How Tiktok Got Us Hooked
Social media was created to keep people connected, and yet it has created a generation of disconnected young adults searching for validation in the number of likes and comments on their carefully constructed online profiles. Apps like Instagram and Tiktok use the interconnectedness of the internet to contribute to our overwhelming access to information, which has created and normalized a certain level of toxicity in our lives, playing a key factor in the mental health crisis taking place among American youth.
According to a 2017 Pew Research Center study, 81% of teens are active on social media. Most of us have had some kind of online profile since we were in elementary school. This prolonged regular engagement with social media has allowed a performative and disengaged behavior to seep into our daily lives. Neuroscientists have found that responses from posts and cell phone notifications give us dopamine, which teens can easily become dependent on in the same way as substances. Essentially, we are addicted to social media in a real and tangible way, and this is no accident. Social media developers intentionally design their platforms to be as addictive as possible in order to maximize their profits, and we subsequently fall in line, turning ourselves into commodities and allowing shifting trends and amounts of double taps to sway our sense of self.
The most recent social media sensation is Tiktok, which has also recently been in the news for its connection to Chinese data mining. Tiktok has created the ultimate system to keep users constantly coming back for more, and left an entire generation captivated and frankly, addicted. The algorithm allows for almost any video to go viral within days, and there is a literal never-ending stream of content on the apps popular video page, also known as the, “For You Page.” This ever present chance of achieving actual fame and monetary success through the phenomenon of viral teens turned social media celebrities blurs the line between performer and audience, leaving the user base hooked on the proximity to celebrity.
The app also allows for videos to be created without being posted, calling them “drafts.” These videos cannot be exported out of the app and should you delete it, these “drafts” are deleted as well. This is not an oversight, it is in fact a strategy to keep users from taking breaks from the platform, demonstrating yet another way Tiktok has perfected the art of the “addicting” social media site.
Tiktok’s major success is also credited to its becoming a forum for teens to communicate and relate to one another. But what exactly are we communicating? Earlier this month a man posted a video of himself committing suicide, which was then shared widely due to the apps all-to-rewarding view-based algorithm that provides an essentially endless stream of content. Before the video was removed by the app following a mass effort to report the post, it circulated for days and reached an unknown amount of viewers. One mother of a 14 year old who saw the post told BBC, “She was in such a state, shaking like a leaf and properly sobbing…My daughter was in a state of shock, still is in a state of shock and this could stay with her for months.”
Although this was an extreme case, the glorification of mental illness and self-destructive behavior is all too common on this platform whose most well known creators are mainly followed by children. The highest demographic of Tiktok users are between the ages 10–19, making up close to 35% of the app’s user base. With the all-too-rewarding algorithm, the content on every user’s feed is generally unregulated and shock value content or jokes about trauma, substances, and mental illness are often the quickest and easiest ways to gain views and followers. This type of exposure creates a toxic environment for adolescents of any age, but especially younger audiences.
A study done in 2019 focused on the psychological response to distressing content on social media, finding that many users are unable to curtail their social media use despite being aware of its negative effects on their mental health. “We are beginning to observe a blurring between the stress caused by the use of applications such as SNS [Social Network Sites] and addictive or compulsive use of these very applications. Studies indicate that even as individuals find it exhausting to keep up and respond to posts in SNS, they find it increasingly difficult to turn away from them . Hence, even when individuals are stressed from the use of SNS, they may be addicted to the same SNS.”
So what do we do? Now that Tiktok is officially here to stay, despite the government’s attempts to ban the app from the US App Store, it’s time to think about what exactly we want its purpose to be going forward. For one, more restrictions on content and access for young users would allow children to establish a better sense of self before diving into the world of mature humor and possibly dangerous imagery and language. Improved parental advisory warnings regarding exposure to possibly disturbing content would give parents the opportunity to make a more educated decision when considering whether or not to allow their children to join the app.
Secondly, we need to evaluate whether we are using apps like Tiktok, or whether they are using us. Unfortunately, the algorithm relies on the standard consumer’s willingness to spend extended amounts of time engaged with the app, and the creators stand to gain from the user base being almost incapable of ignoring it. Like nearly all social media sites before it, Tiktok has lost its agency as a tool or even a source of entertainment. Its purpose revolves around creating capital rather than serving the consumer, and there is little hesitation to exploit said consumer to achieve a certain level of profitability. It is time to demand more from those developing our social media sites, both in terms of morality and transparency. It is time stop allowing big tech developers to reap the benefits of controlling our decisions.
