THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TIKTOK AMONG UITM SHAH ALAM STUDENTS

1.1 Background of study

The world right now is evolving faster than what we could ever expect, especially in
technology. It is quite unusual to see a teenager without social media because everyone knows its
existence and has access to it. There seems to be a lot of new things that we can discover every
day in many aspects such as a new lifestyle, education and how people communicate have
constantly changed from various times. In this era of modernity, we use lots of social media such
as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and many more.

One of the most famous social media platforms nowadays is called TikTok, released in
September 2016. It is a platform where people share entertaining videos around 15 seconds to 3
minutes and do live videos too. Furthermore, Tiktok is widely known as a video-focused social
networking media that hosts a variety of videos such as music covers, comedy, lip-sync video,
motivational, educational and anything that you are looking for. It might not be an easy platform
to be understood by everyone that just stepped into the TikTok world but we cannot deny the
popularity of this app among generation Z are overwhelming.

According to Mansoor (2021) in 2019 and 2020, Tik Tok is the most popular application.
In 2019 this app has already been downloaded 693 million times and as for 2020, it increased to
850 million times. It is the seventh most downloaded app during the 2010s even though it has only
been launched in 2017.

As there are a lot of things that could be done using the Tik Tok application, we would like
to know further on the effectiveness of this application among the university students. In short, can
this application be a platform to spread educational knowledge for the students? According to Nour
et al. (2011) most of the tools to promote education such as traditional print through newspaper
and television could lose their hype since the rise of social media. The Malaysian Higher Education
Institutions (HEIs) has started to use social media as a tool for promotional purposes to deliver
knowledge for all of the students. There are a lot of things related to academic activities such as
research, communication, collecting evidence and so on that the students use social media for.
Other than that, social media is a lot easier for students to use compared to other e-learning sites
(Vimala et al., 2017). So, the aim of this study is to explore the effectiveness of Tik Tok
applications for university students.

In our current research, we propose to examine if TikTok is one of the apps that can bring
benefits for the students in many aspects such as common knowledge, soft skills, the way of
thinking and entertainment for stress reliever.

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1.2 Statement of Problem

Today, there are over 4 million users of Tik Tok and 41% of the users are teenagers to young
adults, so it is as clear as the light shines that the majority of this app is popular among the
generation-Z. Most people perceive that TikTok is just for entertainment and a waste of time.
Numerous reasons were identified that resulted in negative perceptions about the platform. The
findings indicate that individuals seem to dislike TikTok mostly because it leads to a waste of time,
does not contribute to knowledge, and includes unrealistic and unethical content (Imon
Chakraborty et al., 2020). But, do you know that Tik Tok can be used for educational purposes
too? For example, it can be used to expose to the public especially undergraduate students about
the beauty of chemistry and science that we can perform at home and it is part of our daily lives
too. With the creation of an online TikTok account called “ The Chemistry Collective” by
undergraduate students, 16 educational videos were created, with approximately 8,500 views.
Upon surveying participants, viewers of these Tik Tok videos strongly agreed that they had learned
something new about chemistry since watching these videos (4.66/5.0) and had an increased
interest in chemistry (82.7% agreed) ( Hayes et al., 2020).

TikTok is a wide social media that can suggest a good or bad contents, It actually depends
on someone’s “for you” page, the app tracks a lot of information in every action that you make
while using TikTok, such as how long you watch and repeat certain videos and what kind of
contents that you always watch. There are many contents that you can watch that are either
beneficial or not. If you spend time on a certain type of content, your “for you” page will be full
of similar contents that you watch. For example, if you love educational, funny, motivational and
cooking contents, the “for you” page will suggest videos that are part of it, this will lead to
obsession and a waste of time if you do not limit and discipline yourself. However, the short video
clips suggested at the “for you” page would auto-playing one after another without playing the
video. According to (Anderson et al., 2021) described TikTok as “cute, inspiring, funny and
entertaining”, and she spends an hour a day in the app. Besides, she acknowledged that TikTok
apps also have bad side effects which could entertain people if they spend too much time.
According to Anderson (2021) said that TikTok had worsened her academic life since the app are
addicting and fun. Moreover, many students are interested in watching TikTok rather than finishing
their homework or studying. However, TikTok also has benefits among teens. According to
Anderson (2021) her mental health has improved due to the positive vibes and inspiring people on
the app. In fact, “With the simplicity of a scrolling finger you can laugh, cry, and be inspired to
reach past your comfort zone into a world of imagination. Like it or not, young adults are greatly
concerned with the acceptance of others. TikTok belongs to those of us who find great comfort in
the validation that others out there are just as funny, dark or as weird as we are. If you see something
you don’t particularly care for, scroll on. Your weird is out there,” said Melissa Ashton (Cabe et
al., 2020). However, is TikTok effective among university students?

