The TikTok Generation

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).
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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
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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