I’m a psychologist and I used Tiktok…

I recently used (viewed? downloaded? watched? whatever the correct verb is here!) TikTok and a few other similar video-platforms, including Reels on Instagram and Shorts on Youtube. My motivation here was a mix of curiosity (everyone seems to be using it) ease of access (I’ve had a few friends send a link to a variety of funny Tiktoks), and maybe a sense that I was getting old and needing to keep up ;)

Here are some reflections from my experiences:

It’s, on the whole, VERY entertaining.

-       As I often am when on the internet, I was constantly amazed at people’s creativity and humour. Many creators are young people with an outstanding ability to film and edit videos from their home in a way that is very skilled, hilarious, personal, and attention-grabbing. Much of the content I saw was either funny or interesting or light-hearted. Content creators had built amazing communities around them and people appeared to feel genuinely connected to their internet friends. In times where the world and the news feels heavy and anxiety inducing, Tiktok felt engaging in an accessible and stress-free way.

It’s feels addictive.

-       It became very easy use it in moments of boredom or stress – such as on my commute home on the train, or when avoiding a certain task at home or work, or when I was struggling to fall asleep. I felt my mind totally switch off and relax when watching Tiktok, in a way that became very reinforcing for my procrastination tendencies! Core processes in addiction are tolerance and withdrawal – I especially noticed my tolerance (in terms of how long I chose to spend on the app) increase!

It’s very easy to pass (huge) amounts of time.

-       Despite the videos being very short (less than a minute), I was shocked at how much time can be spent on the app. A core reason for this, I think, is the ‘never ending’ aspect of the scrolling. On Youtube or Netflix a video ends, and on Facebook or Instagram your feed eventually becomes things you’ve seen before, however on Tiktok there appears to be a constant stream of new content with no end or natural ‘exit’ point. This means that in stopping using the app requires a lot of internal motivation, as there’s nothing extrinsic encouraging you to wrap up. However, as mentioned above, the app can be very engaging and addictive in a way that I noticed really reduced my self-regulation capacity.

You have very little control over content.

-       Tiktok appears to rely very heavily on ‘The Alogrithm’ so you get shown the content it thinks you’ll engage with. Whilst the content I saw was (as above) mainly very funny or interesting, there were moments I was exposed to some concern videos – usually extremely sexual or sexualised, or unhelpful in relation to body image and eating (with a lot of content centred on dieting, exercise, food routines/rules, dieting, and body). I also saw a lot of content relating to mental health, with a huge variety of accuracy – spanning from extremely helpful content created by Psychologists themselves attempting to spread knowledge about psychological techniques and normalising particular symptoms, all the way to extremely unscientific or incorrect ‘facts’ about mental health (particularly regarding diagnoses).

It appeared to shift my attention span.

-       Over the course of using the apps, I noticed myself more quickly bored by other, long(er) forms of entertainment. And not just movies or television episodes, but even longer form youtube videos. Reading books, journal publications, and newspaper articles also became trickier the longer they became. I had become used to the very short span of Tiktok videos in a way that very quickly engaged my brain. Watching some longer movies, I found myself thinking “why is it taking so long to get to ‘the point’?”. This was perhaps the most concerning aspect for me – a strong attention span is integral to me leading a fulfilling and functional life.

I haven’t really continued to use Tiktok following this mini-experiment, but I wouldn’t say I’ll be completing avoiding it either. This isn’t meant to be an endorsement of the app, or a fear-mongering warning either. I’ve reflected on my experiences I’ve mentioned in this blog and worked out how best to fit this form of entertainment and others like it in my life.