Left To Our Own Devices

When does social media become anti-social? Is Tiktok the most addictive social media platform in internet history? An exploration of Tiktok, and it’s unyielding power over societal youth.

College freshman Ansley Fraundorf checks many boxes: an honors student at the University of Georgia, a double major in biochemistry and molecular biology, a student worker with an internship at a hospital, and… a Tiktok addict? Ansley first downloaded Tiktok in March 2020 — the beginning of lockdowns that created intense boredom and a desire for any form of human connection.

Ansley checks her phone’s home screen as if to make sure the app has not disappeared. “I used to spend seven hours a day scrolling through those videos. It was pretty bad in retrospect.”

When Ansley meditates on her recent relationship with Tiktok after trying to set up limits, she emphasizes that she still does not have a healthy relationship with the platform. “My phone told me that 90% of my screen time is still Tiktok… on average, I’m spending about three to four hours a day on it. I would definitely say I’m addicted…most of my friends are.”

This sentiment that Tiktok is “addictive” is spreading throughout users almost as quickly as when the app skyrocketed to popularity. Tiktok was initially launched as the platform Douyin in China in September 2016, but it did not reach international users until 2017 when a less restrictive ByteDance was created and merged with Music.ly, another music and video-oriented social platform. Tiktok was officially born. The company’s website proudly declares that it is available in 155 countries and 75 languages. According to Statista, Tiktok has over 689 million active users and 2 billion lifetime downloads making it one of the titans of social media in about half the time it took other mega-platforms (these numbers do not include China’s stats as there is no Tiktok in China but rather the original, practically identical platform Douyin hosting 600 million users making the combined total of Tiktok and Douyin 1.29 billion active users).

If Facebook is “older” money, then Tiktok is new — its amount of active users since launch took Instagram and Facebook six and four years to build up, respectively while it only took Tiktok three. On top of that, the app is in its sixth consecutive quarter of being the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store with Q1 of 2020 being the most successful quarter of an app ever with 315 million worldwide downloads. The records it continues to smash are mind-boggling: more than 1 billion videos were viewed every day in the last year (statistic provided by Tiktok website).``

says 39-year-old, freshly-appointed CEO Shou Zi Chew in a Tiktok press release for his promotion. With the Statista research department projecting a year-to-year increase of 22% in downloads of the app by U.S. users, Chew seems to hit the nail on the head.

On the surface, the app seems beneficial. The company’s mission statement from its website is, “to capture and present the world’s creativity, knowledge, and precious life moments, directly from the mobile phone. Tiktok enables everyone to be a creator and encourages users to share their passion and creative expression through video.” Most users agree that so much of the app’s content is enjoyable and informative.

…she’ll sit on my shoulder and watch it with me,” Angel Alzeidan, a college junior says as she rubs the whiskers of her kitten’s chin. “It’s so quick and informative, and it’s a super-easy way to unwind. I use it as my main source of news, media, trends, comedy, how-tos, answers to burning questions, gossip…even recipes! The app has everything you could ever want…and I mean everything.” When asked whether she thinks she’s addicted to Tiktok, she replies with a laugh and, “yes, I’m addicted. I usually spend three hours a day on it during the week and five hours on the weekends. I have such a short attention span now — I can barely make it through a youtube video — and I think Tiktok plays directly off of that…it’s a problem I recognize but don’t want to fix right now.”

More mentions of these lowering attention spans feel slightly unnerving to researchers and especially to Dr. Julie Albright, a sociologist, author, and professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in digital culture and communications. In a Forbes article about the addictive qualities of Tiktok and social media, she references this sensation of “shortening” saying, “our brains are changing constantly based on interactions with digital technologies.. one of these changes is time compression. Our attention spans are shortening… the perception of the pace of life and the pace of change are being shortened.”

Tiktok is deemed an “accomplice to a short attention span” by Lola Piuggi, a sophomore at The New School in New York City. In a windy courtyard between west twelfth and thirteenth street, Lola reminisces on the attention span she used to have: “I find even when I’m watching a movie with friends, I get so bored in the beginning… I think ‘why is it taking so long to get to the emotion, the action? When is something going to happen?’ I end up pausing it when I’m alone and going on Tiktok because I need that fifteen-second, instant gratification.” This disillusionment yet inability to control the change in our brain chemistry without stopping use is plaguing younger users. However, it’s not just millennials or Generation Z who could suffer from a decrease in attention span — in the past 18 months, the number of adult Tiktok users in the U.S. grew 5.5 times.

