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Tiktok Usage and Addiction among the Teenagers

Tiktok has become a very widespread social media platform that so many people use and it has widespread use among teenagers and the youth in general currently. With time it seems t compete with Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for the number of users as well as popularity. Most of the young people are seen to be making so many videos expressing themselves and dancing to their best music and voice recordings which talk to their interests, convictions, and belief system. It is a trending phenomenon and so many scholars and other individuals have had an interest in knowing why the situation is the way it is. Therefore this leads to questioning and asking oneself and groups about the causative factors towards this and what it means for the teenagers to have this new wave of influence and practice. Therefore it is in this line of inquiry that this paper asks and tries to find in an argumentative manner if the influence of Tiktok is positive and what this phenomenon means for teenagers.

Tiktok was launched in 2016 in china as Douyin. The next year the app was launched by Bytedance to the markets outside China. To obey china’s censorship restrictions Douyin and Tiktok maintain separate networks even though they use the same software. Bytedance purchased musical.ly which was a company of the United States and through which most of the teenagers got their entertainment and therefore through this Tiktok has been able to get a large population of teenagers in the United States. The mission of the company is to capture and resent the creativity of the world, its knowledge, and other life moments through the mobile phone.

Tiktok is seen as an advancement and a new social media which is seen as a prerogative especially to the teenagers who can enjoy it unlike those of older ages who are unable to fully understand or find their way through this type of social media. Therefore the fact that Tiktok has many users especially teenagers makes it be referred to as the app for the youth. Its level of being addicted is very high and this is based on the ability of the app to provide immediate gratification to anyone who gets into the app as they try to find something to watch (Hayer).

According to Liv Benger, the satisfaction of a person comes as a result of their dopamine hit. This means that whenever a person experiences something they want to experience more and more because it gave them stimulation which provided pleasure. Therefore upon this principle provided by psychologists that Benger argues that it is what Tiktok provides and makes sure that the teenagers get the stimulation they need immediately. This is true because most Tiktok users use the app or rather the site not because they want to avoid others like Instagram but because there is a certain feeling which they only feel when they use this specific social media platform. Therefore the concept of dopamine release and satisfaction can hold in this situation. Not only in this but his concept proposed by psychologists holds onto every time a person gets this feeling. For example, it can also be applied to sex, food, watching movies, or even other things which provide satisfaction.

Another reason associated with the 682 million people who downloaded Tiktok in 2019 and the rampant increase in its use in the year 2020 as well as the current year is associated with the increased government policies of quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic and therefore people are very bored just to sit at home doing nothing. This need to get some kind of human touch as well as motivation comes along with the use of Tiktok since it makes it possible for the teenagers to be able to connect with their friends as they view their videos played along with different soundtracks. It, therefore, acts as an alternative towards making sure that quarantine imposed by governments across the world is not eh worst thing a person can experience and therefore is becomes better and easier day by day as Tiktok comes into play. This, therefore, has been a very good positive force towards surviving the coronavirus pandemic and the boring quarantine moments to so many people.

It is also the nature of people to like short, creative, and catchy videos. Therefore it is along with this that most people never get to leave this app. This is because of its ability to addict very fast. It is also very easy to manage and the content displayed is not vulgar or irritating and therefore it attracts so many people. Some of the major artists have also been able to promote their content on Tiktok like Lil Nas and others who are significantly important to a lot of people. Therefore the entry of celebrities and famous individuals posting their videos or soundtracks on Tiktok makes it even likable and a person can just go there for the sake of seeing the video of one of their favorite artists (Jennings).

Teenagers are the ones most affected by Tiktok and there are many reasons for that. One of the major reasons teenagers are widely affected by Tiktok is their vast network of friends and peer pressure as well. This means that if a teenager has friends who are posting on Tiktok and he or she is not on the app the friends are likely to tell him or her to join Tiktok and thus be able to see and appreciate them. In case such a teenager does not join Tiktok and see the videos and listen to the voice tracks of their friends there is a high likelihood that the friendship will develop problems and issues as the friend’s state that one of them is not loyal or is jealous. It may even get to the bad point whereby some of these individuals talk evil things in the face of the teenager like she is an old person who only uses old apps and does not appreciate innovation, invention, and current things happening around the world. This, therefore, forces these teenagers to get into this social media platform even if they do not want to do so (Pammi).

Another issue related to the teenagers getting into this platform is their desire for music and other forms of entertainment and therefore if an artist whom they like is on the platform they are highly likely going to get into the platform and follow them as well as see what they post. This means that these artists are very important to the young people such that they wish to follow them almost everywhere and which some psychologists and parents term as ill behavior and not good inclinations at all (Benger).

