The pandemic led the way to a new virtual era. We saw our relatives through video calls, and we had to talk with them through social media. The Virus was everywhere, and especially in the year 2020, it was dangerous for all of us to go out. Right now, you might feel bored of hearing and listening to phrases such as “During the pandemic,” “After the pandemic,” and “The pandemic led to,” however, even though we are bored of listening to all of this, it is true that this historical event that none of us were expecting, made people find other ways of entertainment. That is where Tik Tok comes in, an app that became famous thanks to the pandemic. In this article, I will discuss this app from my point of view.

​

First, I want to highlight that I am one of many people who downloaded TikTok during the pandemic and still use it nowadays. I think it is a fun and fast method for searching for and learning something, like cooking, a sport, or a language. Two things that make TikTok one of my favorite platforms are that the videos are short. In my case,  I love watching YouTube; nonetheless, the videos on this platform are very long, descriptive, and don't go to the point. (I must clarify that  YouTube shorts exist, yet, TikTok was used first), but in TikTok, videos are no longer than 2-3 minutes.

The second thing I like about it is that the videos that appear on your screen, adapt to the people you follow, and the content you want to see,  for example, if someone is interested in watching people's life experiences, challenges, and dances, TikTok would recommend this type of content, as well as with some other people who prefer to watch videos about sports, school, and new things to learn

​

In life, everything has a cause and a consequence. Based on the positive effects described in the last paragraph, those good things can become bad ones. Starting with the fact that TikTok videos are concise, right now, the ability for our brains to understand and concentrate is getting used to a few minutes of compact information, but in real life, things are not like that. Due to this, I  concluded that people might suffer a loss of focus in long subjects or events because our brain is most likely to lose focus, and the capacity to pay attention and synthesize information from a long speech that is given to us.

 

One of the positive things that I have also mentioned is that there is a kind of algorithm that would make  more content appear related to the one you have been watching more lately, which can be good because you can only see things you want, but it might also lead to an addiction.

 

Think about it this way, you like chocolate, and you just ate a chocolate bar, it was very delicious, so you are going to eat another one, and the most likely thing to happen is that later you would eat another one. Well, that is exactly what happens with TikTok, you are watching content that you like and entertains you, so let's just keep moving one finger up and down, and watching more videos.

  All this might lead to the fact that you obsess with videos and lose crucial time for doing homework or spending time with family.

 

Finally, I wanted to talk about a new function on TikTok which is called TikTok now. This function consists of you taking a picture of yourself or whatever you like, then the camera turns around, and you take a picture of the environment you are in right now, finally, you publish it and the followers you have in “friends”, are going to be able to see your now, and like it, it’s like a BeReal but on TikTok. 

I think this platform itself, and specifically, the function of TikTok now might be a consequence of FOMO, a term my sister explained to me. FOMO is the Fear Of Missing Out, and as its name says, it consists of the fear of being conscious that something might be happening in the life of others, and you want to know what it is, otherwise, you are going to miss out.

​

As mentioned in the beginning, this is an article written from my point of view. I consider that TikTok, like any social media, has good things that can help you a lot. It is a platform with short videos, concise, and you can watch whatever you are interested in the most. However, not everything is good, because sometimes people are obsessed with the content they're watching and lose the notion of spending countless hours scrolling down. Also, short videos cause the users of this app to get used to concise information, leading to difficulties synthesizing and identifying key points in long presentations. Last but not least, the function of TikTok now promotes FOMO in its users.

 

I like TikTok, and that is why this article is not meant to tell you to uninstall this app, but to be very careful with these platforms and others with a similar structure. We need to learn how to self-control the time we spend on social media. Likewise, we need to balance the content we are watching, not only entertaining, but educational as well, and finally, we have to live our lives and forget about sharing it with everybody and see what others are doing.