Face It, Tik Tok Is Toxic

First of all, it’s just borderline creepy that Tik Tok’s algorithm is literally based on your exact life at a specific time and place. Tik Tok knows me more than I know me, but that isn’t even remotely why I find it toxic. Have you ever read the comments on a popular post? I have no idea why so many people are just comfortable with being outwardly hurtful and downright disrespectful to people they have never met. How are you that bored? There are things on that app that are for adults and for adults only, but there are children on the app and the kids I work with at camp, as young as first grade, have told me about their Tik Tok accounts. Every parent has the right to raise their kid in whatever manner, but I think that the way Tik Tok is marketed a lot of parents have no idea what’s on it.

I don’t know about you, but my attention span is gone. Don’t ask me to watch a movie because ten minutes in I’ll be scrolling through this toxic app I am writing an article about, but can’t delete. On top of this, a lot of the popular videos are romanticizing traumatizing events and just normalizing them way too much. I came across a video that was “3 reasons you probably have a mediocre pus*y”. It was made by a man and named things a woman cannot control. Have we talked about racism on Tik Tok yet? The mere fact that these videos don’t get flagged immediately while videos of people with alcohol are quickly flagged is just a clear representation of this app. I have seen incredibly disgusting videos surface that have probably hurt a lot of people. This is also an app where only universally beautiful people can be successful. A world where you either need to be drop dead gorgeous or the funniest possible person. Am I the only one constantly comparing myself to people on Tik Tok? I have tried numerous times to line my lips like the girls in makeup videos do, but why can I not do it? Why am I constantly comparing myself to every girl on the app?

 

Let’s talk about how I liked a few workout videos and all the sudden my feed is full of “60 second workouts for real results”. I’m not sure about you, but a 60 second workout a day is not going to get the job done, nor is it possible to do more than 2 exercises successfully in 60 seconds for beginners. And why is Tik Tok obsessed with telling me what to buy? I actually cannot get off of Amazon because of this app. Yeah, it’s great because I love buying things, but it makes me feel like I need it, not that I want it. Tik Tok also gives creepy men a platform to watch young girls do literally anything. I’d love to see how many old men are following underage stars such as Charli.

From Tik Tok, I have been able to see how many truly cruel people there are in this world and I do not like it. 

• mental health
• toxic