According to the current statistics in the year 2019, 680 million people around the world downloaded this app and each of these spent a minimum of 50 minutes per day on this platform. Currently, Tiktok has approximately 500 million users around the world and it is the fastest growing social media platform in terms of popularity especially among the younger generation. (“10 TikTok Statistics You Need to Know in 2021 [March 2021]”)

Effects of Tiktok usage vary and they are many just like the effects of using other social media platforms. However, with the rising use of this social media platform, there is a high likelihood that most teenagers are prone to use it and therefore the effects may be more than ever recorded in any other social media platform. Or rather the effects of social media use among the tanager are likely to be more due to the use of Tiktok in comparison to the other social media platforms. The fact that Tiktok is very much and highly able to addict a person means that the person will be more likely to use the social media platform and positive effects of using social media such as wholesome entertainment and instant publicity are accrued due to its use. On the other hand, there are still negative effects towards the use of this social media platform which include peer pressure, mental health issues, cause of nuisance, wastage of time, harassment tool among other negative effects of using Tiktok.

According to Digiday the time spent on Tiktok is 5 minutes more than the time spent on Instagram for the average user of Tiktok. This communicates to us that it is a very essential part of us to know how to manage the usage of this app and make sure that everything that is in it is used appropriately for the benefit of the teenagers and not for their destruction.

On the positive impacts of using Tiktok, we realize that this app helps teenagers and almost everyone who uses it to manage their time during the quarantine, and many government restrictions are put as a way to curb coronavirus spread. This, therefore, acts as a positive way to spend time and not just be bored at home doing nothing when a person cannot go out for walks or social activities with friends. There was increased use of Tiktok among teenagers especially when government lockdown and quarantine guidelines were in place and therefore this attests to its positive impact of keeping most of the teenagers busy when they are at home.

Apart from this we also see that this app is a source of wholesome entertainment for most of the users and therefore it is an essential part of the entertainment. People get easily entertained by the videos which are posted. The videos are unique in their ways because they are not long and that makes them not boring as some people refer to very long videos. Therefore it is easy and possible for people to make videos easily and post them while at the same time enjoying content from other creators. Teenagers can also post their soundtracks and therefore when people make videos of the same soundtracks these teenagers get alated and they become happy about it thus making it a kind of entertainment. Tiktok has so many features and attributes in one and therefore this makes it one of the few apps which are very much liked for their ability to provide entertainment.

The fact that this is a new app and social media platform makes many people also curious to learn more about it and therefore engage more in it. This, therefore, enables teenagers to learn so much more from this app. The company Bytedance has also invested a lot of money into its publication and therefore most people are sure of its continuity as it continues to grow daily and therefore this is a very important aspect of the social media platform.

However, as much as the app and the social media platform have many positive impacts it also has some negative impacts and this is especially to teenagers. These negative impacts are even worsened by the addictive nature of this social media platform and the fact that its major popularity has come especially due to the coronavirus situation of having to go under lockdown or quarantine.

Peer pressure is very much in Tiktok and this makes it an app for teenagers. This peer pressure is enhanced by the fact that there are so many teenagers using this app and therefore friends keep on sharing a lot of videos about themselves, expressing themselves through these videos and making sure that everything they desire, stand for and think of is expressed through this social media platform. There is also always a tendency to remain perfect on social media and therefore this means that most teenagers only post videos of themselves and edit them so that they look perfect from the way they are viewed by their friends. Therefore this means that when their friends see these videos they are highly tempted to live the kind of life that is presented in them when in a real sense the kind of life presented in these videos is fake. They, therefore, wish to copy and make this kind of life theirs which becomes very difficult and they start struggling.

Another angle of peer pressure is whereby some of the teenagers advocate for ill ways of living and therefore as they advocate for this their friends see what they are posting and advocating for. Therefore even if something is morally evil and unaccepted most teenagers find themselves accepting it because their friends or other teenagers they value have posted such kinds of videos. Through this therefore the teenagers get to get themselves into activities like drug use, exposing themselves explicitly on the app, and in general desiring a kind of life which is not possible for most of them (Benger).

