Crazy about TikTok

By Lauren Chesser

Do you ever find yourself mindlessly browsing through TikTok for hours on end when you know you should be doing something productive with your time?

Well, you aren’t the only one. Tiktok has taken social media to a whole new level with its endless stream of content and a lot of people are finding it hard to stay off the app. This TikTok addiction can be harmful to your productivity and become a crutch for dealing with things in your own life. So how do you stop the addiction from becoming a problem?

TikTok doesn’t have to consume your life, leaving you wondering what else you could be doing with your time.

What makes TikTok so addicting in the first place? After the app was launched in late 2016, it became the fastest-growing social media app in the world with more active users than Twitter and Snapchat.

As soon as you visit the platform, you are bombarded with 15-second videos created primarily by young users. The platform content is immediately stimulating. But what constitutes an addiction? Well according to the article, “How TikTok Is Addictive” the inability to stop using, adverse health impacts, compulsive behavior, and usage to cope with external issues are all common indications of addiction.

TikTok as a platform satisfies some of the criteria for addiction. The brief, often fun videos supply us with essential information that elicits a dopamine reaction. This process is reinforced on a regular basis by providing us with more correctly recommended videos.

This leads to compulsively scrolling through the app which, in turn, creates an algorithm that is specific to your interest and inhibits a user’s productivity. The endless stream of content can become a coping mechanism and an easy distraction from dealing with things in your own life.

Not unlike other forms of addiction, the TikTok addiction may be difficult to overcome, but there are some basic steps you can take that will save you a lot of time on the app, time that you can use to be productive on your own.

The first and most important tip is to limit the amount of time you spend on social media a day. In your iPhone settings, there is a feature under “screen time” where you can set a limit on how long you can be on certain social media apps (Avison and Mercado, 2022). Make sure to turn this feature on so you know when you’ve reached your limit for the day.

After speaking with my roommate, Sloan Payton, a recovering, self-proclaimed TikTok addict, she told me that this feature is what helped her stay off the app. “It was hard at first, but it really helped me keep track of my time on social media and hold myself accountable,” she said.

The next thing you should do is turn off all notifications for the app. Social media alerts serve as a continual reminder that something else, probably more important, is going on in the online world, and you may feel as if you’re missing out. When you stop allowing notifications to disrupt your typical routine, you may find it easier to focus on your daily tasks and not become sidetracked as readily.

The last thing you should try is to find a new hobby outside of TikTok. This new hobby could be reading, cooking, or even knitting as long as it allows you to spend time productively offline and get your mind off of TikTok.

Although it can be easy to get sucked into the TikTok addiction that has taken the world by storm, there are actions you can take to prevent yourself from the unhealthy habit. Taking the time to simply turn off notifications or set limits on your screen time can vastly improve your productivity while decreasing your reliance on the app.

What makes TikTok so addictive is the never-ending stream of content that is catered to your interests, but by finding alternatives such as a hobby or managing your screen time you can kick this addiction to the curb.

Sources:

• “How TikTok Is Addictive.” Medium, DataSeries, 13 Sept. 2020,

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

• Avison, Phoebe, and Mia Mercado. “7 Easy Ways to Detach Yourself from Social Media.”
• Bustle, Bustle, 7 Jan. 2022,

https://www.bustle.com/life/144893-7-ways-to-stop-your-social-media-addiction.

Lauren Chesser, a senior advertising major, was deputy executive director of Bobcat Promotions during the spring of 2022.