In 2019, the social media application, TikTok, took the public by storm. Its fast-growing popularity turned TikTok into today’s biggest social media platform, a true global phenomenon. As Tik Tok grew, it became a space for people to use 30-second videos to express themselves and talk about their thoughts. However, the quick videos, fast laughs, short stories, and direct addresses, developed unhealthy habits that were caused by the overwhelmingly rapid pace of TikTok.  

In most cases, those who use TikTok end up finding themselves late at night, scrolling mindlessly through an endless feed of short entertaining content. With all the short, quick videos present it’s easy for users to lose themselves in the never-ending stream of content. While it is definitely addicting, it promotes bad behavior among teens. 

 Last year on the 8th grade trip to Washington DC, we went to countless memorials and museums where I witnessed my peers making TikToks and doing dances in front of the Vietnam memorial, the wall of names, and in front of the Lincoln memorial. They fought and provided for our country only to have a group of teenagers “throw it back” in front of their memorials. This disrespectful behavior is, of course, heavily represented on the platform and even encouraged by users on it. 

Not only does TikTok promote rude behavior, but it is also a space where people promote low self-confidence, body image issues, and the bullying of people because of how they look. Some users post videos about having a “glow up” saying they were bad looking before and aren’t now. Users also posted videos mocking people who are overweight and making jokes about how they look while doing various things. Some influencers even post videos mimicking people’s movements while making fun of their height, weight, appearance, face, personality, and various other things about them. Despite all of the negatives, I do appreciate the idea of it. 

TikTok was meant to be a space where you can be and express yourself. A place where people could come together from all over the world and create a fun environment for themselves and others. However, over time it became a space full of self-hate, bullying, unhealthy habits, and bad behavior. While it is a place for people to be and express themselves freely, people often abuse their ability of free expression and use it as a weapon rather than a tool to create a safe space for all users. So yes the environment of TikTok is certainly fast-paced and energetic, but there is still a lot of hate that goes around on TikTok.

Taking all this into consideration, I believe that TikTok creates a heavily problematic and toxic environment for its users. I wouldn’t recommend that it be used by anyone under the age of 16 mainly because it encourages unhealthy habits and bad behavior.