social media usage is a major cause of impaired mental health among many users. The usage of Tiktok comes along this to increase the mental health issues and problems experienced by many of the teenagers and this serves to make the situation even worse. Therefore when the usage of Tiktok began there was a reduced amount of mental health issues among teenagers, however, this was increased by the presence of Tiktok and the mental health issues increased to a very great level. (How TikTok Has Fueled Mental Illness, Shorter Attention Span, And Even Substance Abuse In Kids, 2020). Some of the major mental health issues associated with Tiktok usage are the low level of concentration, the fear of isolation, unhappiness, being distracted, etc.

the low level of concentration can be seen as a reason caused by the addiction to Tiktok whereby the videos are short and therefore the teenagers are only able to concentrate for a limited period. Apart from this social media generally has a way of making the teenagers and the individuals using it to be unable to concentrate on other activities apart from using the social media. this is therefore a hazard towards personal progress and growth and it makes life difficult for most teenagers. Fear of isolation is a mental state which later leads to peer pressure as the teenagers do not want to be left out. Unhappiness is caused by the addiction when these teenagers find themselves unable to do other things they are supposed to do and then concentrate on social media use. This destructs their schedules and plans thus making them frustrated. Teenagers are also easily distracted due to social media addiction and this especially happens when they are unable to perform what they wanted or when their parents give them work to do yet they still want to remain on Tiktok and view a bit more videos.

Tiktok can also be used as a harassment tool by many people. this is a negative force and effect in the society whereby these teenagers tind themselves being harassed by some of their friends and even by adults. This happens especially in the comment section whereby after a person posts something the people who view or those who follow this teenager can comment and give out their views about the videos. Therefore this makes them have a difficult time especially if the comments are negative.

Harassment can also be in the form of sexual whereby some of the people encourage teenagers to share explicit videos of themselves and therefore this becomes a very big issue. The teenagers upon sharing these explicit videos of themselves most of the time get to be viewed by so many people and later this leads to feelings of anger, rejection, being lied to, and many other negative feelings. Some of the adults and teenagers as well get into this platform to get teenagers for sexual satisfaction and use and therefore they get to make them share some of their videos showing private body parts and this makes the app undesirable for some people.

Addiction is a very complex issue in the current society and it is a very risky situation. This is because once a person is addicted they tend to make very bad decisions which are disguised as good and therefore they may never recover what they lose due to their addiction to Tiktok. These teenagers expose themselves and through the addiction, it becomes a very negative situation for some of them. However, on the other side, there is still a possibility for some of these teenagers to experience a very good time using Tiktok and therefore the comparison becomes balanced even though they cannot be an explicit balance. (Hayer)

The line of the importance of Tiktok among teenagers remains blurred because it is not always possible for a person to take away the two. There are positive impacts of using Tiktok while on the other hand there are positive impacts and they are all intertwined together into one. This means a person can use Tiktok, get the negative impacts and get the positive impacts at the same time. Therefore the ability of Tiktok to addict these teenagers is a worrying trend while at the same time it can be used positively to make their lives better.

In conclusion therefore Tiktok is a very popular app and it makes a lot of impact among teenagers because its effects are many and varied. It is a social media platform that has both positive and negative effects and therefore viewed from both sides it can become a nuisance and at the same time an important part of our society.

Works cited

“10 TikTok Statistics You Need to Know in 2021 [March 2021].” Www.oberlo.com, 16 Feb. 2021, www.oberlo.com/blog/tiktok-statistics#:~:text=%20Here%E2%80%99s%20a%20summary%20of%20the%20TikTok%20statistics. Accessed 1 Apr. 2021

Benger, Liv. “5 Reasons Why TikTok Is so Addicting.” Medium, 24 Apr. 2020, medium.com/@livbenger/5-reasons-why-tiktok-is-so-addicting-b920935468be.

Hayer, Raj. “Addicted to TikTok.” Medium, 25 Aug. 2020, medium.com/ideas-and-innovation/addicted-to-tiktok-bb890a67fc42.

How TikTok Has Fueled Mental Illness, Shorter Attention Span, And Even Substance Abuse In Kids. (2020, August 23). The Odyssey Online. https://www.theodysseyonline.com/tiktok-negative-effectsJennings, Kilaya. “TikTok: A New Addiction?” The Arrow, www.whsarrow.com/entertainment/2019/09/12/why-is-the-app-tiktok-so-addictive/. Accessed 1 Apr. 2021. (Jennings)

LEYA. “How TikTok Is Addictive.” Medium, 13 Sept. 2020, medium.com/dataseries/how-tiktok-is-addictive-1e53dec10867.Pammi, Varsha. “What Makes Tiktok so Addictive?” Medium, 6 Aug. 2020, uxplanet.org/what-makes-tiktok-so-addictive-e951f4ba8052.

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