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The perfect 10. This is every little girl’s goal when they first walk into a gymnastics gym. They go home and tell their parents that they want to be in the Olympics after their first day on the mat. In reality, very few will make it past a few years. The cost, time commitment, and mental health damage becomes too much to bear for most families. Those who can sacrifice all those things may risk it all for nothing, in 2024 only 192 gymnasts will compete in the Paris for a chance at gold.
Becoming a professional athlete and competing at the highest level is the dream of many in every sport. However, there is a dark side to gymnastics that can be examined in multiple areas that question the risk vs. reward of becoming an Olympic gymnast. Women’s gymnastics is a breeding ground for mental health issues, financial problems, & sexual abuse. “U.S. Gymnast Simone Biles Pulls Out of Competition in Olympic Summer Games Citing Mental Health Concerns”(CNN, 2021) made national headlines in July of 2021 during the Tokyo Summer Olympics. One of the world’s biggest athletes pulling out of the world’s biggest competition left people in shock and questioning the importance of mental health in sport. Mental health is something that has been at the forefront of the media in the past 10 years because of factors like social media and the pandemic. However, the pressure of becoming a professional athlete is something that has been brought into the limelight more recently as having major effects on the well-being of the young people competeing. “Based on their responses, it was apparent that the current sample of gymnasts did not view being anxious as conducive to optimal performance or related to a quality gymnastics experience” (Duda et al., 1996). There are many factors for why we are seeing something that used to be done for fun ruining many children’s lives and even in some cases ending them. 5 NCAA athletes have died in 2022 by suicide, leaving many people questioning how this came to be. Katie Intile, a cross-country runner for Oregon State was interviewed by the Washington Post. “Intile said she had been body-shamed, pushed through injuries and made to feel worthless when her times did not measure up” after hearing about the suicides of the athletes in 2022. One of the issues we see that arises between high-level athletes comes from the isolation of individual sports. Competing in an individual sport can be very detrimental to the athlete due to the pressure they feel to succeed falling solely on them. “Participation in individual sport compared to non-sport participation was associated with 16% higher anxious/depressed scores, 14% higher withdrawn/depressed scores, 12% higher social problems scores, and 14% higher attention problems scores” (Hoffman et al., 2022). While gymnastics gyms compete as a team, the individual is scored on their own performance causing high-levels of stress. “I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times” said Simone Biles about her time competing on Team USA in the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics. One of the main issues contributing to mental health that is especially prevalent in gymnastics is disordered eating. The case study in Children, Vol 9 found that “Sport and coaches weight pressures are associated with ED in competitive gymnasts, while body appearance and performance demands correlate with ED in female gymnasts irrespective of competitive level” (Kontele et al., 2022, p.294). The mental strain put on competitive athletes is a discussion that needs to be had. It is clear that stressors are coming from a variety of channels. These gymnasts are having to face the pressure from themselves, family, and coaches daily and it is leading to an environment that fosters mental health issues. The next contributor to the issues in the gymnastics industry is money. “Money is the root of all evil” as they say and for gymnastics it is no different. Financial problems in gymnastics span from the parents of the competitor all the way to the top of the food chain. Families all over the United States go into debt every year in order to pay for their children to participate in competitive sports. The hope of all these parents is that the money spent now will pay off when their child is paid to compete in their respective sport professionally. “Sixty-two percent of those in the CompareCards.com survey revealed they have been in debt for their kids’ activities, and one in three are still paying off a related debt” (Pesce, 2019). Financial struggles go hand-in-hand with the previous analysis on mental health, athletes feel tremendous pressure when their parents are spending so much money on them. “Youth ages 6-18 from low-income homes quit sports because of the financial costs at six times the rate of kids from high-income homes, according to a national survey of parents by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative and Utah State University’s Families in Sport Lab” (Solomon, 2020). Corruption is the dark truth in many sports organizations, bribery is a very common tool used to get ahead in the athletic world. This can include instances of fraud linked to betting on competitions as well as match games. Unfortunately, lower-income athletes with the goal of going pro are oftentimes the target of this corruption. In families earning less than 50,000 a year, 4.6% of kids quit sports because of feelings of stress and pressure and 6.1% of kids quit because of increasing expenses according to a survey by Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative and Utah State University’s Families in Sport Lab. This leaves young people with the drive to compete in their sport looking for ways to continue, even if it means doing it immorally. “Therefore, the group of athletes most vulnerable to potential corruption can be reasonably expected to be athletes who are facing financial difficulties” (Frenger et al., 2019). The USA gymnastics had a total revenue of $23,572,427 in 2020 according to the IRS on ProPublica. This is a ginormous industry with the opportunity to make lots of money for gyms who produce the best talent. There are many hidden costs within artistic sports like gymnastics, dance, and cheer. To move up as you get older, it is imperative to join traveling competition teams. Some costs that are to be expected in this sport are flights, hotels, coaching, proper attire, and classes. On average, a competitive traveling gymnast will cost around $2,300 per year according to Rookie Road. In conclusion, the cost of a 15-year gymnastics career is estimated at $95,865.00 according to SportsEd TV. “Dr. Larry Nassar, who was a doctor for USA Gymnastics for almost 20 years, was arrested last week on federal child pornography charges” (Connor, 2016). This is a headline from 2016 that changed sports, gymnastics, and the lives of many women forever. Larry Nassar was a huge name in the gymnastics world, he was a Michigan doctor who worked with the stars of gymnastics. The best and brightest of the USA team and countless other young women with the love for sport put their trust into a monster. “He had previously been charged with sexually abusing a young girl at his home and is named in more than 60 police complaints and three lawsuits,” said NBC News journalist Tracy Connor. So how was it that justice was only being brought at the time of this headline? This is because of the corruption that has been analyzed previously in this paper. The world of gymnastics is all about money, so cover-ups are a part of the package. Many women were met with responses like this one when they had the courage to speak up, “He’s a world-renowned doctor. He treats elite athletes, athletes just like yourself.” This is what Tiffany Lopez who was a patient of Nassar’s at Michigan State said she was told when she met with a supervisor of Nassar's in 2000, Michigan State claims it was not given any complaints about Nassar until 2014. Money, power, and credibility are all things that lead crimes like sexual abuse to occur for so long. Back to 2016, “More than 37,000 images and videos of child pornography, some featuring girls as young as six, were