Claim: TikTok is addicting

Question

A lot of people notice that when they open TikTok, they are appalled when they look at the time they spent on the app are hours later. Moments that feel like 30 minutes on the app are really 2 hours. According to BBC News, “A psychologist said the personalised algorithm on TikTok may be leading young people to get addicted. Dr Nia Williams, of Bangor University, said TikTok addictive because it releases dopamine into the brain, making it feel good.” (BBC News) https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-62720657

Comments

I agree that tiktok is addictive because me and several friends have discussed this. We all can say that once we open tiktok, we find oursleves sitting on it for extended periods of time and getting too focused on the app to do anything else. The screetime feature on iphone shows how much time you spent on each app ad we all have very high times on tiktok.

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@ellenwagner going forward, please "answer" the claim using the corresponding button rather than comment on it. By doing so, you'll be able to have your fact-check upvoted and also be selected as the best answer.

As for your fact-check, it's nice to hear your personal analysis and experience, however, going forward you should include evidence and support from legitimate sources such as academia, scientific organizations, or the media and the source links, plus a detailed explanation, and a rating.

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When reviewing your fact check and the article first thing I noticed was the titles did not match. I also noticed that you had really strong quotes and evidence backing up your fact check along with the perfect amount of length to read to keep your audience hooked. The way you included the authors name as well as statistics was a great way to execute your fact check. Overall you did a great job!

Answer 1

Yes, Tiktok is addictive for many reasons, their personalized feed, the trending dances and audios, shopping trends, and many more. Here is an article I found that goes more into depth as to why TikTok is so addicting.

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/body/health/a39964788/tiktok-addiction/

As stated by this article, the experience you get from using tiktok is similar to a slot machine at a casino because of the desire to keep scrolling and watching stuff you enjoy.

Answer 2

TikTok like many social media and content apps has the capacity to become addictive. There is only so much that self-control can do before you find yourself scrolling for hours on end to stimulate yourself. As stated by this article, addiction symptoms include the inability to stop using, negative health effects, and obsessive behaviors. Tiktok can become addictive thanks to its intense algorithms capable of collecting data and dispersing it to your "for you" feed at tremendous speeds. "Many social platforms use some variation of a recommendation algorithm to provide accurate content that fit the historic behaviors of its users. To spare you the details, TikTok is able to recommend you videos by what you and others have watched."

https://medium.com/dataseries/how-tiktok-is-addictive-1e53dec10867

Answer 3

The following article "What Makes TikTok so Addictive?" by Sophia Petrillo of Brown University not only confirms this claim but even takes the claim a step further, ranking consequences of such addiction by "degree of addiction." The study followed employees of 13 companies in Thailand, noticing that the results impacted their ability for high functioning in the work place, writing that social media addiction "may reduce productivity and success in work, education, and other areas of life. It even affects coping mechanisms, including those with handling stress.

RESEARCH LINK - https://sites.brown.edu/publichealthjournal/2021/12/13/tiktok/

The next article, "How TikTok is Addictive" by Medium, examines the psychological impacts even further. The article, written in 2020, writes that even then the app had over 800 millions active users a month, which out performs any other social media platform. This number again was from over two years ago now. I think this is extremely important to recognize, because the algorithm on TikTok has such an extensive engagement feedback forum to base data off of and better curate feeds and interest groupings. With this kind of feedback, the content is more well curated than other social media platforms that simply do not have this kind of engagement. The article feeds into this idea, writing that "These algorithms are able to predict the preferences that you would give to a piece of content based on the activity of similar users to you." As opposed to curating a feed based only on your personal feedback to videos, using data from users who share similar interests and interact in similar ways allows the algorithm to pretty accurately predict whether or not this will be something of interest to you. This extremely specific curations are what keep users so invested for long periods of time, as the content continues to entertain and stays relevant even when large amounts of time have passed.

RESEARCH LINK - https://medium.com/dataseries/how-tiktok-is-addictive-1e53dec10867

Answer 4

The Philadelphia Integrative Psychiatry reports that it is in fact true that tiktok does make attention spans. The article mentions “Tiktok brain”, referring to the mentality that a lot of kids in Gen Z and Gen X have because of the “rapid and short form” content that is constantly being put in front of their faces. This article is written for parents, making the bias maybe sound more harsh than it might actually be in reality. 

