Have you ever been scrolling on TikTok and found yourself lost in your phone, not remembering how long you’ve spent sitting looking at your screen? If you have, you are certainly not alone. The newly cemented app, TikTok, is a streaming and video content app that has over 30 million active users. 60% of these users consist of Gen Z young adults. These young adults are starting to realize how this app negatively affects their mental health.
The Pandemic and TikTok
Social media platforms as a whole have impacted Gen Z’s mental health for over a decade now. Not only do they demonstrate unrealistic life standards, but these platforms have also become an outlet for online social interactions. As a result, social media can cause the brains of young adults to feel overused, which can be a leading cause to anxiety and depression.
With the advent of TikTok and the Covid 19 Pandemic, young adults spend more time on their phones than ever. A news article from the The Guardian details, “The largest effect of the Pandemic is being faced with large uncertainty… We want to be able to accurately predict what’s going to happen and we turn to social media to sense-make collectively.” After the Pandemic, TikTok, for example, became an opportunity to get away from the outside world and to have an outlet to mindlessly scroll for hours on end.
Many Gen Z youth have spoken up about their usage of the app and how it has negatively affected them– whether that be from too much screen time, online bullying, or harmful content.
Solutions
How do we stop these effects and try to decrease usage of this app? Placing time limits on cell phones can reduce the amount of scrolling time and even minimize screen time in general. The most effective method would be deleting entire apps. Social Media star Emma Chamberlain often uses this approach. Chamberlain has a major impact on young adults through her YouTube channel or podcast, Anything Goes. Chamberlain often advocates the negative effects TikTok has had on her mental health and everyday life. Early in 2022, she endorsed deleting the app altogether by explaining on her podcast, “as dumb as it may sound, it has been genuinely a life changing experience. It’s crazy how much I have realized.”
Media Literacy and TikTok
Media Literacy shows us the importance of analyzing the information we see online and understanding how information can ultimately become jeopardized with misinformation or overloaded with too much content through platforms such as TikTok. Within the negative effects felt by mental health, being an active user on TikTok may alter ways of using Media Literacy to communicate and make a difference through media outlets.
