There’s one app almost every teen has heard of: TikTok. Even if you aren’t one of the app’s 1.7 billion global users, you probably are using a similar app that consumes “short-form content” – videos that are usually under 2 minutes long – such as Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, or Snapchat Spotlight. Released worldwide in 2018, TikTok quickly gained popularity, becoming the most downloaded app of 2022. Consequently, there has been growing concern for the way TikTok captures our attention.
Principle of Random Reinforcement
Studies show that the average person spends 1.5 hours a day on TikTok. How does TikTok keep us hooked for that long? TikTok and similar apps operate by using the principle of random reinforcement. A study conducted by American psychologist and behaviorist B.F Skinner found that after rats were delivered food pellets as a reward for pressing a lever, they became bored. You can think of receiving food pellets as watching the same movie over and over again. The first time you watch one, it’s exciting because you don’t know things will play out. However, if you watch it a second time and so forth, it becomes tiring. You know what’s going to happen. You just want to get to the good part. Scenes which were exciting the first time you watched them become mundane, leading to boredom.
However, when the pellets were randomly delivered after pressing the lever repeatedly, the rats became obsessed to a point where they abandoned regular habits, such as sleeping or eating. Gambling is a typical example of this: you win some, you lose some. On some presses of the lever, you might get nothing. But if you keep pressing it, the pellets will eventually be delivered. Even if you “lose,” the thought that you might win the next one keeps you going and it eventually turns into an addiction.
Addiction
While scrolling on TikTok is a less extreme example of random reinforcement than gambling, the same principle can be applied to it. The video you just watched wasn’t particularly entertaining, but maybe the next one will be. So you keep scrolling. The videos are only a few seconds long – you’re not wasting much time, right? And soon, it’s an addiction. You can’t stand to watch videos longer than a few seconds. You need to get to the good part. Scrolling takes over your life. You can’t find motivation to do things you used to enjoy doing, because they take too long or they don’t entertain you. Sitting through a whole film or even a five minute video seems tedious. And things can get worse. A study by the NIH proves that the addictive use of TikTok and similar short-form content apps are linked to depression, anxiety, stress, and memory loss. Though you may not realize it until it’s too late, it has become an addiction.
While it may seem hard to stop scrolling, many people report that quitting social media has improved their mental health. You don’t even have to take it that far – simply setting restrictions on apps like TikTok can help too. After all, social media isn’t entirely bad for you. It can help you connect with other people, such as sending your friend a video that you think they would enjoy or making TikToks with your friends. There’s nothing inherently wrong with spending time on social media, as long as you remain mindful of how it could be impacting you.
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