TikTok - an advantage or threat to society?

 

On Dec 3,2018, an article was posted on BBC titled "TikTok, a Chinese video app, brings fun back to social media" written by Kevin Roose.

This article refutes his post and explains the 'dark' side which many people wouldn't like to hear or admit about this video app that's so popular on social media, note that it's my personal opinion about it.

Kevin Roose explains the 'wonderful' feeling he experienced after downloading TikTok and watching its videos. 

"About an hour after downloading TikTok, the popular video-sharing app, I experienced a bizarre sensation, one I haven’t felt in a long time while on the internet. The knot in my chest loosened, my head felt injected with helium, and the corners of my mouth crept upward into a smile".

Throughout the post, he describes TikTok and explains its features that are different from other social media and how this Chinese app has become extremely popular. He states how it brings 'happiness' to many people because of the crazy comedies and viral challenges all over TikTok. Furthermore, he explains about privacy and age restriction for the app. He describes the app as:" TikTok — a quirky hybrid of Snapchat, the defunct video app Vine and the TV segment “Carpool Karaoke” — is a refreshing outlier in the social media universe. There are no ads. There’s no news unless you count learning about viral dance crazes. There are few preening Instagram models hawking weight-loss tea, and a distinct lack of crazy uncles posting Infowars clips."

Reading this article, many people might want to download this app as "it brings fun back to social media", and everyone loves to see some silliness and laugh a bit. Start watching a video or two and they suddenly can't stop laughing, they feel that bizarre sensation of dopamine that makes them want to watch more and more, until, it becomes addictive and this app has hooked you into it. It all started like this for many innocent gullible people; especially young kids and teens, but the feeling you experience as you watch the videos won't last forever, eventually the darker side will overcome you.

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With all the 'trends, pranks and challenges' that pops on the feed as people open TikTok, they might find it ' just amusing ' or entertaining to make it more precise, however, youngsters don't visualize all that they see as 'just funny' or 'impressive', they get highly influenced from what they see and it has a bad impact on them. Don't you think your daughter is highly 'influenced' by Loren Gray, Charlie D'Amelio, Addison Rae, or Bella Poarch? They want to 'act like them', 'dance and sing like them' and even copy their diets and what they eat. 

As you firstly download TikTok, you won't find anything called 'unsafe to teens or kids, there might be dancing, a comedy skit about something, or a silly joke, but as you scroll through video after the video the dark side becomes clearer to you.

Undeniably many people hate to expose that all social media is unsafe for kids and even though officially TikTok uses must be older or 13 to join, there are millions of kids as small as 3 years on TikTok performing dances and many other things. The article says: "Officially, TikTok users must be 13 or older to join. But the age-verification process is easy to circumvent, and while browsing the platform, I stumbled upon several videos starring people who appeared to be much younger. In its previous incarnation as Musical.ly, TikTok drew fire from some privacy advocates, who accused it of pushing the limits of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, a law that prohibits the collection of certain types of information from users younger than 13" As it can be seen, TikTok drew fire from some privacy advocates, who accuses it of pushing the limits of the Children's Online Privacy Protection. One can take that for granted and give his/her child to browse over TikTok until the user goes through and browsers more and more finding videos containing inappropriate things such as body shaming, sexualized content, and dangerous challenges and trends. Parents take for granted their kid's age and allow access to TikTok, but as the evidence shows there are many underage kids surfing through this app. The article says that: While using TikTok, I never saw examples of bullying or harassment. (Both of which are prohibited by TikTok’s community guidelines, as is sexually explicit content.) There are, however, a decent number of videos featuring teenage girls dancing suggestively — which, if you are a 31-year-old newspaper columnist and not a 16-year-old boy, is fairly unsettling. This is a complete contradiction from the reality as research proves many girls suffering from eating disorders after watching videos on TikTok, and many people feeling discriminated against after watching the abundant amount of 'racism' challengers/videos on TikTok.  

Yes, One might say that it's up to you to choose what you want to watch, but TikToks' powerful algorithm is designed in a way to captivate the viewers and they won't know where they are really going, video after video. Kevin says: ......''TikTok has none of that. Instead, it’s that rarest of internet creatures: a place where people can let down their guards, act silly with their friends and sample the fruits of human creativity without being barraged by abusive trolls or algorithmically amplified misinformation. It’s a throwback to a time before the commercialization of internet influence when web culture consisted mainly of harmless weirdos trying to make each other laugh''.  You don't 'pick' or choose selectively what you watch, the videos are served to you one after another. The feed of each user is unique and labeled 'for you' making the user more interested and involved in watching whatever is fed to their list. Once you watch a video or follow someone, the more your feed is provided with your interests, and it's very hard to break that cycle. The TikTok algorithm will push you to the videos you watch or happen to watch. So, if you happen to watch a video with sexual content, more and more videos with similar content will appear on your feed, until you are totally 'into it and you can't get out of that track again. 

If TikTok is described 'as a place where people can let down their guards, act silly with friends....so on..' don't you think there will be millions of 'trolls' and 'sick people' around this app, they are just 'letting out their feelings' whether it be obnoxious, offensive or hilarious - because nobody's preventing them from doing so.

TikTok's pranks and challenges have 'gone too far especially for children, ending them in serious injuries and even jail. Every time a new challenge/trend comes up kids love to try it, no matter how dangerous they might be. Girls are suffering from eating disorders after looking at 'perfect' bodies' on TikTok and trying to follow their diets, eventually leading to suicide and depression. Many kids are seeing 'too vulgar', sexual content on this app, and indulging in those types of videos. Kevin says that a TikTok spokeswoman said that promoting safety and positivity is 'our top priority' ....... and as far as I can see it isn't true.  Another statement he mentions that makes everyone believe this app is safe is  "......But by purposely limiting its features, by resisting the temptation to monetize its users aggressively, and by keeping trolls and bullies off its platform, TikTok has done something truly impressive — it has built a social network that is genuinely fun to use. "

 Furthermore, he praises TikTok by saying "TikTok’s success has spawned legions of influencers, users with millions of followers and household-name status among teenagers" ..... 

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If I could say Tik Tok hasn't caused any improvement in this society, it isn't a mere form of entertainment and a way to express creativity, however, it's destroying the youth as many of them are extremely addicted to this app, they are going 'too far' on TikTok by many things such as DMing, and parents don't have an idea or clue what and who are they really interacting with using this app. 

It's a 'threat' a 'monster' that's swallowing our younger generation. About 80 million monthly active users in the US, and according to the recent statistics uses love the app and spend an average of 52 minutes per day in the platform, and a new study has shown younger people ages four to fourteen spend an average of 80 minutes per day. Also, studies have shown that a user opens the app 8 times per day. Can you see how addictive and captivating TikTok is to many people? 

Let us figure out why.

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- Hanah Dilshad