TikTok: Young People Under Influence

In recent months, the impact of TikTok on the brains of children and adolescents has been under scrutiny: it's no coincidence that the European Commission launched an investigation into the platform at the beginning of 2024. Here's a closer look at some techniques used by the Chinese social network to capture and retain its users.

Videos That Captivate Users

The human brain is programmed to automatically focus on movement, sound, and light present in our environment. A mechanism called "reflex attention".

This is triggered, for example, when we hear a loud noise that makes us jump, such as a horn or a telephone ring. It is also responsible for the difficulties we encounter in avoiding looking at a turned-on screen (such as a TV in a waiting room). TikTok precisely uses reflex attention to captivate its users, particularly with dance videos.

For adults, it is easier to control reflex attention: we do not jump every time our phone rings. However, mastering this reflex is much more complicated for a child. Exposure to screens, especially to TikTok, which uses this reflex to make its users addicted, strongly stimulates the child's reflex attention.

Swipe to Get Your Dose…

Using TikTok provides our brain with doses of dopamine. Normally, this hormone is secreted as a reward when we complete a task that requires effort (cleaning, dishwashing, work, sports...). This neurotransmitter travels from neuron to neuron and causes a feeling of pleasure.

However, TikTok provides the brain with what it likes most: a reward without any effort being required. In the long run, these repeated doses of dopamine can lead to a significant lack of motivation. Since justscrolling on TikTok can provide a reward, why bother and make an effort?

It has been demonstrated that the constant search for an immediate reward can harm productivity, disrupt sleep, and cause significant attention disorders. Discouraging for children and adolescents from engaging in tasks that require prolonged attention.

Omnipresent Music

One of TikTok's specialties? Its ability to embed catchy music snippets in your head, which are hard to shake off. These keep looping in the brain, causing an insistent desire: to return to the app to hear the tormenting tune once more.

Why? Simply because listening to these music snippets stimulates a particular area of the brain: the nucleus accumbens. This area is responsible for our uncontrollable desires to do or consume something, despite all our efforts to resist.

When this area is activated, it secretes that famous dopamine. A sense of well-being can also be experienced through the production of endorphin. This mechanism contributes to the development of addictive behaviors among children and adolescents.

Short and Unlimited Contents, Playing on the Element of Surprise

The contents offered on the app cause constant stimulation of the brain : it never gets bored. With each scroll, a new video appears. Initially, the user does not know what content or subject this video will cover. If the theme is not to their liking, they can scroll again to change the video. And potentially, view content more suited to their tastes (receiving their dose of dopamine in the process).

TikTok plays on this element of surprise to make users addicted. Over time, this repetition can lead them to develop addictive behavior, which is very concerning for children and adolescents. In this regard, the operation of the app can be compared to gambling. The user never knows if they will win (that is, watch a video they like and receive their dose of dopamine) or lose (that is, stumble upon content that does not interest them).

The extremely short duration of the videos (most are 15 to 30 seconds) exacerbates the zapping effect. This undermines the ability of young users to concentrate, especially with longer and more detailed content.

Contents Tailored to Users' Preferences

The TikTok algorithm is complex. An equation made up of the number of views, of likes, of comments, and the time spent on videos determines the promotion of content on the app.

The platform also offers its users batches : these sets of 30 videos help determine their preferences. How? By basing it on the time spent on each video, the likes sent and the creators followed. Within a few hours, the app determines the user's profile by collecting information about their personality, tastes, desires, how quickly they get bored, etc. The endless content in the "For You" feed then adapts to the preferences detected by TikTok: similar videos, likely to appeal to the user, appear.

What are the goals of TikTok's algorithm? To develop strong retention among users (in other words, to keep them coming back to the app), and to ensure they spend a maximum amount of time on it. These elements also contribute to the development of addictive behaviors among users: children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable.

When put together, these various problematic elements accumulate and act on TikTok users. At stake: depressive symptoms, anxiety, eating disorders, emotion management problems, addictive behaviors... even suicidal tendencies, in some extreme cases.

All these phenomena reinforce the need:

to understand how these platforms function, especially to identify what drives children and adolescents to return to them - and to spend so much time on them.
to educate the young on digital media, to foster a step back from their online habits - and to provide them with the tools to regain control in everyday life.