seized from his home” according to NBC News. Accusations of sexual abuse continued to roll in after the arrest spanning all different types of sports and by the trial there were 119 women bravely coming after him according to State News. After Nassar was sentenced to a maximum of 175 years in prison, the number of survivors speaking out continued to grow. Not long after this both the MSU President and Athletic Director stepped down, this is not a coincidence. In 2018, over 100 new survivors had come forward and major players in the gymnastics industry continued to be taken down for their role in Nassar’s abuse continuing for so long. Survivors spoke to Nassar about the fallout of his abuse in a very emotional and powerful sentencing in the spring of 2018. Of these survivors were some of the most talented Team USA gymnasts who have taken America to the Olympic podium time and time again. McKayla Maroney, Simone Biles, Maggie Nichols, and Aly Raisman were all survivors of Nassar’s abuse and are inspirations to women everywhere. In 2021, these women testified to the U.S. Senate about the failure of the institutions put in place to protect them like the NCAA, FBI, USA Gymnastics, and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committees. This was one of the biggest scandals to come to light during this decade and has been a big driving factor into changes that should be made in order to protect competitive athletes, especially when they are expected to represent America. “Sexual abuse offenses, such as those involving youth athletes, are inherently challenging, as children or their parents may be reluctant to report them, especially when their abuser is in a position of trust, as is often the case with sports coaches” (2016, p.16). This is one of the reasons why Nassar was able to continue his abuse for so long, the fear of coming out against someone in a place of power like a team doctor was deterring many victims of his abuse. Speaking out against a person of power in sports causes fear of worsening the factors that were previously discussed throughout this paper like mental health and finances. Athletes who start their competitive careers at a young age are some of the most at risk because of many factors. “The results reveal biological (i.e., aged under 18, sex, and sexual orientation), psychological (i.e., high degree of naivety, altruism and agreeableness, low self-esteem, perfectionism, emotional or disorders) and social factors (i.e., poor or negative relationship with parents, social pressure to perform, incest at home, social isolation, elite sports and too much power of a single trainer/coach) that can contribute to the risk of experiencing sexual harassment and abuse in sports” (Voorthuizen et al., 2022, p.309). Sports can be an amazing outlet for stress, are proven to have positive effects on child development, and provide opportunities for careers. This paper is not to say to not have children participate in competitive sports. Giving your child the opportunity to compete in a sport can have many positive impacts, for example a case study on child development had great results. “We find positive and robust effects on children's school performance and peer relations” (Felfe et al., 2016). The purpose of this paper was to inform the audience on the risks associated with sports and especially in gymnastics. Gymnastics is an otherwise harmless extracurricular but when it becomes competitive, the side effects discussed can become problematic. Knowing the signs and doing research on how to better support your child when participating in a higher level of competition is essential. Bibliography: Author Unknown. (2016). Sexual Abuse of Youth Athletes: Federal Response and Prevention Efforts. Nova Science Publishers, Inc. Joan L. Duda, Ph.D. Lori Gano-Overway, M.S. (1996). Anxiety in Elite Young Gymnasts: Part I - Definitions of Stress and Relaxation. Purdue University. https://usagym.org/pages/home/publications/technique/1996/3/anxiety.pdf Connor, Tracy. “FBI Says Gymnastics Doctor Larry Nassar Recorded Abuse on Go Pro.” NBC News, 22 Dec. 2016, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/gymnastics-doctor-larry-nassar-hit-new-sex-abuse-claim-n698 741. Felfe, Christina. “Sports and Child Development.” PLOS ONE, 4 May 2016, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0151729. Frenger, Monika, et al. “Corruption in Olympic Sports: Prevalence Estimations of Match Fixing Among German Squad Athletes.” SAGE Open, vol. 9, no. 3, SAGE Publications, July 2019, p. 215824401986536. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019865361. Hensley-Clancy, Molly. “Reeling From Suicides, College Athletes Press NCAA: ‘This Is a Crisis.’” Washington Post, 21 May 2022, www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/05/19/college-athletes-suicide-mental-health. Hoffmann, Matt. “Associations Between Organized Sport Participation and Mental Health Difficulties: Data From Over 11,000 US Children and Adolescents.” PLOS ONE, 1 June 2022, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268583. Holohan, Meghan. “Olympians Face ‘overwhelming’ Mental Pressure — Especially This Year.” TODAY.com, 28 July 2021, www.today.com/news/olympians-face-overwhelming-mental-pressure-especially-year-t226644. Joan L. Duda, Ph.D. Lori Gano-Overway, M.S. (1996). Anxiety in Elite Young Gymnasts: Part I - Definitions of Stress and Relaxation. Purdue University. https://usagym.org/pages/home/publications/technique/1996/3/anxiety.pdf Kontele, Ioanna. “Weight Pressures and Eating Disorder Symptoms Among Adolescent Female Gymnasts of Different Performance Levels in Greece.” MDPI, www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/9/2/254. Pesce, Nicole Lyn. “Parents Are Going Into Debt Over Their Kids’ Extracurricular Activities.” MarketWatch, 5 June 2019, www.marketwatch.com/story/parents-are-going-into-debt-over-their-kids-extracurricular-activiti es-2019-04-26. Quinn, Melissa. “U.S. Gymnasts Testify About Abuse by Larry Nassar: ‘We Have Been Failed.’” CBS News, 22 Sept. 2021, www.cbsnews.com/news/larry-nassar-usa-gymnastics-simone-biles-aly-raisman. Solomon, Jon. “Survey: Low-income Kids Are 6 Times More Likely to Quit Sports Due to Costs.” The Aspen Institute Project Play, 30 June 2022, www.aspenprojectplay.org/news/low-income-kids-are-6-times-more-likely-to-quit-sports-due-to- costs. SportsEdTV. “What Do You Think It Costs to Be an Olympic Gymnast?” SportsEdTV, sportsedtv.com/blog/what-do-you-think-it-costs-to-be-an-olympic-gymnast. Suozzo, Andrea Ken Schwencke. “Usa Gymnastics - Nonprofit Explorer.” ProPublica, 9 May 2013, projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/751847871. “A Timeline of Nassar'S Abuse, Charges and Michigan State'S Response.” TheStateNews, 26 Jan. 2021, statenews.com/article/2021/01/a-timeline-of-nassars-abuse-charges-and-michigan-states-respons e. U.S. Gymnast Simone Biles Pulls Out of Competition in Olympic Summer Games Citing Mental Health Concerns; CDC Issues New Guidelines that Those Vaccinated for COVID-19 Should Still Wear Masks Indoors Sometimes Due to Fears of Delta Variant Spread. Aired 8-8:30a ET. (2021). New Day. Voorthuizen, Van Mercede. “A Qualitative Exploration of a Biopsychosocial Profile for Experiencing Sexual Harassment and Abuse in Sports.” MDPI, www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/7/309.
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The Tumblr Girl: Intersectionality of the 2010’s and a cultural phenomena’s effects of mental health7/9/2023 Tumblr was a social media platform heavily used by tweens and teens in the early 2010’s. There are subcultures of this platform that glamorized mental illness, disordered eating, & self- harm. There were many things that were above board on Tumblr at the time, but for many of its young users there was a dark underbelly that was easily accessed. “It wasn’t all Zooey Deschanel & mustaches... It was racism, fatphobia, SH (self-harm) posts & ED forums” said Refinery 29 writer, Maggie Zhou. Tumblr subcultures fostered the perfect environment for deteriorating the mental health of its young demographic through the intersectionality of race, gender, and disability. Is history bound to repeat itself?
