Why TikTok is Tik-Toxic

Judging by the title, you can tell I’m not a fan of the overrated and most destructive social media platform to ever come into existence.

That might sound harsh, and you might ask, “What’s the big deal? Many other social media apps are also a complete waste of time! Why target TikTok?” I agree that social media as a whole is time-consuming and I’m guilty of scrolling mindlessly on Instagram personally, but TikTok is on a completely different level.

TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform in the world, amassing over 1 billion active users. It now has other social media platforms, like YouTube, copying it to compete with it. When it first rolled out though, I really didn’t think much of it – just another social media app with videos in which people can like, comment, share, all of that stuff. Nothing different there really. (I should also mention that as an elder millennial, I had no idea what the app was, and I thought maybe it was similar to the Vine app from 2012. Vine 2.0?) I also thought that it was designed to be a kids app because I would see videos originating from TikTok shared on other platforms like YouTube where teenagers would do the cringiest dances, weird voice-overs/lip-syncs, dumb pranks, and dangerous challenges primarily just for internet clout.

Turns out, it is for kids – and it’s destroying an entirely new generation of them. The app is built with an interface explicitly designed to shorten attention spans. The kicker is that it also shares your data more than any other social media app, and it’s unclear where it goes but I think the majority of us can take an educated guess if you know where the app originates from. This should be alarming to anyone who uses the app, and parents should be extra vigilant about allowing their children to use it.

One of the most accurate ways I’ve heard the app described is that it’s a mental illness factory, serving up digital crack cocaine with an incredible negative effect on dopamine (a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers) and the human brain. TikTok users find themselves in a pleasurable dopamine state, completely zoned out and carried away. It’s as if they are under a hypnosis of some sort, watching and watching and watching. It’s all about how much short, addictive content TikTok can pump out.

The app is also a cesspool of misinformation and outright absurdity, lowering the IQ of our youth with each ridiculous video that’s shared. I’ve seen clips of TikTok videos on other platforms as I mentioned earlier, and laughed out loud with some of the stuff I heard, including an individual who went on a rant saying that clouds are racist. Clouds. Racist. As if the WEATHER has a personality, thoughts, and that we can reason with it. I honestly feel like I’m living in a clown world sometimes.

Another alarming reason TikTok is poisonous to kids and young teenagers is the known fact that it has caused literal tics – there are videos of kids who after watching videos of other kids with tourette-like tics, are now showing signs of these tics too.

The problematic app is owned and operated by the Communist Party of China, and it should also be noted that Chinese citizens use the TikTok app too – only they use it for educational purposes. The most intelligent and educationally sound videos posted earn likes, comments, and shares. Meanwhile in the states, the dumbest and most entertaining content receives digital praise. If that right there doesn’t expose the truth about this app, keep reading.

You know it’s pretty bad when both Biden and Trump actually agree on something. Along with being a danger to children’s mental health, they agree that TikTok is a national security risk. It’s Chinese spyware and there’s borderline child porn on the app. This is sickening and downright evil. I think the US should at least do more to regulate TikTok if banning it outright is too harsh, but I personally draw the line when our innocent kids, who are the most vulnerable and easy to influence, are targeted in this disgusting way.

I think TikTok brings out the worst in us. If we want a high-quality future, we must reject a low-quality present now.

The platform encourages people to be someone they’re not all in the name of likes and shares in the hopes of going viral, and being another talentless Charli D’Amelio – a girl who gained popularity with millions of views on her cringey TikTok dance videos. People really eat that stuff right up.

The average TikTok personality is that of an unthinking, pleasure-seeking moron. It’s destroying our kids and although efforts might be made to regulate it and potentially ban it completely, we all know that another harmful app would pop up in its place. That said, it’s not a good reason to keep TikTok around now. All in all, it is complete garbage, and should just be deleted for good. ~