TIKTOK TRAP

The TikTok Dilemma: brain vs. scrolling?

Today thinking is not in vogue. Why? Super-short videos on one of the most mainstream trash platforms, TikTok, insanely bad for concentration, along with ChatGPT, are forcing an entire generation to learn how to use their brains anymore. 

For me, and I hope for many other people either, TikTok is a harmful app, that plays with dopamine, and the continuous use of it makes people completely addicted to this short burst of randomly pushed videos, it destroys the attention span of the people, since it accustoms the consumers of the app to be bombarded by tons of mostly useless information. Long-time users of this app are rendered useless since they find many activities too boring and are already addicted to apps like TikTok.

It doesn't even train our brain to think, it is just some continuous scrolling and watching, and the reading skills are not trained. Overwhelmed by the scrolling our brain is saturated with information mostly useless this is the complete opposite of meditation, it renders our brain saturated and not capable of concentrating on any matter at all. 

This app is like a slot machine, once you are in you need more and want more, and you just cannot easily escape from it. Thousands of people are wasting their free time with this app, not getting anything of use or constructive from spending this time with it.

Why shouldn't we ban TikTok? What are the pros of this app? What tangible and useful stuff can you do besides overloading people's brains with thousands of stories in a fraction of a minute?

While researching this platform, I came up with an impression that made me think about the creation of this platform and its popularity as a whole. Since its establishment in 2017 from its twin-sister DOUYIN, the separate Chinese version of Tik-Tok with the same features, patterns, logo, and what is more crucial here, just are based on the same powerful algorithm. Even though it became viral due to the pandemic time, countries were against it. Starting with India which banned it for explicit content leading to the loose of 200 million of its users, Pakistan, and even the US banned it around a year ago. I have seen so many politicians and people on Reddit equating it with the Trojan horse due to security issues. By the way, do you know that this app keeps all of your data? Yes, including all the info about you, search history, interests, etc. It knows everything about you. And your info goes right to the Chinese government. But it is just conspiracy theories rumoring it. Maybe? At least app creators swear that it is a rumor and you can believe in them, lol. 

All these actions by the governments against this app are just a political battle. Yes, you can spread propaganda there too on the world’s hot topics, such as Taiwan, Pro-Russian War, Pro-Communist, Anti-American, Anti-Capitalist, and many more. 

Propaganda was not my target. Here I would like to go deeper and reveal some proven facts from the experience of the app users to see the generation-destroying effect of this.

The powerful algorithm is the key to the app. All the generated videos come out based only on your interest. Many of them for example promote depression and harmful health product contents, leading a suicide and death worldwide. Drugs are not an exception. Based on this algorithm, if pedophiles want to see underaged children dance sexually, they will see them. More and more content within just a swipe. 

TikTok has an age restriction! Really? Do people obey them? I could find a case on the Internet where one little young girl is dancing in her school uniform on the floor of her classroom. Do you think her peers are watching? Her comments and reactions were left by the older men. 

Not only me who did some research on this. One journalist posted on YouTube his work. He investigated how girls under 18 and even 16 were paid for compromising positions and sexual content. When he tried to follow the life chats and ask for the evidence, the following happened. In some chats, as it is expected, he was ignored or refused. Other girls suspended and kicked out him of the chat. However, the third category of answers was the most thought-provoking. When he asked some girls about their experience of selling sexual content on the app, and right after they answered positively, the moderators of the platform just banned these accounts. The right was to avoid the truth, wasn’t it? Before these girls were banned, they managed to reveal that they don’t, but know exactly girls selling their bodies online and nudes to paid users watching them. 

What happened when the US government banned the app a year ago? People have started to go to meetings against this law. People calling themselves ‘influencers’ were so mad and violent due to the scary of losing ‘their job’ forever. Really? That is the angle they take here? I could understand concerns around censorship and this ban being a dangerous precedent, allowing the government to ban arbitrary 'undesirable' apps - but corporate profits and 'influencers'?

This app contributes nothing of value to the society. People moving away from it to something else almost certainly would result in a net positive gain. 

"She is amateur hanging no abilities to use this platform!" haters say.  While TikTok users may be selling themselves for views or money,  isn't that the nature of the platform?  It's easy to judge, but who are we to say what's cheap and what's not?