Tumblr is known for its lack of connection to the person behind the screen. This combined with a lack of moderation and poor policies led to Tumblr being a platform full of racism. Intersectionality first appears on Tumblr through instances of racism that are common in the dark corners of any social media platform. “Black Tumblr is not immune from hegemonic cultural biases and network-internal forms of exclusion and discrimination, such as colorism, misogyny among Black men, and homo- and transphobia” (McCracken 51). However, with the rise in social activism & black support we expect there to be a bright future for diversity on the platform. Tumblr gained a reputation for being progressive in many categories, one of these being that it is a safe space for marginalized people. “Despite the dominant socio-politically progressive culture of Tumblr, many negative stereotypes and inaccurate or incomplete information about Black people still circulate on the platform” (McCracken 51). Thankfully, as a response to the negative posts on social media many people came together to create “online activism” to highlight the black community and share ways for people to show their support. “Black Tumblr’s fourth major strategy of everyday online activism is promoting positive representations of Black people of diverse backgrounds, including celebrities, academics, public figures, and everyday people doing great things” (McCracken 58). Through the lens of intersectionality, we see the struggles of other marginalized groups who are also black struggling the most for equality. Visibility for these groups of people is needed and the internet is a big tool for that. “Through its dialogic practices, people who are marginalized within Black communities (e.g., women, LGBTQ+ people) also have an opportunity to make their experiences of Blackness visible to a broader audience” (McCracken 61). The LGBTQ+ community was able to thrive in some aspects of the platform, anonymity let people be their true selves without the fear of being outed. However, much like with racism the lack of accountability on Tumblr made it difficult for people belonging to the LGBTQ+ community to exist in peace. “The user experience on the site underscores the profound vulnerability of queer individuals and communities in digital, corporatized space” (Cavalcante). We see large amounts of homophobia due to the anonymous aspect of platforms like Tumblr. “Tumblr was the first place where I felt as though people in fandom were trying to strip me of my humanity specifically because I pointed out the problematic aspects such as racism, misogyny, and homophobia in the things they liked” (McCracken 170). Another aspect of Tumblr that affected the LGBTQ+ community was the restrictions put in place in the mid-2010’s around adult content shared on the platform. TumPorn (short for Tumblr porn), was one of the few areas that LGBTQ+ people could easily and anonymously explore adult content that was featuring people like them & the fantasies that they had. “TumPorn is dead...And over the past few years Tumblr had become one of my main go-tos for porn” (McCracken 158). This restriction on content was the beginning for the end of Tumblr because it no-longer was a wild west for people’s every desire. “2018 Tumblr banned adult content on their platform...In doing so, they destroyed a massive social media community and outlet where people, especially underrepresented communities, could freely express their sexuality” (Chase). The thing that killed Tumblr might also be the key to saving it, the platform announced on November 1st of 2022 that it would be allowing nudity back on the platform. Many LGBTQ+ users applaud Tumblr for allowing the opportunity to create a safe space for the younger generations of their community. “Trans Youth Resources (TYR1) was created in 2012 by mod (moderator) P. and his friend because there wasn’t a guide for trans teens anywhere; most community resources were by and for adults, and the rest of the resources were for parents of young children” (McCracken 274). We see this ever-moving scale between the positives and negatives of social media. One side promotes hate speech through anonymity and the other brings marginalized groups together and provides safe spaces. “I argue that for LGBTQ users, Tumblr simultaneously generates the specter of a “queer utopia”—a space where queer potential flourishes and more expansive ways to think about the future materialize—and queer “vortextuality”—an experience of being sucked into an online black hole with severe limitations” (Cavalcante). Glamorization of disability is remembered by many as the most damaging part of Tumblr. For some ex-users, the trauma inflicted on them from Tumblr content in the 2010’s has its effects still to this day. This subculture made things like self-harm, eating disorders, and depression “trendy”. Eating disorders have been something that people have struggled with for centuries, unfortunately what is different now is the accessibility to dangerous resources. In a study ran by the International Journal of Eating Disorders in 2019 it was found that “DE behaviors were reported by 51.7% of girls and 45.0% of boys, with strict exercise and meal skipping the most common” (Wilksch, 2019). One of the most memorable things to come out of Tumblr was the body issues it promoted. Some of the most reposted content was stick thin models and “thigh gaps” flooding feeds for girls to compare themselves to. “#Thinspiration, or #thinspo for short, established itself as one of the most infamous avenues through which to access pro-ana and pro-mia content on Tumblr, publicizing unhealthy weight loss regiments and images of thin women” (Baron). Unsurprisingly of course, these types of “trends” are not here by accident and are ideas that the patriarchy put in place to continuously oppress women. “When women are “visible” in media content, the manner of their representation reflects the biases and assumptions of those who define the public—and therefore the media—agenda” (Carter). The patriarchy subliminally putting things into the media to keep women oppressed has been an overarching idea that we have talked about throughout the semester. Constantly changing the beauty standards and shoving unattainable bodies down the throats of the female population is designed to keep women weak. “Disordered eating appears to be a symptom of these ubiquitous yet sometimes invisible patriarchal cultural values about women’s bodies. Girls and women receive 90–95% of eating disorder diagnoses [1] and risk of developing an eating disorder increases with time spent in Westernized cultures [2], which perpetuate a thin ideal female body that became popularized were diets that people believed models like Kate Moss followed; only consuming cigarettes, coffee, and drugs. I know for me, Kate Moss’s famous quote “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” has been seared into my brain since I saw it on Tumblr in middle school. Not to mention, G-Eazy’s hit song from 2014 that solidified the male gaze and what it would take for boys to like you. “Cause I'm in love with these Tumblr girls with skinny waists type, an ideal which is largely unattainable” (McBride et al.). One of these weight loss trends and drug habits, pretty faces love status.” One of Tumblr’s common themes was romanticizing the lives of notably unhealthy celebrities. Lana Del Rey was basically the second coming of Christ to Tumblr users. Romanticizing her drug use, depression, and unhealthy relationships