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In response to this problem, our study proposes to investigate several options to make TikTok as a
fun platform that can portray beneficial contents that bring benefits to the students, the more videos
that the students watch, the more new knowledge that they'll gain. Therefore, this study will
investigate the effectiveness of TikTok among the students.

1.3 Research Question

The research questions for the study are:

a) What kind of knowledge do the students get from the TikTok contents?
b) Does Tiktok bring benefits for the students?
c) What types of content are eye-catching to the students?

1.4 Objectives of the Study

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of TikTok among UiTM Shah Alam
students. This study suggests some objectives to be achieved:

a) To study the importance of TikTok in the daily life of the students.

b) To find out whether Tiktok can bring benefits for the students.
c) To determine the types of Tik Tok content that is eye-catching to the students.

1.5 Significance of Study

The aim of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of TikTok among UiTM Shah Alam
students. Due to the rise of TikTok users among generation-Z, many people jump to the conclusion
that TikTok only brings negativity to generation-Z. But, little did they know there are lots of
contents that can help the generation-Z especially students in terms of mental health. Public
research has taken place at the university in Kentucky during an early phase of Covid-19 and their
usage of mental health services. Results show that about 88% of students experience moderate to
severe stress, with 44% of students showing moderate to severe anxiety and 36% students having
moderate to severe depression (Jungmin Lee et al., 2021).

This is one of the reasons why we came up with this research, it is because we want to know how
effective TikTok can bring to the university students, so that the next generation can use this app
as a place where they can search about the things that they want to know. Since the issue of the
pandemic COVID-19 started, the percentage of students that have depression, stress and anxiety
are mind-blowing and out of hand. From that issue, there are lots of content creators that started to

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share lots of information and tips on how to be physically and mentally healthy in order to help
everyone to not lose themself get rid of suicidal thoughts. Students who are facing with mental
health problem and do not have anyone to rely on they can search for contents that can help with
their mental health problem by simply search for #mentalhealthmatters, #mentalhealthawareness
and many more. Hence, it is important for this research to be conducted, in which it will help give
a solid proof to whether TikTok is an app that actually can help the students in terms of many
aspects.

Not just that, there are lots of motivational videos that can help the students to fight and
motivate themselves to study and find a way to clear up their mind from all the problems that they
are facing. Three of the famous content creators that post motivational videos are
@benlionelscott1, @goaltoinspire and @daniel.ux, the motivational videos that they posted can
help the students to gain their strength back, it’s not easy to stay on track and sometimes we will
fell down, so this motivational videos can help the students a bit to fight from their laziness and
unhealthy lifestyle.

1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study

This research is conducted to study the effectiveness of Tik Tok among UiTM Shah Alam
students. In order to gain information for this research, 50 respondents from UiTM Shah Alam
students are going to be randomly selected to answer the questionnaire on google form. Only
questions that are related to the Tik Tok application will be asked for the students.

However, there are some limitations for this research which is that the sample size is quite small.
Since our main target is among the UiTM Shah Alam students, we cannot solely generalize the
result based only to the 50 respondents. Other than that, the time limitations for us to do the
research and collect the data may have limited our ability to make more efficient research since
there is a lot of work to be done. In addition, we do not have access to a larger range of scientific
literature. For example, some of the articles on the internet are not accessible and we need to
subscribe or pay in order to use it. There also might be some bias result from the respondent.
Among the respondents there might be students that never downloaded and use the Tik Tok
application. In this case, he/she may not know what benefit that he/she might get from it and that
will bring negative results for the data.

1.7 Previous Studies

1.7.1 Investigating the Usefulness of TikTok as an Educational Tool.

New types of teaching and learning mediums have been discovered in order to improve the quality
of educational methods and expose several essential skills to the students. According to (Lin et al.,

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2016), students who used social networking sites in learning a foreign language had improved their
attitudes and motivation, as well as progress in listening and speaking skills. It would be a complete
waste not to use TikTok for educational purposes, since it is one of the most famous social media
right now. Students should be given a variety of options from which to pick the activity that best
suits their interest and learning style, as well as increasing usage of autonomysupportive
behaviours, so that all students may participate in the way that is most comfortable for them (Reeve
et al., 2004).

Students learn more deeply from words and pictures than from just words because they can make
meaningful connections between them (Mayer, 2002). TikTok’s videos can be published in many
types such as Powerpoint, Video slides, Graphics, Live , etc. They can include texts and pictures
that can make the video look fun, this can make the students feel excited to learn something new
and it will be easier for them to develop the new knowledge that they received. A survey conducted
to Diploma students in UiTM Permatang Pauh about their experiences using
TikTok and traditional mind-map, the students responded that “For me, I like TikTok because it is
more enjoyable and it has music. So, it is more fun compared to the classic way. So, that inspires
me to use TikTok”, “In terms of content, I think using TikTok, we can remember better” and also
“I think TikTok is a lot easier because it is quick and simple. Easy to understand”. The results from
the survey, 7 students out of 10 preferred using TikTok as a learning tool.

