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3 RELATED STUDIES ABOUT THE EFFECT OF

TIKTOK USE TO THE EDUCATION OF SENIOR


HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN CAN-AVID
NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

SUBMITTED BY: KASEY AMEA A. ADVINCULA


ANTHONY RAPHAEL U. DOMINGO
GRADE 9 – SYCAMORE (SET B)

SUBMITTED TO: MA’AM MITOS C. NOROMBABA


Living in a Moment: Impact of TikTok on Influencing Younger Generation
into Micro-Fame

Badriya Abdul Jaffar


Amity University Dubai

Sadia Riaz
SP Jain School of Global Management Dubai

Arif Mushtaq
City University College of Ajman, UAE

ABSTRACT

In recent years since the creation of TikTok, there has been a rapid increase in the use
of such applications by teenagers to gain popularity and cure boredom. The app was
developed in China and is owned by Byte Dance. Initially called Musically, the advanced
app, now known as TikTok, has 500 million monthly active users and is accessible in 34
languages. Followed by YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram, TikTok is the 4th most
downloaded social app. Previous studies conducted show that such image focused apps lead
to several mental health issues like body dissatisfaction, eating disorders, narcissistic
personalities etc. The usage of this application has resulted in child pornography,
cyberbullying and parental disengagement. The paper uses a pragmatic approach to examine
indepth reasons behind TikTok becoming a sudden massive success amongst teenagers along
with its positive and negative effects. Content analysis is performed on parent‟s views and
comments left as feedback at the app store for downloading this application. Qualitative data
gathered is transcribed and codified to derive emerging themes. Focused group interviews
with a few up and coming TikTok micro celebrities are conducted to explore their underlying
thought processes, problems and other interesting facts about the application. The study
proposes a conceptual framework as roadmap of TikTok micro-fame which could be used by
other studies and researchers. The study substantiates a fact towards understanding the areas
of further research in designing and developing the application from a functional as well as
users‟ perspective.
Keywords: TikTok, Teenagers, Image-focused apps, Microfame, Popularity, Content analysis

Introduction
TikTok is one of the most popular apps on social media. This app is the world‟s
prominent destination for creating short-form mobile videos in Asia, United States and other
parts of the world. It emerged from the founders of the app called Musical.ly. TikTok, also
known as Douyin in China, started in September 2016 and is maintained by Byte Dance
(Lauren Hallanan, 2018). This media app is accessible in over 150 marketplaces and in 75
languages (Mehvish Mushtaq, 2018). TikTok has generated a modern trend among teenagers
and permits users to make and share short 15 to 60-second short video and lets them choose
songs, effects, or soundbites. An additional benefit is that collaboration which is a major
motivation where they can do a „‟duet‟‟ with someone by responding to their video which
results in a limitless chain of responses. In September, it exceeded
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat in monthly installs in the App store.
Due to 500 million worldwide effective users, with 6 million US downloads as of November
TikTok became such a hit. As TikTok is like social media apps like Snapchat, Vine, or
Dubsmash, it has gained its influence since it offers far more options for creators. TikTok is
also a high rated app in the Google Play Store which is 4.6 and makes this application highly
qualified merging Artificial Intelligence and image capture (“English Department”, 2018).
Existing literature has been collected and reviewed as part of secondary study. Primary data
has been collected through reviews given by variety of people using the TikTok platform to
make videos and parents of TikTok users. A serious gap can be identified in this study. The
major audience to this app is teenagers. Yet this app is exploited by many users and displays
TikTok as an app with more negative impacts than positive. This study includes three main
objectives:
To evaluate the reasons as to why TikTok app has gained its sudden massive attention
and determine positive and negative impacts of the application.
To conduct a primary research constructed on content analysis of parent‟s opinion
about TikTok and an interview a few up and coming microcelebrities to get their reviews
about the application.
To propose a conceptual framework to serve as users roadmap for TikTok‟s
microfame.
Therefore, it is very important to understand how TikTok has been playing a crucial
role in youths‟ life. Parents need to be aware of what their children‟s do and see in this app.
This study hopes to benefit in relation to TikTok users which may help the psychologist in
the future and parents to recognize why it has an immense effect on the younger generation.