was a hugely participated in sub-culture. “There it was: the seemingly inevitable fall to pro-eating disorder content, thinly veiled under the guise of ♡pale soft grunge♡ aesthetic blogs” said Refinery 29 writer Maggie Zhou. This leads us to the beatification of mental illness on the platform and how this had both positive and negative effects. On the one hand, something can be said for de-stigmatizing mental health and the importance of talking about it. Unfortunately, Tumblr often saw it be taken too far and promoted pictures of self-harm, suicidal ideation, and competitive misery. “Between 2011 and 2015, blogs dedicated to eating disorders, self-harm, and other mental illnesses maintained a significant presence throughout the platform...” (Baron). These different areas combine to make Tumblr a diverse platform but also one with a troubled past of profiting off pain. As we can see, after the mid-2010’s we seem to find an upward cycle in visibility, accountability, and activism on Tumblr. This change in the way we use social media however has begun on many platforms, largely in-part to Gen-Z being one of the internets main demographics. Gen-Z has dismantled much of what millennials built up in the early 2000’s. The LGBTQ+ community has grown largely with Gen-Z being a very welcoming and diverse group of people. We have seen many people on apps like TikTok open up about the struggles they have had with eating disorders or depression. Gen-Z has paved a way for intersectionality to thrive throughout the internet. Conversations that were never had 10 years ago are now getting millions of likes and shares. So, as we saw throughout this paper there are many instances of negative intersectionality. There has also been an increase in negative media that is very reminiscent of what we saw on Tumblr. Young people are once again discovering iconic yet sickly models like Kate Moss and videos showing Lana Del Rey’s weight change through her career. However, through my research for this assignment I have discovered there were some shining lights for intersectionality and a hopefully bright future. Things like online activism, the reinstatement of nudity on the platform, and safe spaces like TYR1 are shaping the way people treat one another online. This leads me to the second claim I had at the start of this paper. Is a Tumblr comeback in the future? And if so, are we destined to revert to racism, homophobia, and dangerous romanticization if the platform has a resurgence? As I have been writing this paper, many changes have happened in the world of social media. The biggest platform in the world, Twitter, is dying a quick yet painful death. This is due to the hypocrisy of its new owner and CEO, Elon Musk. This has led not only Twitter’s employees but its users to leave in troves. This has everyone wondering; where will all these chronically online people go to numb their minds? I think that Tumblr may be the answer to that question. With the rise of many popular aesthetics recirculating on TikTok like “indie sleaze” and the unbanning of nudity on the platform I have no doubt that Tumblr is making its comeback. I think the trajectory of Tumblr will be more positive in the future than we saw in the past. The new demographic using Tumblr will most likely be some millennials, but a proportionate amount will be Gen-Z. It is important to remember that Gen-Z is anyone born from 1997-2012, this means that a large amount of people who will most likely join then platform will not have used it in the 2010’s. I think there will be a small group of users who had used Tumblr previously and are rejoining the platform again. I would argue that this demographic has learned from the toxic environment and horrible effect that 2010’s Tumblr had on them and will be activists promoting positive content this time around. I hope that the people who were impacted negatively from 2010’s Tumblr will fight against the same happening to a new generation of users. “I just hope this time around, young teenagers aren’t exposed to the over-glamorization of skinny party girls who don’t eat and instead smoke cigarettes and drink black coffee” (Zhou). Bibliography Baron, Eva. “Is Everything Okay?: Revisiting Mental Illness on Tumblr and TikTok.” The Swarthmore Review, 17 Jan. 2022, www.swarthmorereview.com/posts/9-16-2021-is-everything-okay. Cavalcante, Andre. “Tumbling Into Queer Utopias and Vortexes: Experiences of LGBTQ Social Media Users on Tumblr.” Journal of Homosexuality, vol. 66, no. 12, Informa UK Limited, Sept. 2018, pp. 1715–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2018.1511131. Chase, Elle, and Elle Chase. “If You Loved Tumblr, Here Are 13 Other Places You Can Go to Explore Your Sexuality.” Cosmopolitan, 1 Nov. 2021, www.cosmopolitan.com/sex- love/a25937501/tumblr-porn-ban. Gallagher, Margaret. «Media and the Representation of Gender». The Routledge Companion to Media & Gender. eds by Cynthia Carter, Louisa Steiner, Lisa McLaughlin. Routledge, 2013. 25– 31. https://my.aur.edu/ICS/icsfs/1b_Media_and_the_representation_of_gender.pdf?target=ece22 93c-8ef7-42f1-8bda-96e6a84e21ff McBride, Hillary Lianna, and Janelle Lynne Kwee. “Inside and Out: How Western Patriarchal Cultural Contexts Shape Women’s Relationships With Their Bodies.” SpringerLink, 2021, https://rdcu.be/c09Ox McCracken, Allison, et al. A Tumblr Book: Platform and Cultures. Amsterdam, Netherlands, Amsterdam UP, 2020. https://books.google.it/books?id=n7UCEAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=it&source=gbs_g e_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false Wilksch, Simon M., et al. “The Relationship Between Social Media Use and Disordered Eating in Young Adolescents.” International Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 53, no. 1, Wiley, Dec. 2019, pp. 96–106. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23198. Zhou, Maggie. “We Logged off Tumblr Years Ago, but the Trauma Lingers On.” Refinery29, 16 Feb. 2022, www.refinery29.com/en-gb/tumblr-trauma. Have you ever heard of guerilla marketing? If not, odds are that you have experienced it in real life. The purpose of guerilla marketing is to have consumers “seeing things that they aren’t used to seeing, creating something that lives in the context of what they do but is out of context with what they are used to” (Christians et al. 181). It is easier to understand what this definition means once you break it down from real-life examples. “Guerrilla marketing involves unusual approaches such as intercept encountes in public places, street giveaways of products, PR stunts, or any unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources' (Bhayani et al. 438). Guerilla marketing is often seen in public spaces, often with heavy foot traffic & tourist destinations. Imagine you are walking through Times Square and see a giant popsicle melting on the street. This is so startling because you would never expect a popsicle to be so big and in the road even though you have seen plenty of popsicles before. This very odd encounter leads you to be curious to the purpose behind its presence. Upon further inspection, you see there is a logo for Bounty paper towels nearby with their catch-phrase “makes small work of BIG spills.” You may just think that this is a clever marketing strategy and go-about your day. However, the next time you are in the grocery store and see Bounty brand paper towels you will think of this marketing strategy & decide to try them out. Would you be more likely to pick the Bounty paper towels over another brand?
