The impact of TikTok

By Jade Boger

Izzy is a senior at York Suburban. She says in her free time, she’s either hanging out with friends, sleeping, or using TikTok.

 “This week alone, I’ve used TikTok in total of sixteen hours and nine minutes.”

The Pew Research Center reports that two-thirds of teens use TikTok, and some say they use it almost constantly. But how does that impact them? Izzy, Isa, and Ryleah talk about the impact they think TikTok has had on their generation.

Izzy thinks the problem is that people don’t feel ashamed of the time they waste on TikTok.

“Most people don’t really feel shame in spending hours on TikTok because they know that other people relate to them and also spend so many hours on TikTok where it’s just like, ‘oh okay, maybe it’s not that bad if this person is also doing the same thing.’”

Isa adds that it’s not hard to lose track of time while scrolling aimlessly on the app.

“You kind of lose yourself. They’re only a minute videos, so it’s really easy to keep on scrolling and scrolling with no sense of how long you’re on there or what you’re doing.”

Ryleah thinks TikTok makes a large contribution to the harm social media is causing in general.

“It doesn’t help the problem of being able to put your phones down and really enjoy the world around you. It makes you have to see through a lens that can be altered, and be fake, and be changed and modified. People don’t have to see the real world anymore, they can just see what we want you to see. Like basically, you have to share what you want people to see instead of who you really are.” 

The Pew Research Center also shows that a third of TikTok’s users get their news from the platform. And while learning from others is a great opportunity for bonding and community, all three students agree that there is a big problem with the spread of misinformation. Ryleah says that it’s something that the app needs to improve.

“If it took Wikipedia this long, it’s gonna take TikTok a lot longer. That’s an area that they can definitely work on, because of the amount of younger viewers that they have.”

Isa also believes that having a younger audience makes TikTok especially vulnerable to spreading misinformation.

“There’s definitely people that wanna push a certain agenda and they know that us teens are really impressionable in those types of situations.”

And, while Izzy doesn’t think TikTok is a great place to get your news, she does have a special exception.

“Nine times out of ten… no. I don’t think TikTok is the best place. Except, I will give an exception for the one Spongebob Fish on TikTok that actually reports real news.”

Even though each student believes that TikTok doesn’t help with the rising phone addiction and the spread of fake news, all of them still actively use the app. Izzy says she hasn’t seriously considered deleting TikTok, but the thought has crossed her mind from time to time.

“When I see cringey TikToks, it makes me think, ‘Man, I should just delete TikTok, so I don’t see this anymore,’ but then I can just scroll away or press ‘not interested’ on this TikTok.”

Isa has deleted TikTok, but that ended up being short-lived.

“I did once try to delete it over winter break, but then I’m like, ‘I’m so bored’ all the time, so I just ended up re-downloading it again, and then instantly spent two to three hours on it alone that day.”

Ryleah also says that boredom keeps her from deleting the app.

“I haven’t deleted it. I probably will eventually, at some point. But, for now it’s just something fun to keep on my phone that gives me something to do with my life when I’m bored.”

I’m Jade Boger, and this is Trojan News.