Your school day finally ends and you’ve just got home and took a seat on your couch. You pick up your phone and the first app you open is TikTok. Each video flies by and you can’t stop yourself from scrolling. By the time you decide to go eat, 2 hours have already passed. You then think to yourself ‘do I have a problem?’
You might wonder, how can an app affect someone? Well, Social media apps can affect people in lots of ways, not only teens. So, do you want to know how a lot of people’s favorite app might not be so amazing?
Is it just teenagers? According to addictionhelp.com, teens and young adults are most affected by social media and 40% of internet users ages 18 to 22 report that they have a social media addiction. So, it is most likely to be a teenager, but not always. It is also found that 21% of all Americans use TikTok, including adults. According to my classmates 23.1% of them don’t have TikTok at all.
One way that TikTok can affect teens is addiction, as shown in the last paragraph. You probably already know, most teens have TikTok and are on it most of their day. Many teens are on the app, in the morning, at school, and before they go to sleep. It is shown that 58% of teens scroll on the site daily and the data from my classmates has shown 76.9% of students watch TikTok everyday. So, when does it stop?
Another way that many people might not even think about is that teens are taking misinformation from TikTok videos that they scroll upon. Have you ever heard the saying ‘Not everything you see online is true’? Well, most teens on TikTok believe everything that they hear on the app, while many people are posting videos that are just lies.
According to a research report, nearly 20% of the videos presented as search results contain misinformation. This proves that many teens are being fed lies and are believing them straight away. This can harm them and others if they decide to spread the lies they have been told.
According to a student at Oakmont Highschool “On average teens spend over an hour on tiktok daily and I think for some its even more than that, and watching it that much and getting that much dopamine from the short form content can be very bad. Plus combined with the fact that tiktok generally leans towards negative topics can ruin teens mental health.” Do you think others would agree?
In my opinion, people are starting to see the problems of social media more than they were before, but it is definitely not everyone. Many teens still have an “addiction” and for some it’s getting worse. TikTok is everything to some people, and many state “I couldn’t live without it.” which is very unhealthy. Do you think you could live without the app?
One way that you have probably heard of is being bullied. Cyber bullying is a big thing now that social media has grown and those mean words people are told can really affect them. According to a research website, a quarter of children and teens have cyberbullied someone in the last 5 years. In 2021, 16% of highschool students said they had been bullied in the past 12 months. Although, according to my classmates, only 15.4% of students have been bullied on social media.
Although, sometimes it might not even be cyber bullying. Teens may get jealous of someone else’s looks or life. I asked a student at Oakmont ‘Do you think TikTok can affect a person’s mental health? Why or why not” and in response they said “Yes, the same as any other social media because people compare themselves with others constantly.”
Although, not all effects are bad. One feature is that Tiktok can help build community among different users. This could definitely positively help someone, if they really needed someone to talk to or just needed a good laugh. But, this in other ways, wouldn’t be the best. Say your kids think they are talking to someone their age and they are actually talking to someone older. There are many cases of kids talking to adults unknowingly.
But, another positive effect could be that TikTok can enhance your creativity. With all the different types of videos that might pop up on your “for you page” you might get a better look on different types of creative arts. Who knows, some people might even find a new interest because of this.
Lastly, if you take a closer look at things you might notice that a lot of teenagers use the app as comfort, which is very unhealthy. Even though, some aren’t fortunate enough to have a person for comfort, replacing that with an app is even worse. Look at it like this. Would you rather have a fake friend who doesn’t care and ends up just hurting you more, or find someone who cares more than anything later.
Your life shouldn’t be based on an app, and teenager’s definitely shouldn’t be leaning on these influencers to help. Although, many people have different looks on things. What do you think? Is TikTok a threat?
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/18/business/tiktok-search-engine-misinformation/index.html
https://www.addictionhelp.com/social-media-addiction/statistics/#:~:text=What%20age%20group%20is%20most,they%20have%20social%20media%20addiction.https://www.avast.com/c-cyberbullying– statistics#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20a%20quarter%20of,bullying%20than%20boys%20(11%25).