This is guerilla marketing and from the example above you may be thinking that there aren’t any ethical dilemmas with clever marketing strategies. That is where you would be mistaken, many companies and brands take the idea of guerilla marketing too far and end up causing harm to the consumer it was trying to connect with in the first place. Guerilla marketing is very relevant in today’s society because of how over-the-top marketing needs to be in order to catch the attention of a consumer. Guerilla marketing is very important today because of social media as well. If a campaign is out-of-the-ordinary enough, it will begin to be shared on social media. For most brands, becoming a trending topic on social media due to an unorthodox marketing scheme is a very big sign of a successful campaign. Guerilla marketing can be very impactful for increasing brand recognition and brightening the days of the by-standers who witness these campaigns. However, there have been countless examples of guerilla marketing being detrimental to the consumer’s trust in corporations as well as blurring the lines of ethicality. We will be unraveling the difficult question of if guerilla marketing is ethical. “Guerilla marketing tactics are an intriguing ethical area. At one end, we see private enterprise at its most inventive, working sometimes ingeniously to reach potential customers and sell them something. At the other end, we have practices that some have labeled deceptive, intrusive, and offensive” (Christians et al. 163). This paper will deep-dive into the case study, implement the potter box, and use the ethical standpoints from class to analyze guerilla marketing more closely. The case study that will be analyzed is titled “Case 23. All is Not What it Seems: Pondering Guerilla Marketing” taken from Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning. This case study unpacks 3 different instances where corporations used guerilla marketing to advertise their product and failed. There are many different reasons why these companies failed, some being due to ethical dilemmas or just lack of common sense. In order to better understand how guerilla marketing is controversial through an ethical lens it is important to give background on some notable shortcomings throughout marketing in the 21st century. The first campaign in the case study is Sony Ericsson’s “fake tourist” ploy in 2002. This example of guerilla marketing used actors pretending to be tourists and asking for photos in Time Square in New York City. This was in an attempt for the unsuspecting participant to become curious about the new cellphone they were being asked to take the photo with. While some might think this was rather clever, many of the people who were involuntarily brought into the marketing scheme by displaying an act of kindness were not happy with the deceit. “It’s absolutely unethical to deceive people like this, It’s taking advantage of the kindness of strangers and that’s pretty low,” said Gary Ruskin from Commercial Alert. One of the main aspects of guerilla marketing is non-disclosure, many times it is used in order to create curiosity and buzz but in this circumstance it was disrespectful to the people who were going out of their way to do a favor for a stranger. Rob Walker from the New York Times Magazine said “and thus, an act of civility was converted into a branding event.” The second guerilla marketing fail discussed in the case study was The Cartoon Network 2007 Bomb Scare. In an ill-thought out marketing campaign for The Cartoon Network’s new show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, there were dozens of electronic devices planted across Boston. These battery operated devices were complete with wires and robots showing the “middle finger” and were found under bridges, on buildings, and telephone poles. By no surprise in a post-9/11 America, the Bostoners mistook these for terrorist devices and the entire city shut down in a panic. Turner Broadcasting System’s (Cartoon Network’s parent company) paid Boston $2 million to compensate for the traumatizing campaign that still to this day has left a mark on many frightened Bostoners. The last example of guerilla marketing failing to achieve its intended goal was the Ex Machina Tinder campaign. This campaign was put together in order to promote the new movie Ex Machina that was premiering at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas in 2015. This movie is about life-like robots creating relationships with the people who created them and brings into question their ability to gain consciousness. The marketing team created an automated Tinder profile for the robot in the movie, Ava. This profile worked using AI to achieve matches with potential “suitors” and begin chatting with these unsuspecting users. Once Ava began a conversation with a user and had asked them some basic questions the user would be sent a link to an Instagram page promoting the movie. While this marketing stunt was met with tons of praise on Twitter, some people felt blindsided. One of the people involved in this case study, Connor, fell victim to the scheme and ended up chatting with Ava on Tinder. Although he had to tip his hat to the clever marketing, there is still a feeling of being deceived that does not seem ethical. “The effort seemed to have been a success; Connor had to admit that the whole thing was harmless and “impressively deceptive.” Still, he considered himself to have been duped” (Christians et al. 163). In order to decipher whether guerilla marketing is ethical or not we need to break it down. There are many aspects that play into guerilla marketing so being able to understand the different components is important. We are able to define, label, and analyze the different aspects of ethical dilemmas by using the potter box method. “The Potter box advocates the division of ethical reflection into four main steps: the first two are descriptive and seek to generate the relevant information for subsequent discussion and decision-making, and the latter two are normative or prescriptive. This model works as a system by which each of the four dimensions or steps is mutually interlinked” (Franquet-Santos-Silva and Ventura-Morujão 329). The first section of our potter box is “definition,” this is where we need to define all facts/issues arising in the situation. One of the issues we see is that guerilla marketing strategies are encouraged to be used by private businesses and are for many marketers the only way to keep their jobs/gain promotions. We also need to take into account that there are many harmless campaigns that use guerilla marketing and are actually enjoyed by the public, much like the Bounty campaign. On the other side of this, we know that depiction goes against appropriate advertising and marketing. As we saw in the examples from the case study, many people are not happy when they realize they have unknowingly been involved in a marketing scheme. Even when these ploys are seemingly harmless, people dislike the idea of big corporations using them like in the Sony Ericsson’s “fake tourist” campaign. The second section of the potter box asks us to determine the values and beliefs that contribute to the situation and decisions made. These values can range from aesthetics, professional, logical, moral, sociocultural, etc. In the situation of guerilla marketing there are the values of the marketers and of the public. The marketers put value in profit, aesthetics, and being professional. The public believes in logic, morals, and the truth when it comes to marketing. The third sector of the potter box is the principles we see arising in the ethical dillemma. We will dive deeper into these ethical standpoints later in the paper but for now we will give a basic overview to complete the potter box. The ethical philosophies that we can apply to guerilla marketing from this semester are utilitarianist, John Rawl’s perspective, deontological, & consequentialist. The final section of the potter box is “loyalties”. We will analyze who the decision maker has loyalties or allegiances to. The decision maker in this dilemma is the marketers and therefore the corporations who employ them. The corporations have loyalties to profit, stakeholders, reputation, and consumers. Now that the potter box has been completed there is an understanding of the complexities of guerilla marketing. It is important to use potter boxes when doing ethical decision making because it unpacks the reasons of why something may or may not be ethical to different parties. With this in mind, we will be able to better analyze the ethical standpoints that were taught this semester & hopefully decide if guerilla marketing is ethical. Ethics are at the root of every decision we make. Many of us do not know the origins of the ethics we abide by in our everyday life but these frameworks all have names and people who created them. Throughout this semester we have been learning about the philosophers who believed in these standpoints and why they believed it was the correct way to live. We then were tasked with puting our knowledge to the test by looking at countless case studies in order to better understand the media. This case study is no different, there are many ethical viewpoints in which