Point at Issue: Tik Tok and Mental Health
Chesnot
It's true that social media changes our brains. We scroll through thousands of images and comments each week. The surge in online media usage brings the opportunity to connect with friends, family members, and coworkers. But does the rise in social media usage, specifically Tik Tok, come with unintended consequences?
Tik Tok, a video-sharing platform that has surged in popularity over the past several months, is under fire for a graphic video of a man shooting himself with a gun. Although disturbing videos and images scatter themselves throughout the internet, Tik Tok's algorithm allows content to reach a much wider audience than a Facebook group or an Instagram post. Since Tik Tok's algorithm relies on its "For You" page, it serves users an endless stream of content based on what you may enjoy. Thus, it's easy for content to shift from positive to negative, enjoyable to disturbing.
Besides violent, self-harm content, Tik Tok at times seems to promote content that employs dangerous behaviors. As a digital environment, Tik Tok allows users to publish whatever content, with little guidelines. Therefore, it's easy for Tik Tok content to glamourize and promote triggering and harmful content about mental health and eating disorders.
Although Tik Tok's community guidelines remove videos that "promote eating habits that are likely to cause health issues," videos that deal with extreme weight loss, diet videos, and other pro-eating disorder behaviors arise on the app. There's even a trend of videos with the sound of "Weight Loss Check" that includes videos of "before-and-after" transformations of users losing extreme amounts of weight in a short time. One of these videos, posted by Tik Tok user @.jaymoney, has reached 2.1 million likes for videos of her journey from 240 pounds to 160 pounds. Despite the possible intention for the video to serve as inspirational, comments like "went from takis for breakfast to avocado toast," "keep it up, my goal is 115" flood the video. Because Tik Tok's algorithm serves videos such as this to users based upon interactions with different videos, even watching one weight loss video means a guarantee of many more showing up on someone's Tik Tok feed. For people struggling with eating disorders or body dysmorphia, these types of videos may be especially triggering. Even by searching "weight loss" on Tik Tok, there are videos with millions of views and likes that show transitions of, mostly women, losing weight. Users promote "What I eat in a day" Tik Tok videos, sometimes with thousands of views, but where the user only drinks a black coffee and curbs cravings with ice chips.
Hayley Gordon, a sophomore at The University of Southern California, fears the influence these videos will have on the younger audience watching. She says, "My sister is going into 7th grade, and it's scary for me to see that she can see [videos] like what I eat in a day, and it's like a rice cake and a cup of coffee and three grapes... she's twelve." Hayley says that although anyone on Tik Tok has the right to post unique content, the videos hold more power than we think.
Besides the various trending Tik Tok videos that feature this content, other popularized Tik Tok videos include jokes about mental illness and suicide. Although Tik Tok has blocked these kinds of searches when a user searches "suicide" as the keyword, and instead generates the phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, videos that deal with mental illness are often from a humorous angle. A Tik Tok video, posted by the user @a1voo on September 2nd, has tallied 2 million views. In the Tik Tok video, the user films himself in front of a doctor's office virtual background. On the Tik Tok, the text states, "When you filling out the doctor survey about your health and they ask, "have you ever wanted to kill yourself." The audio on this video is, "Wow, that's a great question...I wasn't expecting that question", and the comments section is filled with remarks like, "Do they think I'm gonna say the truth like-" and "I stare at it...then lie".
Although content such as this, where details about personal mental health adorn themselves with humor, I wonder if this content is positive or negative for viewers who may have dealt with suicidal thoughts or actions in the past.
Is laughter the best medicine?
Although using humor as a segway to disclose emotions or behaviors can break the ice with other people, the lines are blurred when Tik Tok comes into play. Everyone on the app comes from a different walk of life, with different thoughts, challenges, and tropes. Thus, it's hard to determine if this type of humor is good, harmful, damaging, or even a minor concern among users.
Tik Tok is a purely visual application that comes with a possibility for specific videos and published content to fall through the cracks. Thus, it's difficult to discern if, in the case of mental health, Tik Tok is breaking down the stigma around mental health, or doing more harm than good by making these types of emotive struggles a laughing matter. In terms of the content that leans towards pro-diet culture and weight loss, viewing this type of content is likely triggering or harmful for Tik Tok's audience, whether or not they are older, younger, struggling, or not.
Although social media acts as a vehicle for connection, the content within Tik Tok may come with consequences, so scroll with caution and make sure to check up on your friends, family, coworkers, and peers. Most importantly, you are not alone.
Confidential Resources:
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: (800)-273-8255
SAMHSA’s National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
NEDA (National Eating Disorders Association): (800)-931-223
