The Wall_Spring 2023_Issue 9

Emily Begley, (she/her), S11, discusses the negative impacts of Tiktok which is now the most used app in the world.

How long do you think you spend on ‘Tik-Tok’? The average time for a person under eighteen to spend on the video sharing app is 75 minutes per day while opening it at least eight times. This means that each week, the average child or teenager will spend 8 hours and 45 minutes on Tik-Tok, this is an average of 35 hours per month spent scrolling endlessly through the manipulative and addictive app.Therefore, appallingly, the average person under 18 will spend just under a whopping 639 hours on Tik-Tok – a shocking and slightly frightening statistic.Tik-Tok is available in over 150 countries and has 30.8 million users via IOS every day; but how has it gained such considerable success? In 2014,Alex Zhu and LuyuYang created musical.ly, an app based around lip-syncing. In the latter half of 2018 a Chinese internet technology company named ‘Byte Dance’ bought Musical.ly for an astonishing 1 billion US dollars (£760 million) and named it Tik-tok. Since then, it has been downloaded 3 billion times and has 30.8 million daily active users. In 2020 it was estimated by investors to be worth at least $50 billion but today some experts say that its net worth is around the $75 billion mark. Part of the reason it is so addictive is because of the ‘endless scroll’ feature created by Aza Raskin who once said that ‘it’s as if they’re taking behavioural cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface and that’s the thing that keeps you coming back.’ Studies show that results in information overload which impacts the motivational system of the brain.The sheer quantity of information at our fingertips is processed at a deep level as a threat. As a defence, we avoid engaging in any meaningful way. It triggers impulsive use especially in more impressionable users such as teenagers. Part of the problem is that the algorithm

is formed to give people what they would be interested in, not only does it still occasionally give you random videos that you might not be a fan of, but you also cannot just click and choose what video you watch.This means that children as young as ten can be exposed to inappropriate videos which they cannot understand the danger of. One problem with Tik-Tok is it can affect self-esteem and confidence. For example, videos must be short, fast, quickly awe-inspiring, and preferably using soundtracks, filters, effects, descriptions, tags and content which is currently trending in the app.You must conform to the trends of the app, otherwise you will lose any opportunity for success. I am sure that most of you a have made a Tik-Tok while out with a group of friends- it has turned into the norm, a staple activity and for many, a necessity in order to earn social approval. How does this relate to self-esteem and confidence issues you may ask?Well, when people see things, they do not like, some may feel obligated to share their opinions in the comments.While looking through TikTok, no matter the video, there are always a handful of mean and unnecessary comments and depending on the type of video posted and whose screen it ends up on, the harmful comments can end up overtaking the music and dance, but sometimes people express things that are highly personal or sensitive that can traumatise a person who becomes overly exposed to this content at an early age. Kids who admit to depression are often met with dismissive and sarcastic reactions. Some are even publicly encouraged to kill themselves.These negative comments can lead people into worryingly dark places as they let the comments take control of their lives. Cancel culture also remains an essential part of Tik Tok and is constantly promoted despite its harmful message. positive ones.At its core,TikTok encourages expression through

Regardless of the kind of post you make, there are always people out there who will not hesitate to effectively verbally abuse you over a different opinion through their phone screens. If their words get more views and more publicity than your own, then you are already on the ship to cancel town. Once someone is cancelled on the app, their own followers even turn on them and say how they never found you funny or never knew why you were popular in the first place. Part of the reason negative comments are such a massive issue is because they are anonymous and so people feel free to say whatever they want to whoever they want no matter how brutal what they want to say is. People forget that the people you see on social media are real people and get carried away with the ‘excitement’ of commenting something that you would not dare to say in real life. In conclusion,Tik-Tok’s ever-growing popularity comes with a lot of problems making children and teenagers particularly vulnerable. Much more needs to be done in order to control what people can access and say to each other on Tik-Tok. It is a hugely successful app but the abuse of the apps purpose is beginning to get out if hand. As a society we have a responsibility to be mindful of how we use the app and always remember that the people you watch on Tik-Tok are just like you, with feelings which, like our own, can get very badly hurt.

Artwork: Melis Buberka, UVI

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