guerilla marketing can be argued. Utilitarianist, John Rawl’s perspective, deontological & consequentialist viewpoints are the most fit for the analysis of guerilla marketing. The first standpoint is utilitarianism, this means “Act in such a way as to generate the maximum quantum of well-being, happiness, or utility”, or in Bentham’s words, “the greatest good for the greatest number” (Bentham). This leads us to look at guerilla marketing through this lens; is the “greatest good” achieved when people have virtually no choice but to participate in a promotion that is possibly created by big capitalist corporations? It depends. There are plenty of instances of guerilla marketing that bring joy to people and do not inflict any pain. However, we have seen from the case study that some campaigns can lead to pain like in the example of the Cartoon Network bombscare & it could be argued that deception of any kind is inflicting pain. The second ethical persepctive comes from John Rawls. This is the idea of ethicality through the veil of ignorance. The veil of ignorance is when someone is able to step back and look at a situation without any bias from their life circumstances. “Principles, interests, moral and religious beliefs, social positions inevitably tear the veil apart” (Coretti). When we look through the veil of ignorance we put ourselves into the shoes of the public. We would not want to be deceived or used as pawns in marketing schemes to make money for large corporations who do not care about the individual person. The next standpoint is deontological, this is when someone uses generally accepted rules to guide actions. When using guerilla marketing, the marketer should adhere to the 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) code of conduct. Some of the rules that are broken when using guerilla marketing are seen in some of the campaigns discussed in the case study. For example, “...supporting and obeying the predominant laws and legal regulations pertaining to advertising” and “Marketing messages that are intentionally discriminatory, offensive, false or stereotypical” (4A’s). The final framework is consequentialist. “...the ethicality of an action is judged by its ends rather than its means. Within this framework, it isn’t the manner in which the action is presented but the effect that determines the ethicality” (Christians 164). In this framework, many of the guerilla marketing schemes we discussed from the case study are seen as ethical. For example, although some people were angry about the “fake tourists,” sales of the telephone/camera were 54% higher in the cities that ran the promotion. Additionally, people on the internet and even those who matched with Ava dubbed the Ex Machina campaign to be a success and the movie ended up making 36.9 million in box office. So, is guerilla marketing ethical? Like so many of the case studies we were presented with throughout this course, the answer is that it depends. If everything in life had a clear right and wrong answer then there would be no ethics to discuss. Ethics takes into account different circumstances and beliefs in order to make us as a society be more thoughtful. Throughout this course there has never been one 100% clear answer to an ethical dilemma, which is why it is a dilemma in the first place. Guerilla marketing, like most advertising, has the right intentions when putting together these campaigns. I think moving forward that marketers should implement things like the potterbox to understand all possible outcomes and reactions to campaigns. I also think that using resources like focus groups before going public with a campaign can help to determine all negative reactions to guerilla marketing and pivot accordingly. Using generally accepted rules as guidelines like the 4A’s before implementing guerilla marketing would also be a good way to avoid backlash. Guerilla marketing is the future of advertising. With social media and the trend cycle it is very hard to have an advertising stand out for any amount of time. Using shocking guerilla marketing is one of the surefire ways to have your product/brand gain recognition. Bibliography “The 4A’s Member Code of Conduct.” aaaa.org, Mar. 2018, www.aaaa.org/4as-member-code-conduct. Bentham, Jeremy. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation; Volume 1. Legare Street Press, 2022. Bhayani, Sanjay. “Ethical Issues of Guerilla Marketing.” Indian Journal of Applied Research, vol. 3, no. 8, Aug. 2013, pp. 438–40. www.researchgate.net/publication/327645394_Ethical_Issues_of_Guerilla_Marketing. Christians et al. (2017) ‘The Commercialization of Everyday Life’, in (Eds.) Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning - 10th Edition. Franquet-Santos-Silva, Miguel, and Carlos-Aurelio Ventura-Morujão. “The Potter Box Model of Moral Reasoning.” El Profesional De La Información, vol. 26, no. 2, Ediciones Profesionales de la Informacion SL, Mar. 2017, p. 328. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2017.mar.20. Digital technology has transformed the way we consume and distribute information. Through the commerce of information, we have seen big changes over the past decade. This paper will examine the major trends in the commerce of information, focusing on the distribution and sale of books, movies, music, and software.
One of the most significant changes in the distribution of information has been the shift from physical to digital formats. Digital technology has made it easier and more convenient to access information, and this has had a profound impact on the publishing industry. The rise of e- books and digital publishing platforms like Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks have become big competition for traditional publishing models, allowing authors sell directly to consumers. This allows for the authors to have much more autonomy over their work and how they choose to make money off it. This has led to boom in self-published books, which now account for a significant portion of the market. “As traditional mainstream publishers consolidated and were often loathe to take chances on unknown writers whose books might not turn immediate profits, some authors found that fewer and fewer publishing venues were open to them. As a result, new self-publishers—collectively called “author services” or print-on-demand (POD) publishers— appeared alongside subsidy (or vanity) publishers” (Dali, 2006). Digital Technology has also allowed for inclusivity for all people to be able to consume information. For example, we now can listen to books wherever we are with audiobooks. Digital technology has also made it easier for publishers to distribute books globally. This has expanded the reach of authors and making it possible for readers around the world to access books in their native language. This accessibility for authors and readers alike has created so much room for growth within the book industry. Similar to the publishing industry, the film industry has undergone a digital revolution in recent years. The rise of video streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu has disrupted the traditional model of movie distribution. This has become a big change in the film industry and is challenging the dominance of movie theaters and DVD sales (Romano, 2002). The convenience and affordability of streaming services have made them increasingly popular among consumers, and many people now prefer to watch movies at home rather than in a theater. The experience of going to the movies can’t be replicated but the cost efficiency of having thousands of options for five to fourteen dollars a month is often the preferred method of consumption. This has also allowed for far more media to be created and distributed, giving actors and writers so many opportunities for work across many platforms. However, this has led to a decline in box office revenues and the closure of many movie theaters. Box office releases are rarer nowadays and are often only offered for a short amount of time before being released to a streaming platform. This has also created an oversaturation in the industry, streaming platforms are pumping out more and more content each year. “In the streaming wars, audiences have access to more movies than they could possibly consume, even in a once-in-a-century pandemic that has left many homebound. Yet ironically, in this rush to give consumers more “choice,” the streamers have systematically devalued creatives, leading to a glut of mediocre movies that fade from memory the second the credits roll” (Hunt, 2021). The same changes have also been occurring in the television industry due to the digital world creating changes to the commerce of information. The collapse of network TV is coming quickly and will be a complete mystery to the new generations to come. Cable TV has become a nuisance to people now, we have been conditioned to want everything to be as instant as possible. Waiting for commercials and specific time slots for shows does not compete with the instantaneous benefits that come from streaming platforms. Another benefit we have seen from the innovation in the way we consume information in the digital age is the wireless capability. Unlike cable television we can watch anything on our streaming services