﻿Tiktok today has become one of the most popular social media platforms in the world due to its
massive number of followers. The reason for this rising popularity is due to unique, trendy,
and somewhat controversial content available on the app and the opportunity to imitate,
which has made many of them the so-called TikTok stars But in the recent past TikTok had landed in
hot waters due to many controversies revolving around it, from dangerous online challenges,
negative impact on mental health to spreading false and misleading content. Now Let’s find
out how TikTok is actually making you dumber.
The top four TikTok accounts in the world are Charli D'Amelio, Khaby Lame, Bella Poarch,and Addison Rae.
Which of these four create original meaningful and beneficial content?
That's right. Zero! That is the current state of TikTok.
A place where literally shaking your head and folding your arms gets you billions of views,
where dance trends and silly faces mean you get all the attention. A place where the dumb rule and
the intellectuals are pushed to the side.
First launched in September 2016, the social media app created by ByteDance,
TikTok, has shot up in popularity within the past few years. Today, TikTok is the third
largest social media app in the world, only behind the two Meta companies, Instagram and Facebook.
At this moment in time, it seems as though everyone is aware of the problems with Mark
Zuckerberg and his companies. However, not many people apply the same level of scrutiny to Tiktok,
perhaps because they are more attached to it because it is a product of their generation.
If for some reason you live under a rock and don't know what the hell I'm talking about. Well, here's
a bit of an introduction. TikTok is a social media app that is primarily used for sharing
short vertical videos with others on the app. The app has gained in popularity in recent years,
especially among teenagers and young adults. The main selling point of this app is that the videos
are short and sweet, just like fast food. This brings me to my first
big problem with TikTok. ##Tiktok is like fast food
TikTok is designed to be consumed quickly and without much thought. Without even owning an
account, you can literally hop into the app and within minutes, the algorithm will start feeding
you with videos it knows you'll enjoy, without regard for whether it's healthy for you or not.
It's the fast-food of the social media world. Just like how McDonald's sells you a quick and
easy meal that you can consume on the go, TikTok sells you short videos that you can
consume quickly and without much effort. The videos on TikTok are short, in fact,
the shorter the better. Some creators have recently come out on the platform,
citing the fact that it appears that the algorithm is starting to aggressively push 7-second videos.
And this does not come as a surprise to anyone on the outside looking in. The app is designed to
reduce the collective attention span of the next generation. Kids who grow up watching 7-second
videos on their smartphones quickly start to think that that's how fast life is and should be.
They will no longer have the patience to sit through a one-hour lecture on an important
subject, or even consume more "boring" but important content like news coverage,
political debates, and the like. We're literally raising a generation who
think that if it cannot fit in a 60-second video, then it's not worth their time. That is a scary
future to think about. ## TikTok is turning
us into a generation of idiots If TikTok was only just reducing our attention
span, then maybe it would have been fine. But the reality is much worse. You see, TikTok is actively
encouraging the dumbing down of our society. The app is built on a concept known as "infinite
scroll". This means that once you start watching videos on TikTok,
the app will keep feeding you with more and more videos, one after the other, in an endless loop.
You can easily spend hours on the app without even realizing it. And the longer you stay on the app,
the dumber you become. Why? Because the app literally encourages people to act dumber.
In August 2021, people started stacking milk crates like steps, and then someone would
climb up to the top and back down on the other side. It was called the milk crate challenge.
The challenge went viral on TikTok, with people across the globe trying to outdo
each other by stacking more and more crates. The problem is, milk crates are not meant
to be stacked that high, and certainly people aren't meant to be climbing them.
Sadly, some people had to pay with their lives before the entire world of TikTok
realized the madness they had created. And that is just one of the many dangerous,
stupid, and dumb things that the app promotes. Just search up "TikTok Challenge" on Youtube and
you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. The scariest thing about all of this is that
this only happens on TikTok, and not on Douyin, the Chinese version of the app.
##the difference with TikTok in China They say that to understand the correct
use of a thing, you have to take a look at its origin. So, why don't we take a trip to
China to see what TikTok actually is? In China, TikTok is called Douyin,
and it might as well be a completely different app because Douyin and
TikTok couldn't be more opposite. While TikTok promotes nonsensical videos,
memes, and stupid challenges, Douyin promises videos of engineering marvels,
inspiring stories, and educational content. The app is designed to make you think,
not to keep you glued to your phone like a zombie. It encourages their kids to fall
in love with tech and engineering, to boost their productivity and expand their thinking capacity.
Douyin was literally made to make Chinese kids smarter. Meanwhile,
the Chinese communist party has sent the complete opposite to the other parts of the world,
so that while its children are getting smarter, the rest of the world is getting dumber.
It's no wonder that countries like India and Iran have banned the app
completely. They understand how the Chinese government can use TikTok to
control the thoughts and opinions of the next generation using this app.
Because the algorithm provides you with all the content, you don't even get a say in what you
decide to watch. So the Chinese government can literally tailor what you see until
your For You Page becomes an echo chamber, only showing you content that agrees with
the worldview they want you to have. This is a scary future to think about,
and it's exactly what China through TikTok is doing to the rest of the world.
Now here's the challenge. Not the TikTok challenge, but the real
challenge. What do we actually do about TikTok? Governments across the globe are struggling
to figure out how to deal with TikTok. But at the end of the day, it is up to us, the users,
to decide what we want to do with the app. We can choose to use TikTok like China
wants us to, and let the app turn us into dumber versions of ourselves.
Or we can use TikTok to educate ourselves, to make ourselves better people, and to fight against the
tide of stupidity that the app is promoting. I see accounts like Hank Green teaching and
trying to stop the spread of misinformation on the app. If we the users can show our support to these
types of people, instead of stupid dances and challenges, then maybe we can make a difference.
We also need to be careful about how much time we spend on the app. Just because it
has some educational content doesn't mean that we should be using it for hours on end.
It's important to balance out our use of the app with other activities like reading,
studying, and socializing. Go outside and touch some grass, and stop living
in a fantasy world designed by an algorithm. For more videos like this, be sure to hit that
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below the like button. Thanks for watching.