The Danger of Tik Tok and its Effect on Generation Z
Tik Tok, with its 24/7 impact on the lives of individuals, as well as various societies, is an app that allows one to find inspiration, information, and most importantly, entertainment. In fact, with Tik Tok celebrating 1 billion users on September 27th, 2021, one can not deny the incredible impact Tik Tok has had on a global scale. Users can learn valuable information, such as trending recipes, associate with subcommunities, and overall, be up to date on all current events and happenings.
Despite the positive aspects, users are faced with constant dilemmas, such as being at risk of constant criticism, but more importantly, being lured into an all encompassing app that has challenged the very meaning of reality. Rather, Tik Tok has not only become the new norm, but has transformed its alternate reality into, well, reality — an unfolding dystopia.
The distinctive line between what’s supposedly real and fake is blurred, where young people are ruining their real-life reputations for the good of superficial likes and views: where clout turns into social currency. Young girls are exploiting themselves, while young boys are participating in punishable, yet impressionable, trends such as the ‘Devious Lick’ challenge, in which they steal property from schools — crimes that are punishable as misdemeanors, and even felonies. People may also use their deepest secrets to garner views, which can be detrimental to the influence of the younger members, who, in fact, are the most active on Tik Tok.
In order to fully understand the issue at hand, we first must take a look at the demographic present. According to Fortune, Generation Z is the most prominent, which represents those born after 1996. However, one will often find pre-teens and teens the most involved in the various trends. This then leads to issues with attempting to remain relevant and in building a following off of often mundane, and potentially risk-driven, content.
It’s not only the issue of a direct negative influence, but the psychological ramifications, as well. For instance, in trying to upkeep the perks of being “Tik-Tok famous,” one must try and beat the algorithm, which is still quite unknown to many. Dr. Julie Albright, professor at USC, even compares this phenomenon to gambling. While a creator may be lucky to garner views, this is not a guarantee, even if one has a substantial following. Also, in trying to upkeep the millions of videos that spur, users are concentrating their attention on the abundance of these videos, which then alludes to shorter attention spans over time. This could also be the cause of latency.
It is evident that Tik Tok is not only changing the social sphere, but the globe. Unfortunately, while this may be a technological age of advancement, catapulted by the development of apps such as Tik Tok, there is the unfortunate notion that nothing can be inherently good.