In the nutshell, according to Mayer’s (2017) list, TikTok has passed five principles which
are The Spatial Contiguity Principle, The Temporal Contiguity Principle, The Pre-Training
Principle, The Multimedia Principle and The Image Principle.

1.7.2 An Overview of the Utilization of TikTok to Improve Oral English Communication

Competence among EFL Undergraduate Students.

English language competence in learning has been upgraded in line with current technological
advances. Social media has been one of the important platforms to improve English language.
TikTok is one of favourable applications among undergraduate students, which are now playing
an important and interesting role with their skills in English communication learning during the
Covid-19 pandemic. This happens when English videos that are popular among teenagers become
supplies in TikTok. Therefore, this research aims to give an overview on the effectiveness towards
the competence of communication in English language among Chinese international
undergraduate students.

The most famous social media application nowadays is TikTok. Social media has now
upgraded technology which helps in education to improve their communication in English,
especially among university students during the pandemic. Wu (2020) stated that teenagers aged
below 30, represented by generation Z, are the most active users in TikTok and spend an average

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of 52 minutes per day on the application. However, the research indicated that TikTok could
provide numerous interactive activities either for students or teachers via short videos. The videos
shared are created in colourful notes with the digital technology and this learning material makes
the notes more dynamic and vivid. Besides, students also can create short videos of their oral
English presentations and the teachers with other users in TikTok can then give feedback, so they
can improve more in their communication skills. Moreover, students also can learn, not only to
improve their language skills in writing and reading, but also in their speaking and listening
competences via watching short videos shared by English teachers to enhance grammar as well as
vocabulary.

In conclusion, this research showed the big impact of short videos in the TikTok
application to improve English language among the students. The teenagers can take this
opportunity as advantages in their learning skills especially via social media during the Covid-19
pandemic.

1.7.3 Tik Tok Influences on Teenagers and Young Adults Students: The Common Usages
of the Application Tik Tok.

A study in Thailand by Cell Dilon (2020) who is an Associate Director of English Studies at Hua
Hin Campus, Stanford International University has been made about the Tik Tok influences on
teenagers and young adults. In this research also he has been able to map out for over 3 years on
the spread of Tik Tok. For the past 3 years which is from 2017-2020, a summation over 3500
interviews have been conducted to gain information about the application.

According to Parkin (2019), Tik Tok has already been taken down in India from their application
selection by Google and Apple as it is an order from the Indian Government. This event happened
when pornographic material was shared through this application and a court ruling expressed their
concern about this issue. From this research, an interview with 650 Thailand girls and boys that
aged from 16 to 25 have been conducted. The result came out that 85% of the interviewees have
negative experiences related to Tik Tok. 50% had been sent nudity while almost 90% of them have
experience being approached with bullying or sexual offers. A survey also had been distributed to
the interviewees after the interviews that contains questions with multiple choice answers and most
of the questions are related to Tik Tok.
In conclusion, by looking at the survey result, it can be seen that the target users of Tik Tok are
happy with the application although a large percentage of them have had negative experiences
from it. It also seems that Tik Tok has better protection when compared with other applications
such as Instagram, Facebook and Tinder. According to Ucciferi (2020) that Tik Tok videos to users
seem harmless and creative fun, but the parents seem to find that there are gaps in the usage of the
app’s security. It must be stated that for now the application does not seem to be a problem to the
users but is a problem for the caretakers of the users.

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1.8 Methodology

1.8.1 Respondent of Study

There were 50 respondents, both males and females were selected randomly to be the
sample in this survey. The respondents are students from UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor from
various courses and semesters. They are between 19 years old and above.

1.8.2 Instrument of Study

A questionnaire was chosen to be the research instrument for collecting the information
from the respondents. This method was more effective than interviewing them face-to-
face. In order to make it easier for us to distribute the questionnaire, we are going to use
google form to create it since it could be shared online and easy to access .There were 25
questions.
There are few rate questions with choices ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly
agree”. There are also several questions with multiple choice answers and suggestions
answers from respondents.

1.8.3 Data Collection Procedure

The questionnaires were distributed to the undergraduate students in UiTM Shah Alam
from many faculties. The questionnaires were only given to the undergraduate students
because it is easier to collect the data from the targets. All of the data that we get from the
google form questionnaire will automatically be extracted into excel.

1.8.4 Data Analysis Method

Descriptive analysis has been used to analyze the data. It converted from frequency count
into the data in terms of percentages and charts, which is easier to understand. After the
data has been converted, every chart will be analyzed one by one to gain information from
the data.

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