Madeleine Catalli Blog post #4 What TikTok does to your mental health
Hello everyone!
After reading one of the articles from unit 2 my perception of TikTok changed a lot. The article is called What TikTok does to your mental health: 'It's embarrassing we know so little'. In summary, this article is revealing the negative side of TikTok that so many of us do not think about, know about, or that is being hidden. Some of these negative effects include taking part in dangerous trends (for example the blackout challenge, or the Benadryl challenge) that have led to numerous deaths (Paul, 2022). Another effect that caught my eye is the fact that TikTok has become a space for people to share "very intimate and intense things" about their lives (Paul, 2022). People follow these behaviours over TikTok because they want to fit in and because this seems to be the platform's spirit (Paul, 2022). One of the examples that the article speaks about is how many individuals use TikTok to discuss their mental health and the abuse that they are dealing with or have dealt with in the past (Paul, 2022). Even though this is a great way to spread awareness and remind people that they are not alone, these issues and topics are traumatic to speak about and do affect people's lives on a daily basis whether they spoke about it on TikTok or not. “In clinical work, we have systems in place for if a disclosure occurs – there is a safety net to catch them. And that does not exist in a social media environment” (Paul, 2022). Personally, I think raising awareness for mental health and abuse is extremely important, but I don't believe that TikTok is the correct place for people to open up to this extent and be vulnerable with their own personal life, especially when anyone can listen and comment with no restraints.
What are your thoughts? Have you ever experienced/noticed any negative effects from TikTok?
Paul. K, (2022,. What TikTok does to your mental health: 'it's embarrassing we know so little'. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/30/tiktok-mental-health-social-media
By Madeleine Catalli
Hey,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I agree completely that TikTok can have an impact on mental health and that we should be doing something to address it. I believe that TikTok may not be a great place to discuss personal issues because of the fact that it leaves the creator so vulnerable. In addition to the fact that people could create burner accounts and may try to comment on posts to be funny when in reality they are causing harm.
I really liked your post! To answer your question, part of me would like to say I haven't experienced negative effects from using TikTok only because I enjoy using it so much, but I definitely have experienced some of this and just ignored it. I use TikTok as my number one source of looking for a distraction or passing time. This can easily be seen as a negative because not only is it wasting my time, but it is also being used as something to suppress things in my life that I am not facing head on, and instead pushing it further away from me with distractions (like tik tok)
ReplyDeleteHey, I enjoyed reading your post! Tik Tok videos can go viral extremely quickly and people often hop on the latest trends such as the different challenges you mentioned above. I think people see others doing these challenges and want to hope on the trend without realizing the consequences of their actions. I have also noticed on my Tik Tok page that people will sometimes talk about sensitive topics which can be triggering for some people who were not expecting to hear/see that. I think there should be a feature that notifies you that a video discusses sensitive topics before watching it.
ReplyDeleteHey Madeleine, great post. People have become so concerned with the virtual world, placing so much value into their presence online that it can lead to awful outcomes. Its not even the dumb trends people do but the emphasis placed upon the medium, for as you mentioned people are oversharing in the hopes of fame, something that can damage their sense of self and relationships with others. Tik-Tok sucks and this was an interesting post, thanks.
ReplyDeleteHello Madeleine, I enjoyed reading your post on the negative side to the grossing social media app Tiktok. Once users join the app, people's primary objective is to try and "blow up" or get on the FYP. However, people are becoming so consumed with this, they will perform any outrageous actions or trend to hopefully stand out from other videos. However, like you stated, participating in these types of trends are dangerous and can leave serious effects and or sadly can be life altering. Ultimately, Tiktok can be a place to relax and have it used for enjoyment, but it is also an app where people are becoming brainwashed by the negativity and the constant competition to which is deteriorating the users mental health on the app.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post! I agree with the growth in TikTok many people have started glamorizing mental health (as previously seen on Tumblr.). TikTok has seen this happening and has actually imputed a feature that is anything suicidal in typed into the search bar, a pop up warning with numbers to call and places to reach out to comes up.
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