Students at Kennesaw State University should understand the negative psychological effects TikTok can cause on a user.
TikTok is a social media platform that displays a stream of short and trendy videos featuring a variety of topics. These videos create instant gratification which causes users to become addicted to the app and puts them at a higher risk for self-disclosure issues and drops in self-esteem. Experts are concerned for users’ mental health, especially since the majority of them are adolescents.
Instant Gratification
According to positivepsychology.com, instant gratification refers to the tendency to forego a future benefit to obtain immediate results that are oftentimes less rewarding.
Social media intensifies this feeling because communication happens instantaneously. Thus, apps like TikTok encourage instant gratification and creates an addiction for young people.
“Although not as intense as a hit of cocaine, positive social stimuli will similarly result in a release of dopamine, reinforcing whatever behavior preceded it,” Science in the News writer Trevor Haynes said.
According to Queen’s University Journal, instant gratification provides social media users with a dopamine rush, much like the sensation given by physical intimacy. Young people have become horribly accustomed to virtual availability where they can access any content they want at any time.
Instant virtual gratification is dangerous because it removes adolescents from the reality of interpersonal connection where constant reward and attention is not accessible all the time. Apps like TikTok change the way young people view socializing and misconstrue their ideas of how people should treat them.
Essentially, TikTok is creating a false sense of community amongst young people. Relationships exist best in mutuality rather than continuous dumps of dopamine based on whether someone interacts with a direct message, like or comment.
Addiction and Self Disclosure
Researchers at Frontiers are fearful that young people using this app are often unaware of the risks that come along with self-disclosure on social media apps.
When young people disclose personal details on social media, they receive immediate feedback. When this feedback serves as a reward, it lowers their ability to understand the consequences related to sharing extremely personal information.
Younger people tend to be more impulsive and require instant satisfaction; thus, are more likely to become addicted to social media apps like TikTok.
The Paradigm Treatment recovery center has even gone as far as to categorize social media addiction as a behavioral disorder.
Self-Esteem
A 2022 study by the Indonesian Journal of Learning Studies completed a survey of 41 teenagers surrounding their opinions of themselves after using TikTok. The results showed a decrease in self-esteem after participants spent time on TikTok.
The study revealed that 20 respondents were insecure about their own identity and talents after viewing TikTok influencers. Furthermore, 26 respondents said that they felt insecure about how other people viewed them because they saw more “successful” individuals on TikTok.
These studies and observations are all concerning given the amount of time young people spend on TikTok. Adolescence is a delicate phase where a person’s thoughts, emotions and beliefs are unstable; therefore, their identity and psychological state are easily skewed by applications such as TikTok.
It is safe to assume that reducing time spent on TikTok is beneficial for everyone’s psyche and general well-being.