OPINION: Tik Tok Should Have Stayed Banned - But Not For The Reason You Think

The United States just about broke down when congress announced that TikTok, a popular social media platform, would be banned. The app has around 170 million users in the US alone. Many of these users are content creators as well, who use their platforms for a variety of topics. When the devastating news was shared, creators and silent scrollers alike were quick to share their opinions. Lawmakers and US officials shared that the app’s Chinese origins posed a national security threat. Many officials believed that the app was able to gather and sell data to China. American users proposed many conspiracies against the ban and shared frustrations as to why congress was spending time on such a thing. Others flat-out shared that they did not care if China was stealing their information. 

On January 19, the ban took effect. When users opened the app they were greeted with a message explaining the issue. However, no more than 24 hours later the app was back up. Content on TikTok resumed as normal and America rejoiced. After the scare, creators seemed to move on to the next new thing quickly. While scrolling through the app you’re unlikely to find content on the same issues for long. On TikTok information comes and goes, even something as big as banning the app entirely. Therein lies the issue with TikTok; short-form content forces users to move too quickly. The problem is not whether our data is being sold to China because it’s being sold everywhere else. The issue is that our attention-spans are being sold. The rise of short-form content has been detrimental to our mental states and focus. 

Let’s think back to what entertainment looked like a few decades ago. If we were bored we’d read a book or go talk to our families. Fast forward a few more years and now we have movies to keep us entertained. I have vivid memories of picking out DVDs to rent with my mom whenever we had the chance. Now, we have a million streaming services to watch whatever we want, whenever we want. Social media is no different, we can tune into the world at the tap of a button. Notice a trend? The activities we use for stimulation and dopamine have gotten shorter and shorter. So has our attention spans. Somehow, we’ve deemed scrolling through an endless stream of videos as entertaining. One minute you’ve just gotten home from school and, taking a quick break, you decide to scroll before starting your homework. The next moment the sun's setting and you haven’t gotten anything done. With this realization you finally sit down to do your homework but you find it hard to concentrate. Why is that?

By introducing these short videos, TikTok has been able to successfully appeal to our basic animalistic functions. A study conducted by B.F. Skinner in the 1920s went as follows: Skinner placed a rat in a box with a lever. When pulled, the lever would produce a treat. As the rat went from accidentally pulling the lever to intentionally pulling it Skinner saw the rats behavior change. Eventually, the rat lost interest in pulling the lever. Skinner then began feeding the rat at random intervals. Immediately the rat's excitement came back. So much so that the rat would lose interest in more important tasks such as grooming and sleeping just in case a treat was produced. This is the same thing happening with TikTok. The uncertainty we have about what the next video could be keeps us engaged. This phenomenon has had a variety of effects on our mental states. 

According to psychiatrist Dr. Kanojia, “...what's happening is we are actually selecting for shorter and shorter attention spans. So as kids start watching TikTok and if we kind of look at the adhd diagnosis, adhd has been increasing all along.” That’s right folks, TikTok is increasing the symptoms of ADHD in kids. That idea boils back down to our decreasing ability to focus on one thing. We don’t have to wait to get to the ‘good part’ of things anymore, thus limiting our capacity to concentrate. The dopamine we receive when engaging in stimulating activities is now just being handed to us. The availability of millions of topics gets us excited and ready to move onto the next thing. Many of them joked that the ban would help them get their lives together. I believe these jokes are becoming a reality. While TikTok doesn’t necessarily need to be banned, it does need to be limited in some way. We can’t keep sacrificing hours of our time to watch influencers unbox the next great product. 

If you made it this far, great! If you skipped to the end here's the rundown: We’re spending more and more time watching 30 second videos which inhibit our reward systems. Instead of having to sit through a movie or read a book our dopamine is handed to us on a red and blue platter. As TikTok grabs more and more attention the cycle will keep going. I encourage students and adults alike to find hobbies or extracurricular activities. While TikTok doesn’t need to be banned, as it’s a great resource, time spent on it should be heavily reduced. The endless stream of videos does more harm than good. We’re investing more than just our time when scrolling.