This app has become big in a short amount of time. Let’s explore the psychology behind the app’s appeal.
According to market tracker App Annie, TikTok, a Chinese short video platform, has become the world’s most downloaded app in 2020, overtaking Facebook and its messaging platforms — Instagram and Messenger. TikTok is believed to have one billion users worldwide, including over 100 million users in the United States. The app was released in September 2016, but now, it has surpassed Facebook in the number of downloads, and that too in a short period of time. But that didn’t mean that TikTok’s journey was a smooth one.
Past & Present
TikTok has been going through tough times in several countries. It was banned in India along with other Chinese apps, as they threatened its “sovereignty and integrity”. Last year, the then-U.S President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the app’s parent, ByteDance, to sell TikTok to an American business within 45 days. The order added that if ByteDance wasn’t able to do so, the app would be forcibly removed from app stores and blocked.
Then, the current U.S. President, Joe Biden, withdrew Trump’s executive order in June. In July, TikTok and the administration agreed to drop litigation over Trump’s attempted ban. On the other hand, Biden ordered the Commerce Department to launch an inquiry into foreign-owned apps, which includes TikTok. Apart from the U.S., Australia has also warned against the security risks of TikTok and accused the app of sharing data with the Chinese government.
No Worries For TikTok
Governments are worried about TikTok, and are concerned that it might be misusing the data of its users. However, that isn’t stopping Gen Zers and millennials from using the app. According to Sensor Tower, TikTok has become the most downloaded and highest-grossing non-game during the first half of 2020, crossing 3 billion total installations. App Annie said that the app has crossed Google’s YouTube for average time spent per user in the U.S. and the U.K. TikTok is also expanding into other avenues. Since its launch in 2016, TikTok has amassed over $2.5 billion in consumer spending worldwide.
Industry tracker eMarketer estimates that TikTok’s user base in the U.S. will jump 18% this year, as against a 1% increase for Facebook and a 4% surge for Instagram. The app has already made various moves beyond its core to gaming, job services, and live music concerts. TikTok Resumes lets people apply for positions at many companies via video applications. Analysts told Bloomberg that they anticipate TikTok to keep growing faster than its competitors.
The Psychology Behind The Appeal
One of the major reasons that TikTok became so popular is because of its brief videos, which are mostly 15-seconds long. Thus, it holds teenagers’ increasingly brief attention spans. TikTok runs on an algorithm that determines your preferences based on videos you have previously interacted with or watched. Because of this algorithm, your feed never runs out of content, as the app is always feeding you videos that the algorithm determines that you “want” to watch based on your past viewing history.
John Holdridge, the GM of Fullscreen told Forbes, “TikTok’s success can simply be attributed to how it flips what we think of as social media on its head, while at the same time returning us all to roots of the original appeal–the ability to go viral…” John added, “…it’s pushing meme culture to new heights, giving Gen Z a visible place to be themselves while allowing brands to inspire their fans in authentic, entertaining ways…”
Apart from that, TikTok brings instant fame, international attention, and fortune for anyone who posts the right video at the right time, with a trending song by using the right dance moves. Charli D’Amelio, who is 17 years old, has over 120 million followers on TikTok. When she was 16, her approximate net worth was over $4 million because of her massive following on TikTok. Addison Rae, who is 20 years old, has over 82 million TikTok followers, and a net worth of $2 million. Each of their brief videos gets millions of views, reactions, and comments.
The Downsides
Every coin has two sides, and TikTok has its downsides as well. The app is reportedly filled with child predators, devious algorithms, dark patterns, and teens bullying and harassing one another. So, it is not far from true when we say that TikTok and TikTok challenges can sometimes be a dangerous experience for those who crave social validation, and lack the critical thinking skills or developmental maturity to judge risks.
The adolescent brain is vulnerable to these pitfalls of social influence because they do not have the cognitive maturity to question the content or consider the consequences of blindly doing a TikTok challenge. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that handles rational thought, the ability to engage in long-range planning, and analyse risk. It is also not completely developed until our mid-20s. This is why teenagers tend to be more reactive, impulsive, and act before thinking, especially when social influence in involved.
Attention, likes and shares of dangerous challenges that have enough traction tend to increase the risk that someone will get hurt. Many parents worry that the attention of likes, comments, and shares from strangers will be interpreted and internalised as meaningful social validation, and accurate reflections of self-image, and value.
