I don’t think anybody will be surprised to hear that social media can be addictive. Well, “fine” so far. But what did indeed surprise me was what I heard recently when I heard the c’t “Haken dran”-Podcast (german only).
They cited a research from NPR (TikTok knows its app is harming kids, new internal documents show : NPR) with a surprising / scary find:
TikTok determined the precise amount of viewing it takes for someone to form a habit: 260 videos. After that, according to state investigators, a user “is likely to become addicted to the platform.”
In the previously redacted portion of the suit, Kentucky authorities say: “While this may seem substantial, TikTok videos can be as short as 8 seconds and are played for viewers in rapid-fire succession, automatically,” the investigators wrote. “Thus, in under 35 minutes, an average user is likely to become addicted to the platform.”
Honestly, before reading this I would have assumed that you need to use such a platform for waaaays longer! But those numbers are – scary.
Well the report doesn’t get any better after this. Really, check it out! I’d recommend it to parents of kids who are using TikTok. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t want you to take it away from you or your kids – but I guess one should know what’s going on. To me it’s an interesting but somehow scary, depressing read to be honest.
But the good take is: I never started using TikTok, and I’m a bit more convinced that I maybe don’t want to start using it. Especially that I really don’t want to use ANOTHER social media plattform … I’d rather get rid of one to free some more time instead of joining another one – especially as Loops by Pixelfed is about to start. That’s maybe something I’d like to give a shot … let’s see.