anywhere with our cellular data and WIFI. Many streaming platforms also allow for downloads which give consumers the ability to access their content offline, this is very helpful when being somewhere without cellular data like on an airplane. We have started to see many variations of different shows across all the streaming platforms which has lead to oversaturation in these genres. For example, Love Island saw major success and many similar dating shows were produced in suit. We have seen it all now; Love is Blind, Too Hot to Handle, Sexy Beasts, the list goes on and on. I do believe there are some shows that are never going anywhere due to the comradery that comes with cable TV release days. The Bachelor is arguably the biggest dating show in the U.S. and is one of the last of its kind. Only releasing on Mondays, this makes the audiences excited with anticipation all week which leads to a massive number of views. One thing that the Bachelor does to keep audiences watching live is that they don’t release the episode on streaming platforms until the next day, leading to spoilers for those who didn’t watch live. The music industry has also been disrupted by the rise of digital technology. Digital music sales now account for most music sales, with streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music dominating the market. This has led to a decline in physical music sales, including CDs and vinyl records (Sheresheva et al., 2021). The ease of streaming and the availability of music on demand has made it easier than ever for consumers to access and discover new music. However, the shift to digital has also created new challenges for artists and the industry, including issues around copyright, licensing, and fair compensation for artists. The music industry has also seen competition due to the rise of new media formats and information distribution. Podcasts are one of the most popular ways that people consume information today. Podcast topics can range from news, pop culture, health and many more. “Although more than a third of music streaming users are listening to more audio overall because of podcasts, more than a quarter are listening to less music directly because of podcasts and a slightly higher share the same for radio (again, because of podcasts)” (Mulligan, 2021). While it is almost an impossibility for podcasts to take the place of music, there is definite overlap in competition because both require taking the most important resource from their audience, time. We have seen an increase in the amount of free-time people have due to the pandemic and work-from-home. This has led many audiences to multi-task in their everyday activities combining them with listening to music or a podcast. We have become accustomed to over saturation and therefore crave multi-tasking to stay focused, it seems counter-intuitive but can often be helpful. The software industry has also undergone significant changes in recent years, driven by the rise of cloud computing and the increasing use of mobile devices. Software as a Service (SaaS) has become increasingly popular, allowing users to access software applications on a subscription basis rather than purchasing software outright. This has made it easier and more affordable for businesses and individuals to access the software they need and has also created new revenue streams for software companies (Soegiharto, 2022). The prolific use of mobile devices has also created new opportunities for software developers, as mobile apps have become increasingly important for both businesses and consumers. The phrase “there’s an app for that” is typically used as a joke to describe how all-encompassing the internet is. But it is true, there are 8.93 million apps on the Apple App Store according to BankMyCell. The creation and distribution of information that we have access to because of our mobile devices is unfathomable. In conclusion, the commerce of information has undergone significant changes in recent years, driven by the rise of digital technology. The shift from physical to digital formats have disrupted traditional distribution models and created new opportunities and challenges for businesses and consumers alike. The rise of digital publishing, streaming services, and SaaS has made it easier and more convenient to access information. As technology continues to evolve, it is likely that we will continue to see significant changes in the commerce of information in the years to come. Works Cited Arthofer, F., Aryana, N., Green, A., Sheerin, A., & Zuckerman, N. "The new news on print media transformation." BCG Global, 2021, https://www.bcg.com/publications/2016/media- entertainment-transformation-new-news-on-print-mediad-transformation. Dilevko, J., & Dali, K. "The self-publishing phenomenon and libraries." Library & Information Science Research, vol. 28, no. 2, 2006, pp. 208–234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2006.03.003 Hunt, K. "Are you still watching? - JSTOR DAILY." JSTOR, 2021. Retrieved April 23, 2023, from https://daily.jstor.org/are-you-still-watching/ Parnas, D. L. "Information Distribution Aspects of Design." 1971. Romano, F. "Print Media Distribution in a Digital Age." 2002. Sheresheva, M., Skakovskaya, L., Bryzgalova, E., Antonov-Ovseenko, A., & Shitikova, H. "The Print Media Convergence: Overall Trends and the COVID-19 pandemic impact." Journal of Risk and Financial Management, vol. 14, no. 8, 2021, https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14080364. Soegiharto, R. "Convergence of Print Media in the Digital Age." 2022. Turner, A., Author: Ash Turner, Cell phone industry expert. "How many apps are on the app store." BankMyCell, April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2023, from https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/number-of-apps-on-apple-app-store/ If you haven’t heard of TikTok in 2023, I would most likely assume that you were an alien. Everyone I know, from my 14-year-old cousin to my 76-year-old grandpa, has TikTok. This social media has become more than its name and has turned into a world-altering media space that can influence billions. The best way I can explain TikTok is that it began with very short-form videos much like Vine, allowing its creators 15-second time slots. This quick instant boost of serotonin the users get from the mass production of videos has begun this trend and information lifecycle that is shorter and quicker than we have ever seen before.
“Within just a year, the app had around 100 million users, and with over a billion videos viewed per day, the venture was certainly a success. This got the company interested in exploring the international market, and TikTok was launched in September 2017” (Smith, 2021). This rapidly expanding company then turned to buy out its biggest competitor, Musical.ly, for $1 billion US dollars. With the rights to the platform layout, TikTok quickly also gained the biggest creators from Musical.ly. This layout incorporates two different sections, one where you can see videos of the people you follow, and another called the For You Page or FYP for short. The FYP uses an algorithm to study how you interact with content, and the more you use it, the smarter it gets. Your FYP is specifically catered to you, and if I went onto a boy my age's FYP, we would not have the same content being shown to us. 15 to 25-year-old people were becoming social media giants in a blink of an eye, and this was especially true during the pandemic. According to Statista, TikTok saw a 180 percent growth during the pandemic with 15 to 25-year-olds (Cecj, 2022). There are, however, many concerns we are seeing arise about the effects of TikTok on the mental health and safety of younger generations. This paper will be analyzing the potential ways that TikTok could be interfering with the development of younger generations and how we can make changes to lead to a brighter future. We have been told for years now about the harmful aspects of social media. We have seen how Instagram can lead to unhealthy body image issues, the bullying that comes from the disappearing aspect of Snapchat, and the anonymity of commenters on Tumblr and Ask.FM. So, what makes TikTok different? What characteristics make TikTok such an addictive and dangerous platform? The first reason is the addictiveness of the format on TikTok. The short- form videos make the viewer gain serotonin very quickly, and they then want another hit instantly, which they can achieve by continuing to scroll. The app has now allowed creators to produce 1-to-3-minute videos, but many times these do not do as well because of the lack of instant gratification. This cycle started during the pandemic. Everyone was very lonely and bored, so therefore the 15 seconds of joy and “human interaction” you received on your For You page was addictive. “TikTok users spend a significant amount of time on the app, with an average of 95 minutes daily. This equates to an average of 6.06 hours per week and 26 hours per month. Over a lifetime, TikTok users can spend as much as 2.3 years on the app” (Ruby, 2023). I will also be the first to admit that, with the introduction of online schooling during the pandemic, I was also prone to being on TikTok instead of paying attention to my Zoom