University of Richmond touches on the addiction side of tick tock, telling its readers about the rapid scrolling of a constant feed that is never ending and leads to people uncontrollably scrolling for hours without even noticing. They report that the average Tiktok user consumes between 167 to 271 videos per day, proving the severity of the addiction that so many people have succumbed to, especially teenagers. 

Because of these reports, I would say it was 100% true that people's attention spans are incredibly shorter than before their use of the app. I also would not say it is just Tiktok, but any app such as YouTube shorts or Instagram that has the same effect on people.

Answer 5

The claim that TikTok is addicting is true. TikTok's short form videos are designed to be addicting and releases dopamine in the brain, making you feel good. The algorithm also picks up on your interests and personalizes your feed to things you find interesting to keep  on the app (bbc.com).  A study was also conducted on the impact of TikTok on men and women over 18 years old. The results showed that all participants were negatively affected by TikTok addiction and on average, women spent more time on TikTok than men did. (nih.gov) I personally also agree that TikTok is addicting, while I may not have TikTok, I know people who do and they agree that it is very addicting and has negatively impacted their productivity. 

Answer 6

This is right because research shows that TikTok’s design can lead to addictive behaviors in users. The PMC study found that many individuals experience symptoms of behavioral addiction, such as compulsive scrolling, loss of control and difficulty limiting time on the app. These findings support the BBC article, which reports that TikTok’s short-form and fast-paced videos keep users constantly engaged and make it hard to stop watching. Together, this evidence shows that TikTok’s algorithm and reward based structure can strongly influence user’s attention and habits, making the app genuinely addicting for many people.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11710882/

Answer 7

Unfortunately, the social media platform TikTok has become a mainstream addiction across the world, which seems to not be talked about. TikTok’s addictive properties center around the steady flow of content that provides enjoyment, demands a user’s concentration, and distorts the perception of time. A 2022 study from the Frontiers in Psychology journal found that TikTok is the most highly addictive of all social media platforms. This proves this claim as factual and should give people the hint to look up from their screens. Article linked here - https://www.addictioncenter.com/behavioral-addictions/social-media-addiction/tiktok-addiction/

Answer 8

I have found it to be true that tiktok can be addicting. I found the truth in this claim by reading through a website that specializes on addiction. It is expected to find alcohol or drugs on this website, but to find the dangers of tiktok usage was interesting but not surprising. Social media apps tend to have an algorithm that is curated for each individual person which causes dopamine making it addicted to use. Tiktok is an app where there is all sorts of endless media. You are able to scroll for the entire day and still have videos to watch. This can affect the brain and feel the symptoms of addiction such as mood changes, depression or irritability. 

https://www.addictioncenter.com/behavioral-addictions/social-media-addiction/tiktok-addiction/

https://sites.brown.edu/publichealthjournal/2021/12/13/tiktok/

Answer 9

Yes, this claim is correct, TikTok is addictive. According to the addiction center TikTok is an addictive behavior, The TikTok algorithm specifically targets the areas of the brain involved in the reward system, specifically with the release of dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical in the brain that is released when we experience pleasurable activities. When people use tiktok it is found that it leads to a release of dopamine which encourages the development of addiction. This release of dopamine makes us feel good, happy, certain drugs have this same effect. Tiktok content is short videos that serve to grab a person's attention with a bang and keep them engaged. The algorithm focuses on what people like, comment, save and spend the most time on, and with that it feeds these same types of videos back to the user. In a study done by the National Library of Medicine they found that key addiction-related factors, including excessive time spent on the app, emotional attachment and rumination over content they viewed, were associated with the app. 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11710882/

https://www.addictioncenter.com/behavioral-addictions/social-media-addiction/tiktok-addiction/

Answer 10

This article was published in 2022 and since then there is much more information to prove that TikTok is addictive. In the BBC article, psychologist Dr Nia Williams states that “TikTok becomes addictive because it releases dopamine into the brain, making you feel good.” The article also shares that because of the short and attention-grabbing length they become addictive. AddictionCenter.com explains that TikTok’s algorithm gives personalized video recommendations based on your liked content. Not only can this become addictive, but elements of TikTok such as “escapism, connection, and external validation,” are very likely to trigger your neural reward system and a dopamine surge. 

Sources: https://www.addictioncenter.com/behavioral-addictions/social-media-addiction/tiktok-addiction/