Has Time Run Out for TikTok?
A review and ethical discussion of TikTok’s algorithm.
TikTok. The words “tik tok” used to be what we said to our friends while waiting for them to tie their shoes before we could play tag. These were words of impatience to play with friends. Now, they are words of impatience to watch the next video… and the next… and the next until you can’t put the phone down anymore. These are the words of addiction.
Much literature has been written about TikTok and its algorithm.² Most of these articles discuss how the algorithm is addicting, oppressive, biased, and a security concern. I encourage you to explore these articles and studies as they shed light on TikTok’s algorithm. Specifically, in her article “A Care Ethics Analysis of the Architecture of the TikTok Application,” Halle Wine discusses TikTok and addiction from a care ethics perspective and presents an illuminating argument. I will be similarly discussing addiction, however, in the context of addressing why addicting users to TikTok is unethical from a consequentialist perspective, a bridge between topics I haven’t yet encountered in current literature. But before discussing TikTok addiction and what it means for everyday users, we must first examine its history.
Background
TikTok is a social media app whose mission is “to inspire creativity and bring joy.”³ It started as the app Douyin, available exclusively in China, created by ByteDance. About a year later, ByteDance bought Musical.ly and released the TikTok app in 2018. TikTok now has 1.7 billion users⁴ globally, with 150 million users in the United States.⁵ Despite its rising popularity, TikTok is a very controversial product. A bill demanding that ByteDance sell TikTok to a US owner or face a ban in America was passed on April 23, 2024.⁶ Two weeks later, TikTok sued the US government for violating the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution.⁷ A driving question of this controversy remains: is TikTok itself ethical?
Due to its overall psychological, environmental, and social impacts, TikTok’s addictive algorithm is unethical. It decreases the user’s quality of life despite its merits and mission to increase happiness.
The Algorithm
TikTok is designed to be addictive. When a user opens the app, a video plays immediately, whereas other social media apps, such as Instagram and YouTube, require users to physically press on a video to begin their scrolling experience. Additionally, TikTok’s claim to fame has been its “For You Page” (FYP), which allows users to scroll endlessly and watch as much or as little of any video as they want. The FYP uses a personalized algorithm for each user to present them with videos they will be interested in and, therefore, stay on the app longer. However, this algorithm has led to addiction and overuse. Kids between the ages of 11 and 17 spend approximately two hours daily on TikTok⁸, while most teens (58%) reportedly open and interact with TikTok daily.⁹ This has an opportunity cost, as kids are spending time on social media instead of sleeping, socializing, studying, or relaxing. Even more severe, TikTok literally changes our brains by decreasing our attention spans. A Microsoft study found that “after just 20 minutes on TikTok, users experienced a ‘significant decrease’ in attention span and working memory”, while other social media platforms didn’t seem to affect user’s attention spans.¹⁰ TikTok’s algorithm is addictive because users are presented with videos similar to those they prefer.
Social Impacts
Since the algorithm only shows users similar videos, they are not presented with diverse content. From the algorithm’s perspective, users will stay on the app longer, as their beliefs are reinforced through confirmation bias, making the algorithm even more addicting. This “echo chamber”¹² of the same people and ideas prevents inclusion and diversity. Many articles and studies specifically address TikTok’s racial bias, in which white creators are disproportionately promoted, decreasing opportunities and recognition for creators of color.¹³ This oppression is due to “collaborative filtering,” which is when the algorithm promotes people who look similar to the content creators the user watches, thereby reinforcing the existing biases that users have.¹⁴
But are there instances where the algorithm is positive? The algorithm is responsible for keeping users on beneficial sides of TikTok, like #StudyTok (learn about study strategies), #BookTok (share book recommendations), and #EcoTok (learn about the environment). During their talk at Dartmouth College on April 18, 2024, #EcoTok influencers Caulin Donaldson and Doria Brown shared how their TikTok platform allowed them to spread environmental awareness.¹⁵ Donaldson has made a real impact by sharing information and using his following to gain credibility to pass local legislation. As users watch more videos, the algorithm shows them more, building a community that encourages others to do good for the world and themselves.
Ethics
So far, we’ve discussed how TikTok’s algorithm impacts its users. Therefore, a relevant philosophical theory to discuss is consequentialism, which defines something as ethical if the product results in a net positive effect. In other words, something is ethical if it results in the greatest good for the greatest number of people. According to consequentialism,
“Acts are morally right just because they maximize the amount of goodness in the world.”¹⁷
I’ve decided to focus on consequentialism because addiction is inherently latent with consequences. Addiction is harmful specifically because of its consequences, not because of intentions, virtues, duties, or other focuses of philosophical theories. Consequences are also at the forefront of TikTok’s mission to “bring joy and inspire creativity,” meaning that TikTok also seems to prioritize the consequences of their app. So, let’s dive in.