“[Society is] suffering from a lack of patience for latency, or the measure of delay in a network,” Dr. Julie Albright continues. “There is this idea that if our video or website doesn’t load in two seconds, then it’s too slow, and we are on to the next thing. We want a no-latency life.” With Tiktok’s infinite and instantaneous flow of content, this latency cancels out. Especially when nine out of ten worldwide users frequent the app more than once a day and spend an average of 52 minutes watching. The infinite flow of randomized content is borderline addicting and some accuse Tiktok of utilizing this social media addiction.

“In psychological terms, it’s called random reinforcement,” Albright says, “it’s exactly like a Vegas slot machine…sometimes you win, sometimes you lose…the differentiation is key.” This practice of seeing a mix of content you love and content you don’t is what keeps users stuck in the loop of scrolling: the good videos give you a perfect hit of dopamine while the videos you don’t like leave you craving that high again. It creates an insatiable appetite.

“I know my mind craves the positive, funny videos,” Lola says as the New York wind of the courtyard plays with her hair, “but I also think it craves the negative ones too. If I watch a video that makes me upset, it doesn’t force me off the app…it makes me want to find a video I will like.” This cycle reflects a positive feedback loop and begs consumers to consider a potential addiction to social media.

According to a journal published by Pepperdine University, over 200 million people are likely addicted to social media. These numbers will likely only increase with the continued accessibility of social media platforms to kids and young teens.

Lola says passionately toiling over how different her early teens could have been. “Just the insecurities that I think would spark from it…it [makes] young kids grow up before they have to.” Angel echoes these fears of younger kids on Tiktok: “I don’t think twelve or thirteen-year-olds should have it…they’re too young and so impressionable. I know I was. Maybe you should be fifteen to join?” While a later age limit may potentially prevent social media addiction in teens, not everyone feels like their relationship with Tiktok is toxic.

“I think Tiktok can be very enjoyable,” Juliana Fraundorf, Ansley’s older sister, says as she paints her nails a lavender color. “I personally don’t have an issue shutting it off, but maybe that’s because I’m so busy anyway. I usually only have time to use it for 30 minutes a day.” Social media and Tiktok, specifically, have videos such as comedy sketches, informational videos, doctors advising people that their bodies are normal, and validation from outsiders telling you that you are loved; it can create joy and a sense of community not all people can find. A healthy relationship with Tiktok seems like a positive indulgence. “For me,” Juliana continues, “Tiktok is like french fries. I don’t need them, but I love them, and if they are available, I will eat them...it’s probably best not to have too many all the time.”

Other Generation Z’s who missed the original download period feel like maybe they’ll never get into Tiktok: “I somehow missed the phase where everyone downloaded it,” James Kane, a Junior at Purdue University says. “I think I’m past the phase of downloading it…I don’t think I’ll ever download it because I see how it can take up a lot of time…if I wasn’t bored enough to get it in March of 2020, I don’t think I’ll ever be bored enough.”

How do society and younger generations build a healthy relationship with social media-a sweet treat rather than over-indulgence? A way to try and start managing your use could be to apply screen time limits to your phone for social apps. According to the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, limiting your social media engagement to 30 minutes per day leads to better mental health and positively impacts your overall well-being. Building up this restraint sounds like training for a marathon, but like any other skill, you have to practice underusing social media to get good at avoiding it.

Tiktok is “random”, easy, accessible, and infinite. If you don’t have much self-control on other social media titans like Facebook and Instagram, you likely won’t have control on this app either. Are you finding yourself addicted to social media and want to make a big change? You can always try, if you’re feeling strong enough, to go cold turkey and delete it.

“I wish [I could delete Tiktok],” Ansley says while twisting a piece of her hair. “Maybe I should give it up for lent… I feel like I would probably be a more well-rounded and just a better person overall if I deleted it…you know what? I’m gonna delete it now. I’m not sure how long this will last, but I’m going to try. Delete App. Yes, I’m sure, Delete.”

We reached out to Tiktok for a comment but never heard back.

Related posts:

In every aspect of today’s digital touch comes with modern solutions, the high-end technology service provider company’s assists in various zones to lead a successful business. Most of the businesses…

As a part of our series about rising music stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Hannyta. Hannyta is a young musician, singer, songwriter still in High School and she is currently based…

Optimization is essential for reducing the usage of system resources that are required in order to fulfill a task while also allowing your application to handle more queries simultaneously. Thus, you…