lecture. The second reason why TikTok is detrimental to young people is due to the mental illness that can stem from the pressure to conform to unrealistic beauty standards and social norms. While there are body positive and mental health advocates coming to TikTok in droves, that doesn’t discount the one supermodel influencer you see on your FYP making you feel bad about yourself. It is so hard nowadays to be on social media without seeing a more popular, prettier, smarter, or funnier person than you. While deep down we know that social media is fake and that everyone is only posting their highlight reels of their life, sometimes it is hard to distinguish reality from fantasy. As a 22-year-old, I think I have a pretty good grip on the façade that is social media, but there are a lot of younger girls out there who are not. You see “What I Eat in a Day” & “Workout Routine for Bigger Butt” shoved down your throat every time you unlock your phone. The same goes for social norms; we are shown the latest “trends” and how you can get the “look for less” on Amazon, which in turn rapidly speeds up the trend cycle and creates so much over-consumption. I think that this is creating a very distorted and unhealthy sense of self in these young people, and soon everyone will be mentally ill and identical. A study done by Body Image found that, “Results showed that TikTok is detrimental to body image, with usage being positively associated with body dissatisfaction. TikTok also caused indirect effects by increasing upward appearance comparison and body surveillance, which in turn increases body dissatisfaction” (Manis, 2023). The last main cause of mental health issues that arise from TikTok is cyberbullying and other negative social interactions. Like most social media platforms, you can choose to be yourself or appear as anonymous on TikTok. This factor of anonymity has been a problem on the internet for the negative interactions it has allowed users to have since its inception. “According to the National Library of Medicine, 95% of adolescents are connected to the internet, and 38% of adolescent victims reported being emotionally distressed due to internet harassment. These statistics reveal that internet activity is correlated to cyberbullying, which can be associated with severe mental health effects such as depression and anxiety. Anonymity widens the gap between content creators and viewers, further increasing the chances of cyberbullying” (Want, 2022). This anonymous factor has led to lots of cyberbullying as well as cancel culture within the TikTok app. To understand these factors that may lead to the negative effects of mental health in the younger generations, I will be looking at sources that back up my claim. In the past decade, many studies have been conducted on young people to decipher how the way we have experienced the world has impacted our quality of life. Gen-Z is the first generation to grow up with the newest technology, being around for the inception of the iPod all the way to the iPhone 14. I think this is why researchers are so enamored by the ways that the Gen-Z mind works and what this means for the future. The first study was reported on in CNN and was set to find out what content is being pushed to the teens on the app. This study created TikTok accounts and recorded how quickly and often there was content that would be deemed detrimental to mental health. This study was done by the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and it “found that it can take less than three minutes after signing up for a TikTok account to see content related to suicide and about five more minutes to find a community promoting eating disorder content" (Kelly, 2022). Although TikTok would claim that their algorithm bans these types of content and has policies that protect users against it, unfortunately, many fall through the cracks. "Of the videos removed for violating its policies on suicide and self-harm content from April to June of this year, 93.4% were removed at zero views, 91.5% were removed within 24 hours of being posted, and 97.1% were removed before any reports, according to the company" (Kelly, 2022). The second study summarizes the biggest concerns for children and adolescents related to TikTok. This research was conducted by the Psychiatric Times and found that young people are some of the most prolific users on the app. Some of the threats that TikTok presents, which were highlighted in this source, were suicidal ideation, disordered eating, online predators, and bullying. I think it is important to note that these threats are present and available to anyone who has access to the internet. However, these platforms and their creators are supposed to protect their users. So, when the content is not monitored and is instead given to the individuals it is most detrimental for, it is very concerning. The last sources outline the effects of social media, specifically TikTok, and how it has led to a "self-diagnosis" epidemic. According to the Highland Springs Clinic, self-diagnosis "is the process of diagnosing or identifying a medical condition in yourself. Much of the time, people google a symptom or medical sign and try to figure out if they have a condition; this is self-diagnosing. Oftentimes, a self-diagnosis is wrong and can lead people astray. For that reason, self-diagnosing is highly frowned upon" (Thatcher, 2021). This phenomenon has been a big part of the mental health issues stemming from TikTok, many times because their diagnoses are wrong. These self-diagnoses can be anywhere from depression to cancer. I have fallen into this trap many times where I feel poorly and come across someone who is a professional or is struggling with an illness. They discuss symptoms and can often cause lots of worry in their viewers. According to a recent Pew Research survey, 1 in 6 Gen-Zers use TikTok as a search engine. The other side of self-diagnosis can be delayed professional treatment. Self-diagnosing an illness and treating it according to your own research can sometimes lead to more issues with the original illness than you had begun with. "Certain symptoms such as fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and under-stimulation are common attributes of both depression and ADHD. Similarly, sleep problems, hyperfocus, impulsivity and emotional dysregulation overlap with mania symptoms in bipolar disorder. Thus, it’s common for ADHD to be misdiagnosed as a mood disorder, and vice versa" (Williams, 2022). TikTok is a form of entertainment, and therefore, we need to treat it as such. Entertainment is a privilege, not a right, and we need to treat it as such. I think it is important for us older Gen-Z people, as well as anyone who has TikTok, to set app limits, as well as take self- evaluations of how the app is making you feel while you use it. As for parents, it is so very important to incorporate parental controls, as well as monitoring the content that is being pushed at your children. The sad truth is that on the internet, one wrong move can lead to an FYP full of unsolicited negative content. I think as a society we know the dangers of TikTok that I summarized in this paper, but oftentimes we are too brainwashed to believe there isn’t a solution. At the end of the day spending less time online allows for less access to detrimental content. Works Cited Additude. (2022, February 18). Can TikTok be a tool for ADHD self-diagnosis and support? https://www.additudemag.com/tiktok-adhd-videos-self-diagnosis-support/ CBS News. (2019, May 1). Social media and mental health: What you need to know. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-media-mental-health-self-diagnosis/ Demand Sage. (n.d.). TikTok user statistics for 2022 [Updated]. https://www.demandsage.com/tiktok-user- statistics/#:~:text=TikTok%20users%20spend%20a%20significant,around%209%20times%20ev ery%20day! Dexerto. (2021, May 13). The history of TikTok. https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/the- history-of-tiktok-1569106/ Highland Springs Clinic. (n.d.). The dangers of self-diagnoses. https://highlandspringsclinic.org/dangers-of-self-diagnoses/ Psypost. (2023, January 19). TikTok use is associated with increased body dissatisfaction, study finds. https://www.psypost.org/2023/01/tiktok-use-is-associated-with-increased-body- dissatisfaction-study-finds- 65126#:~:text=Results%20showed%20that%20TikTok%20is,in%20turn%20increases%20body %20dissatisfaction. Psychiatric Times. (2022, May 3). TikTok: Biggest concerns for children and adolescents. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/tiktok-biggest-concerns-for-children-and-adolescents Statista. (2021, April 27). TikTok usage among young adults during COVID-19 in the United States as of August 2020. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1207831/tiktok-usage-among- young-adults-during-covid-19-usa/ The Epitaph. (2021, September 7). The dangers of online anonymity. https://hhsepitaph.com/13600/arts-culture/the-dangers-of-online-anonymity/ CNN. (2022, December 15). TikTok may be driving some teens to self-diagnose medical conditions, study finds. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/tech/tiktok-teens-study-trnd/index.html |
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