because Dr. Mew and his "jaw sharpening" technique, have absolutely nothing to do with what these kids are doing.

They just took his name, and used it to identify their little game.

Again, Dr. Mew and his technique have absolutely nothing to do with "Mewing."

It's just a name that they took, and applied it to a trend which is used as a disrespectful gesture.

And yes, it's completely stupid. Like most things that kids come up with nowdays.

R44 You sound like an amazing professor and those students were lucky to have you. I love the thought about challenging them intellectually to remind them why they were there. I also love that you paid zero heed to all the HR nonsense. Maybe you've inspired me to teach another class next year.

[quote] I read this whole thing and I still don’t know WTF it is.

It’s essentially sociopathic behaviour meant to alienate people.

It is kind of funny.

[quote] It is kind of funny.

To a 13 year old.

It isn’t humorous.If it were I’d laugh. It’s just stupid. It’s for the developmentally challenged.

From what what I’ve seen, TikTok is for the developmentally challenged.

They need to bring back corporal punishment.

I’d like to beat the hell out of em. But I can’t so I won’t.

The actual jaw shaping Mew sounds bizarre. You can’t breathe.

Yes you can, R56.

It's like butt-lift exercises.

You press your tongue on your upper mouth and purse your lips. Hold for 30 seconds.

Then release.

Then press your tongue on your upper mouth and purse your lips. Hold for 30 seconds.

Then release.

Do it for however many reps you want to do it. And for however long you want to do it.

After a few weeks of this exercise, you should start to see a more defined jawline.

It's like any other workout.

How about exercising their brains instead of their mouths?

Grandma, is that you at R58??

Thank god I don’t have children.

I can’t imagine having to deal with this social media and tik tok shit. In addition to the 5000 other things you have to deal with.

Mewing is better than having to deal with this shit....

I don’t get why kids would be able to use this stupid excuse not to answer a teacher, in a classroom. You want to keep your mouth shut and do mewing, do it all you want, just not in class.

PS I tried this a few years ago. It didn’t do a thing. After a while it gave me a sore neck.

[Quote] can’t imagine having to deal with this social media and tik tok shit.

R60 you echo my thoughts exactly.

I really do believe Western Civilization reached it's apex on 9/10/2001

I think the behavior of kids changed when it stopped being ok to spank them.

I’m pretty sure I read something a few years ago about how French kids are better behaved because they’re spanked. Maybe people for thousands of years weren’t so dumb after all.

Is everyone under the age of 35 just a bunch of uneducated savages now?

r66, I've always maintained that children are little savages that you have to spank sense into.

Beat em

[quote]I've always maintained that children are little savages that you have to spank sense into.

This is something I argue all of the time. I hate when people say children are innocent, or that you have to teach hate. No, you don't have to teach hate, that is innate. You teach WHO to hate maybe, but the machine of it is already in place. Babies represent the absolute ID of mankind - they are selfish, completely self-absorbed, cry when they don't get their way, lie when they are caught, will smack another baby on the head and steal what they want from them - and this is all to be expected.

Traits like kindness, compassion and generosity are a product of socialization, we aren't born with it. Humans have to be taught how to be nice to each other.

R70 Excellent post.

Christ, just tell them every time they do it they drop their grade by 5 points. How hard is that?