TikTok: Entertaining or Detrimental? Victoria Sordi

    After going through the readings for unit II, one of the readings that  stood out to me have been “What TikTok does to your mental health: ‘It’s embarrassing we know so little’” written by Kari Paul. Social media has become a part of our daily lives, creating an online version of us. However, this online version of us is taking a toll on our mental health without us realizing. TikTok specifically in the few years since it has been launched, has attracted more than 1 billion users. One main concern about TikTok is the dangerous challenges users have been exposed to. For instance, the article mentions the “blackout challenge” which led to the deaths of several young girls. The “blackout challenge” was a choking game which involved intentionally trying to choke oneself or another in order to obtain a brief euphoric state or “high.” This was just one of the many challenges that were introduced on TikTok and put many individuals lives at a risk. Another underlying issue regarding TikTok specifically is its algorithm. 

TikToks algorithm is reflected on your “for you” feed and changes over time based on your viewing habits and preferences. This has an effect on many users mental health in the long term as mentioned in the article “the app provides an endless stream of emotional nudges, which can be hard to recognize and really impact users in the long run” (Paul, 2022). The consumption of the content will not affect users overnight, however in the long run it could have serious impacts on their mental health. Additionally, although it brings awareness on mental health it has caused for an extreme number of medical misinformation, especially from advertising money because of for-profit mental health start-ups (Paul, 2022).

 I believe that discussing mental health on social media is extremely important, however based off this article and from my own use of TikTok mental health is glamourized on the platform. I disagree with glamourizing mental health, because individuals are not taking mental health seriously but rather as a joke because of social media platforms such as TikTok. I do think that there should be limits on what it posted in regards to mental health on any social media platform. If there are not any limits, social media will only worsen the mental health of its users. 




Comments

  1. Alicia MaxDecember 2, 2022 at 12:14 PM

    Hi Victoria! I agree with you that TikTok is not glamourizing mental health. However, I think many influencers will use mental health advice or experiences to gain followers and attention on the app. Due to mental health influencers, I also believe that there should be regulations and limitations placed on what is posted. To this degree, I think TikTok should ensure that those who are providing mental or physical health advice are licensed within their field. Great post!

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  2. Sarah HumphreysDecember 4, 2022 at 1:47 PM

    I think this post is very important! I believe mental health awareness is so important. It is clear as you mentioned in your post that TikTok has begun glamourizing mental health issues. Many creators have post content that includes bad jokes romanticizing mental health trauma, however there seems to be a disregard that these types of glamorizing videos can trigger individuals who have experienced or are experiencing mental health issues. In an essence, these jokes make the illness seem desirable while belittling the true struggles behind them. Mental health awareness is so important, however, it is not something to joke about as users have gone too far with their humour.

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  3. Erika PerliniDecember 5, 2022 at 10:21 AM

    Hi Victoria! Very interesting post. I think the way social media platforms can affect users mental health is a very important discussion topic. Due to the way social media such as TikTok has become mediated within our everyday schedules, I know myself and probably some others can spend hours scrolling daily. Since the affordance of constant and new entertainment the app allows for, this can be potentially dangerous at what type of content users are engaging with. These popular challenges like you mentioned will always be seen due to the algorithm and TikTok users might feel obligated to participate because of the sense of inclusivity.

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  4. Mahaila MilneDecember 5, 2022 at 5:39 PM

    Hi Victoria,

    I enjoyed reading your post and definitely agree with you that mental health should be discussed on social media and shouldn't be glamourized on social media platforms. It is definitely interesting when you consider how we don't know much at all about TikTok specifically, yet it is such a big part of people's lives. I think that mental health should be emphasized and talked about more on platforms, specifically people with larger followings so that more people can be reached with their ideas. I also found it interesting how you talked about TikTok's algorithms, and the trends and "challenges" that are created and shared throughout the platform. Overall, great post!

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  5. Isaac CardosoDecember 6, 2022 at 10:02 PM

    Hi Victoria,
    I really like your post and I agree that mental health shouldn't be glamourized on the app and I think it brings together a bunch of issues where people might like about being a doctor or a professional of some sort on apps such as TikTok and take advantage of it simply in order to gain followers. How do you think they can monitor who posts these type of things with no only mental health but general health conditions to stop people from gaining social media fame through lying about their jobs and information they put online?

    ReplyDelete

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