In the digital age, social media has become a staple in millions, if not billions, of people’s lives. From Tumblr to Twitter, the digital space is full of many different kinds of social media platforms. What we’re looking at today, though, is TikTok, a newer platform that gained immense popularity over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Known for its video sharing capabilities, TikTok has been named the most popular website of 2021, according to Cloudflare. You either use it yourself or know someone who does, but regardless, TikTok is immensely popular, especially among millennials and Gen Z. Being such a popular platform, it’s only natural that it comes surrounded in controversy. The list could go on for a while, but dangerous trends, censorship, cultural appropriation, privacy concerns, and cyberbullying are just a handful of issues on the platform. Despite all of these concerns, the platform still has well over a billion users – why is that? The problem lies within the way the app is designed. The two key components TikTok has successfully embedded into their platform are its algorithm and the content available on it. Together, let’s look at these components and how they work together to create such a powerful, addictive social media trap.
One of TikTok’s most striking features is its algorithm. It curates a near-perfect ‘for you’ page, keeping users scrolling for hours and hours. The craziest part is that no two feeds are the same. How does this algorithm work exactly? Artificial intelligence and data analysis are our main suspects here. While all the details aren’t out there for the whole world to see, we know the system works by recommending videos similar to the ones you like, share and save, along with analyzing the comments you leave and accounts you follow. The algorithm monitors how much time users spend scrolling or watching videos, and it keeps collecting information to accommodate trends and changing styles. That’s the simple explanation of it, but let’s break it down a little farther. The algorithm splits user data into three categories: content, user and scenario data. Content data consists of the traits of the videos posted onto the platform so TikTok can categorize and recommend videos based on the content. User data includes profile data such as age, gender, and interest tags users choose when creating a profile. Lastly, there is scenario data, which is tracking the user’s preferences based on their current scenario. An example of this would be tracking what a user likes to watch when they’re at work/school compared to when they’re traveling or at home. This form of data collection relies on location tracking and/or time of day to monitor user behavior.
From those three types of data, the algorithm derives certain features and sends that to the recommendation engine. These are correlation, user-scenario, trend and collaborative features. Correlation features represent the correlation between content and users, user-scenario features include location and time of day, trend features include global trends, themes, and trending topics in general, and collaborative features compare users with similar behaviors to categorize them. Using those features, the algorithm determines whether or not a video is suitable for a user’s ‘for you’ page. This behavior tracing is known as machine learning – the algorithm quite literally learns your habits on the app and uses that information to recommend you videos. This keeps users’ ‘for you’ page up-to-date and accurate, giving them endless content to stay hooked on. If you were constantly fed content relating to things you like, you’d probably find it hard to look away too, right?
Well, where’s the psychology in all this? A big consequence of the digital age is reduced attention span. You’ve probably heard of the term ‘iPad kid’ used to describe cranky kids with limited awareness of their surroundings, constantly needing a screen in front of their face. That’s the poster example of limited attention spans as a result of devices, and that’s exactly what using social media for a prolonged period of time does to you. If you’re using TikTok, you’re probably also using some other social media like Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, and chances are you’ve been using them for a while too. TikTok is designed to specifically target these people – with endless scrolling and short videos ranging from fifteen seconds to three minutes, it’s the perfect trap for users with short attention spans. You spend a couple seconds watching one video, and then it’s onto the next, and within one minute, you’ve already watched four videos. The design keeps people hooked, and it becomes very easy for people to spend hours scrolling.
Apart from catering to limited attention spans, a large part of why so many people stay hooked on TikTok is due to gratification theory. Uses and gratification theory (UGT) explores the relationship between people and media, specifically how people use media to satisfy certain needs. These needs are categorized into one of the following: cognitive, affective, personal integrative, social integrative and tension free. Cognitive needs refer to the academic, intellectual or social knowledge and information that people use media for. For example, people watch the news to learn more about current events or use search engines to learn more about a specific topic. Affective needs, as the name suggests, refers to emotional needs. People will watch thriller or horror movies for a good scare or adrenaline rush, or maybe a sad romcom to get a little emotional after a long day. Personal integrative needs are essentially self-esteem needs; people are active on social media to reassure themselves, establish their online presence, and gain credibility. Often, people see more likes on a picture and a higher follower count as a self-esteem booster. Social media also lets you only post certain aspects of your life, so you’re free to build your own image on there. Next, we have social integrative needs, which refers to the desire to fit into society, whether it be friends or family. People will start a social media profile if all of their friends have one, or might start watching a new show solely because their crush said they liked it. Lastly, there are tension free needs, or one’s escapism from daily life. After a long day of work, you might just want to relax and watch a movie, or scroll through memes on Instagram, but either way, you’re using media as a form of escape to relieve yourself of stress.
Each user of TikTok has some combination of these needs – maybe they want to fit in since everyone they know is on it, they seek validation from certain videos they see, or just to scroll and laugh at funny videos after a long day. People are motivated by the fact that TikTok allows them to seek fame, expand their social network, and express themselves in many creative ways. Since it requires a shorter attention span than a platform like YouTube, many people have turned to it as their new social addiction. The algorithm works hand-in-hand with UGT to create a social media trap – one that the users keep running. They’ll like and watch videos, and the algorithm will just keep recommending more. This process is endless until the user decides to stop, which is harder than you think.
Citations
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8010681/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0735633117743917
