The new emergence of Tik Tok, a video-sharing social media app similar to Vine, and its recent spike in popularity has brought with it more than just innocent laughs and a way to kill time.
The short videos have evolved into the normalization of serious social issues regarding eating disorders, mental health, sexualization of teens, and drug/alcohol use.
One trend on the app is for users to post videos documenting what they ate in a day. While this trend could initially be thought of beneficial to those trying to eat healthier and improve their diet, it truly is not. The majority of these types of videos are completely fake and depict extremely poor eating habits. Often times, these videos begin by showing only a cup of coffee for breakfast, a protein bar and some fruit for lunch, and a small bowl of salad or 4 ounces of chicken for dinner.
Whether the user actually eats only that in a day or not is irrelevant, because either way it is spreading toxicity and promoting eating disorders. Young girls on the app see this and think they must starve themselves to have the body of the user who posted this, and whats even worse is to think the creator actually eats much more (like one should) but posts this to make their audience think they must follow that obscene meal plan to have the same slim figure.
In compliance with the trend of highlighting poor nutrition and promoting eating disorders, one song/sound promotes the use of drugs to lose weight. The tik tok usually begins with a person and the text on the video is typical questions they are asked, such as "How have your grades improved so much?" and "How did you lose 20 pounds in a month?". Moments later, the questions disappear the background song plays "Im on adderall." This video was not made once by one user. It is all over the app and all the videos using the sound state that one can lose weight through illegally taking adderall, since a common side effect of the prescription drug is lack of appetite. These videos get millions of likes, even though their sole message is polluting the minds of the viewers into thinking they should use drugs to essentially starve themselves and lose weight.
pc @Paul.fedorovsky on tik tok
Another dangerous trend is the emergence of the song that says, "Last night I told you I love ya, woke up blamed it on the vodka, I genuinely thought I was dying." The amount of times this video pops up on my for you page with underage college girls showing videos of them going out, then clips the next morning in bed with a boy, puking, injured, or passed out is countless. The comments on these videos all focus on how funny the video is, and no one addresses the fact that it is blatantly promoting extreme underage drinking and bad decisions. Yes, drinking in college and everything that happens the night of and the morning after is a very common experience, but many of the viewers on tik tok are barely teenagers, who now think a fun night out consists of blacking out.
Within minutes of opening up the app, a video of 15 year old Charli D'Amelio is likely to appear. She first gained attention on the app for her skilled dances, but her followers and likes soon skyrocketed as rumors of her dating another tik toker, Chase Hudson. Her cute dances became more and more promiscuous, and the lyrics in her many of her sounds are completely innapropriate. One song with the lyrics "Can't take big dick but I suck on it" became one of her most used sounds. The normalization of sexual songs and dances is not limited to her videos, and it doesn't stop there. Not only are these videos encouraging youth to wear shorter skirts, but they are increasing the looks and judgements on body image. Charli D'Amelio did an interviewing and referenced the hate comments she received on her videos. One of the most hurtful, she said, went something along the lines of "She looks a lot bigger than she did before she was famous." If a girl who is thicker than what is considered petite makes a video, the comment section is instantly filled with comments only focusing on the creators body and making harsh judgements.
pc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N57fvXcxoEk
Ill be the first to admit that I am a huge fan of tik tok, and definitely spend way too much time on the app. When a video about taking shots and blacking out is sandwiched between a cute baby and someone's dad falling on ice, it is easy to absorb the toxic 60 seconds and move on, but this scrolling allows for videos promoting unhealthy habits to gain popularity, and those same 60 seconds may not be as meaningful to the 13 year old struggling with body image.