Consequentialism Discussion
Argument for TikTok: The algorithm allows users to join communities of people with similar ideas and filter out triggering and uninteresting topics. For example, #EcoTok educates people about the environment and can cause people to change their habits. Additionally, Donaldson, an #EcoTok creator, explained that his following allowed him to open several local toy boxes to stop people from littering the beach, showing TikTok’s positive effects. So, more people are helping the environment, learning, and joining a community.
Counterargument: EcoTok aims to inspire users to help the environment, but they can’t do that while scrolling through more videos. The same goes for #StudyTok, #BookTok, and more. They’re good ideas, but there are more beneficial things to do than sit and scroll. So, all of TikTok’s positive consequences happen outside the app, yet TikTok is designed to keep you on the app. Even so, the benefits of #EcoTok are debatable. Yes, content creators educate people on the environment, but making and watching TikTok videos uses energy. One minute on TikTok emits 2.63g of CO2e, meaning that “if we count a third of its monthly users as daily users, then the social media app will generate over 40 thousand tonnes of CO2e each day.”¹⁸ The content creators may be able to make changes, which is great, but the only sure thing is that the more people who use TikTok, the more carbon emissions there are. So yes, it would be great if every TikTok user was learning about the environment, but it would be even better if they didn’t use TikTok at all. But for argument’s sake, let’s say that TikTok can claim these positive consequences. Does this outweigh the addiction and psychological effects?
Argument for TikTok: Wait, but if TikTok aims to “inspire creativity and bring joy,” doesn’t addiction help keep people on the app so they may continue to be inspired and joyful? TikTok directly brings joy through dopamine, allows users to express themselves through videos, and generates new ideas through watching others. So, maximizing users’ time on the app causes their mission to have an even greater impact.
Counterargument: As discussed, addiction to TikTok is detrimental to our brains, which leads to higher stress and less focus, impacting our daily lives. TikTok is not for the greater good if it decreases users’ quality of life. In terms of inspiring creativity, since the algorithm uses “collaborative filtering” and promotes confirmation bias, it is reducing creativity and magnifying the same ideas in users’ minds– it isn’t fulfilling the goal. Is TikTok really joyful? There are many cases of “doom-scrolling” when users scroll aimlessly through content that upsets them.²⁰ In the short-term, TikTok does bring some joy in the form of dopamine to the brain, but in the long-term, this joy turns into addiction, which overall decreases the user’s quality of life. The same goes for creativity. TikTok exposes users to new ideas in the short term, but in the long-term, filters the videos so users repeatedly consume the same content, fueling this addiction. So, is TikTok upholding its mission? In the short term, yes. In the long term, no. But TikTok exists and thrives in the long term. TikTok is designed to attract and retain users. Therefore, TikTok is unethical.
Conclusion
TikTok’s addictive design, specifically its algorithm, is unethical from a consequentialist perspective. TikTok should change its algorithm to present users with more diverse videos, which combats its unethical algorithm bias. This would help decrease addiction, inspire creativity by showing more perspectives and ideas, and bring joy in the short and long term. So tik tok, TikTok, it’s time to change for the better.
Footnotes
- https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-delay-launch-us-shopping-platform-wsj-2023-05-10/
- To read more about TikTok’s echo chamber, click here. To read more about the ethics of TikTok’s biases, click here. To read more about TikTok’s biased algorithm and privacy concerns, click here. To read more about addiction from social media, click here.
- https://www.tiktok.com/about?lang=en
- https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1142687/tiktok-users-worldwide
- https://www.demandsage.com/tiktok-user-statistics/
- https://gizmodo.com/tiktok-divest-ban-bill-passes-in-senate-1851430598
- https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/tiktok-sues-us-government-says-ban-violates-first-amendment-rcna151059
- https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-youtube-most-popular-screen-time-teens-facebook-instagram-study-2023-9
- https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/attention-span-goldfish-tiktok-us-vikrant-neb-luwaf/
- https://casamedia.com/social-media/tiktok-algorithm/
- https://medium.com/si-410-ethics-and-information-technology/tiktoks-addictive-and-unethical-algorithm-3f44f41f1f3c
- Read more about TikTok’s oppressive algorithm here.
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2020/04/14/does-tiktok-have-a-race-problem/?sh=16948a032602
- To watch the full talk, click here.
- https://scholar.umw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1056&context=psychology_showcase
- Russ Schafer-Landau, The Fundamentals of Ethics, Chapter 9, page 1
- https://carboncredits.com/tiktok-dances-toward-net-zero-emissions-by-2030/#:~:text=When%20it%20comes%20to%20carbon,tonnes%20of%20CO2e%20each%20day
- https://greenspector.com/en/social-media-2021/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomscrolling#:~:text=Doomscrolling%20or%20doomsurfing%20is%20the,the%20amount%20of%20time%20passed
- https://www.egcgroup.com/blog/is-the-clock-ticking-on-the-future-of-tiktok/
