by Amir Ali , July 05,2020
Overview
The “Tik Tok” app is a music creative short video social software that went live in September 2016. In 2017, has gone from being a dark horse to the front runner amongst the short video messaging apps.It has overrun YouTube in India,with more than 200 million . India has the most downloads of Tik Tok globally in the world in 2020 till June.
When it comes to the top used Social media platforms in the world,Tik Tok stands seventh in the list.
Formerly known as A.me; its name changed to “Tik Tok” in 2017 ,was fully promoted in the second quarter of 2017.There are lots of controversies associated with Tik Tok and the latest in the list is the ban on Tik Tok by the Indian government.
You must have wondered someday,Why is Tik-Tok so famous? Who made Tik-Tok famous?Why do youngsters spend plentiful time on the Tik Tok(or the like)app?
This article analyzes the problems associated with its use and the psychological reasons for the popularity of the “Tik Tok” app.
Problems
Several problems have come into being since the Chinese app has launched on the global platform.Some of them are listed below:-
Accidental and Suicidal Deaths
According to the Sun,U.K. there have been 41 deaths in total which are linked to the app.Some of them are suicide while others are accidents which occurred while shooting the video using the app.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10929917/tiktok-deaths-suicides-videos-stunts/
News about the accidental deaths while recording a video for Tik Tok or uploading a video before committing suicide are heard occasionally.
Hatred and Anti-Social Elements on Tik Tok
The app has given an open platform to those anti-social elements who freely spit out their prejudices, hates and angers on the app against the other groups or communities.
The growing extremism on the Tik-Tok have become more prominent and massive recently.While most of the scholarly attention is focused on leading platforms like Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, the extremist immigration to other platforms like TikTok went unnoticed.
Surveillance and Data theft
This app has no privacy at all! If you use it then your data is not at all secure .They not only steal your data but also use it for surveillance.According to a guy engineered the app,and published an article on boredpanda.com(a blogging app),he says that the app is taking even those permission from the users to access their data which has no connection with the genre of the app.You may read the full article here:-
https://www.boredpanda.com/tik-tok-reverse-engineered-data-information-collecting/
Vulgarity and No supervision
The type of content that goes viral on the app is extremely vulgar, unethical and against the social standards.Girls and guys can be commonly seen singing vulgar songs, performing vulgar dance moves , or giving vulgar statements on the app and the sad part is that all this content is smoothly accessible even by the kids! Since the app has no supervision.
Unlike all other social media TikTok’ s users are almost all young children, who are more naive and gullible when it comes to malicious content.
Waste of Time, Energy and Skills
Users spend a huge amount of time, energy and skills on the app.They spend hours in watching, recording and editing videos which are worthless, most of the times.
Yes,there are some who are earning from the platform but these are exceptional cases.Generally ,using this or the similar apps is waste of time , energy and skills which could be used somewhere else.
Why Is Tik Tok So Popular?
Some of the major reasons which made the Tik Tok popular amongst the youths are as follows :-
The Survival Instinct and the Esteem
Humans beings have three basic instincts which are common amongst all of us irrespective of gender, colour,region, wealth,education and even time.These Instincts are— Survival instinct,Sexual instinct and the instinct to Sanctify the Creator.
The desire to become famous and get recognised everywhere is instinctual which comes under umbrella of the Survival instinct.
According to the famous psychologist Abraham Maslow human beings have some common needs which are hierarchical in order;start from the physiological needs and go up to self-actualisation.Maslow puts fame,esteem and acknowledgement at stage four in his needs pyramid.
One agrees to do anything to attain this fame without thinking about good or bad; right or wrong; necessary or worthless and private or social so is the case with of the Tik Tok users ,mostly.
Tik-Tokers have a drive to get fame and name which ultimately compel them to do weird things. However,it is evident from the experience that many of the users didn’t even cross the second stage as per Maslow’s pyramid.
Film Fantasy
The present and the past two generations of kids have grown up watching unrealistic movies, exaggerated stories, listening to addicted music,and admiring those reel life characters which have image even larger than later life.They day dream of becoming like their favourite movie star or character and achieving the same so called success which he or she has.
In 'Fake Junkies' a book written by Jake Halpern in which he says that their (teens) fame-seeking behavior appears rooted in a desire for social acceptance, a longing for the existential reassurance promised by wide renown.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Fame_Junkies.html?id=QBw4YB11J94C
They become so obsessed with stars that they start imitating them. Following this obsession they make videos on the app to look like their role models.They want to be noticed, wanted to be loved, to walk into a place and have others care about what you’re doing.
Loneliness
Loneliness ?Really?Is the Tik Tok not a social media platform? It is! But studies have proved that among the users who spend most time on social media are the ones who are lonely in their personal life.They lack friends ,they don't have a communication with their family members as well and as a consequence a void gets created in their lives and to fill this void they use social media.
According to the article published in ‘The Conversation' by Roger Patulnny,In the year 2018 Australian Loneliness Report, more than one-quarter of survey participants reported feeling lonely three or more days a week.
Research reveals social media is most effective in tackling loneliness when it is used to enhance existing relationships, or forge new meaningful connections. On the other hand, it is counterproductive if used as a substitute for real-life social interaction.
Overnight Success
It is bitter;but the truth,that many Tik Tokers have a desire to achieve the success overnight.Instead of learning crucial skills, gaining knowledge and experience in their respective fields they waste most of their times in recording and editing videos.Most probably,they try their luck without a strong base.
This unrealistic assumption that they will become rich just by uploading videos is leading them towards destruction.Without denying the fact that there are few who have earned a lot of money by the platform but their ratio is really low almost negligible.
Ignorance of Parents
This is one of the biggest reasons which is not specific to Tik Tok but it applies to the entire domain of the Social media and internet .
"http://www.freepik.com">Designed by Freepik</a>
Parents these days have become ignorant ,careless and irresponsible towards their children that they won't give a damn !To what their children are doing on mobile phones and laptops.
The height of dumbness is that they show such kind of behaviour in the name of 'Personal Freedom’.However, they don’t realise fact that freedom is not permitting anything they want to do without considering its possible consequences.This sort of behaviour is dangerous not only for their kids but also for the entire society.
Hence,there is an immediate need to educate our parents and to create awareness among them! In fact, their child is becoming a slave of the technology;and of those who are controlling such platforms by standing behind the curtains.
Conclusion
At last,as now this app(and the like) has been banned in India; already banned in Taiwan and Germany much before that ,should be banned globally .People should be counselled,provided guidance ,supervised and taken care of their emotions. There is huge need to develop a healthy personal communication with them to protect them from the possible threats of social media in general and video networking platforms like the Tik Tok in particular.