I DELETED TIKTOK AFTER TWO WEEKS. HERE’S WHY.
The year is 2020. We’re experiencing an apocalyptic moment. Yet, still posting to Instagram Stories, sending emails, and, well this is new, learning dances for a rising app called TikTok.
In no time, it felt like everyone was on TikTok. Instagram influencers were migrating in droves because the app was fresh and it was ‘easy’ to build a following. Artists, teachers, doctors, had a new way to reach bizarre numbers of people–– all by posting a 15-second video with a trending audio.
As a die-hard photography and long-form content stan, I was very uninterested in Tiktok. And I continued to be until a month ago. Some of my favorite fashion Instagrammers kept posting Reels of their TikToks, and so it made sense to get the app itself. Using the app for a few weeks, I realized it started to make me feel uncomfortable. It was a feeling I couldn’t quite place but have since parsed through. And as of a week ago, I no longer have or use TikTok.
TIKTOK AND PARASOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
Social media is fascinating. It allows us to connect with celebrities, experts in different fields, and people who share our interests from all over the world. We feel connected to these people, but on Youtube and Instagram, it’s clear that we don’t actually know these creators we follow. Or, at least, we can tell that their content is intentionally produced for our consumption.
As a creator myself, I value that. My following doesn’t assume I happened to be on a rocky beach wearing a gorgeous dress and happened to capture it. They recognize that while it is a moment that is true to my creative sensibilities, I planned it.
When I watch a vlog from my favorite Youtuber, I know that they chose which clips created the 13-minute video. I could still develop a parasocial relationship with them because I get intimate glimpses into their lives, but the fourth wall remains intuitively clear to me. With Tiktok, I can’t say that that’s true.
THE PARADOX OF AUTHENTICITY
On TikTok, everything feels immersive, screen-less.
I am in Person A’s bedroom watching them try on clothes. In person B’s kitchen watching them make a coffee. In Person C’s living room listening to them talk about their dying plants. They may have shot these clips over and over again, rehearsed their movements, scripted the friendly chat, but the very ordinary production [and] quality limits my conscious awareness of that.
The creator on TikTok feels like an everygirl– just like me. She has an apartment, like me. She wakes up everyday at 5am, like me. She has these picture-perfect daily moments, like me– or the me I would be if I would get my shit together and be ‘that girl.’
Tiktok, somehow, erodes that awareness that the people on the other side are creators. These are people whose livelihoods is creating entertaining or informative bits of content. We are not the same.
The dichotomy further disappears when the everyday user also feels as though, because they are so like the creator, they too must organically capture picture perfect moments, casually walk 10,000 steps every day. It started to feel unsettling for me how commonplace it was to turn everything into an aesthetic, commodifying one’s everyday life, even for people for whom it wasn’t their job.
And it concerned me that people much younger than I am would feel this was the natural thing to do.
HARM REDUCTION ON TIKTOK
Many TikTok users decry the harm of the app: poor regulation of content for minors, the ease of disinformation. Many say it aggravates their anxiety and trashes their attention span. The laser-sharp prediction of the algorithm turns the app into a complete time suck. For me, the format of its content and this almost invisible manufactured authenticity deeply unsettled me.
It’s currently not clear to me how to mitigate these issues, or use the app so it helps more than it hurts, so I’m choosing to stay off it.
How do you feel about TikTok? I’d love to know,
Amoafoa.
wow, you beautifully articulated some sentiments I have about the app and many others I had not considered. I always thought the ease with which people could just create on tiktok was a plus, but I see now that it might not necessarily be so. I did start using it in 2020 as well but after a few months on the app, I deleted it. My main reasons were the bulk of information being forced down my throat all the time and how fast paced everything was. You don’t even need to scroll much; it also produced a short attention span which I already felt like IG was doing somehow and I didn’t need to add it into the mix. It’s been over a year now and I doubt I would return soon, although there are some creators I like to check out from time to time and so I login from my laptop and search their names and watch those specific content. Thank you for sharing.