Literature Review
In this section we have identified literature references broadly covering the objectives.
Different theories have evolved through time to explain why applications suddenly gain a
massive user base. A study conducted on the TikTok app suggested the user-centric theory
which is a repetitive procedure where they focus more on the users and their needs. UCD
requires the users throughout their process and carry out number of research and plan
methods to produce extremely useful and reachable products for the users. As TikTok is
purely created based on user‟s knowledge and understanding. As this app is not only used as
a social network but focuses more on user‟s innovation and provides the users by offering
them to easily convey their imagination. Reviewing the study by jiang Xiao Yu (2019), the
same is proven by the theory of user centric. Another article encouraged the business model
which is also one of the reasons for gaining sudden massive attention. Business model
represent the reasons of how the company produces, distribute and seize merit in financial,
societal, cultural and further situations. However, to understand why it is unique, it is
important to see the company behind TikTok, ByteDance. ByteDance had secured a round of
subsidy from SoftBank and additional depositors consist of $3b with an estimate of $75b.
Their main mission not only aims to deliver knowledge but also to create a productive hub,
present and motivate users and this idea helps their strategy in product growth. Users like
Loren Gray, the LaBrant family, Baby Ariel, Kristen Hancher, Cameron Dallas, Gil Croes,
Jayden Croes, Savannah Soutas, Liza Koshy and Mackenzie Ziegler who have created their
fortunate brands and have their own music careers and most significantly YouTube channels.
These top 10 influencers have gained millions of followers and can earn millions of dollars as
more brands are ready to collaborate with influencers on this platform. As TikTok is
capturing market shares apart from further common and famous media apps. Hence,
ByteDance is violently advancing in progress and achieving its fame (Gennaro Cuofano,
2018). TikTok‟s business model like other media apps contain two main components that is
users and advertisers. Its income comes from advertisements and app purchasers by TikTok
users. Most important point to be noticed here is that users don‟t pay for downloading this
app and using it but TikTok bundles its revenue from the data of the users that they get from
you (The economic times, 2019). The recent statistics displays us that there are 500 million
monthlies active TikTok users around the globe. Studying the article by Gennaro Cuofano,
the same is represented by the business model. The way the app is designed is another benefit
for TikTok to achieve its unexpected huge recognition. The first thing that makes TikTok
different from other media apps is with the availability of several kinds of background
music‟s, challenges, dance videos, magic tricks and funny videos that fascinate the youths to
connect with the app. The second one is that this app requires less amount of time to create a
video, 15 seconds which is an advantage for the users as this factor fit into the user‟s rapid
lifestyle which makes TikTok totally different from other competing apps. This unique
design of TikTok is a plus for the product and to support its development and growth. The
first ever short video app to use big data analysis is TikTok. They have used big data analysis
to understand the liking of the users so that they can suggest diverse contents to them which
is easy for the users to select what they prefer (Hou Liqian, 2018).
The positive impacts are that TikTok has a chance in the field of education where the
teachers can use this app in classrooms as a tool to illustrate an idea or example, which would
work easily for students in schools (Brittany Marklin,2018). Another area where TikTok can
spread its positive impact is through charity where the user shares a video based on holiday-
themed augmented reality (AR) filters with the hashtag #CreateforaCause will give $2
million to charity as the users post the video. Celebrities like Ashley Benson, Khloe
Kardashian, Nick Jonas, Vanessa Hudgens, Nina Dobrev and Serayah who combined with
this app to raise awareness for the campaign (Robert Williams,2018). TikTok is one of the
top media apps which gives an opportunity to people who can showcase their acting skills
and other talents through this app which may help the users to get chance in acting in film
industries. As TikTok contains more negative influences than positive influences. An article
published by The New Indian Express (2019) announce that in December alone 36 calls from
children and adults was received by the counsellor of Tamil Nadu at the 104 helplines
regarding TikTok bullying, harassment and addiction. A 23year-old who committed suicide
in Vyasarpadi in Tamil Nadu, he took the dangerous step after he was teased online for
dressing up like a woman and posted on TikTok. Most targeted audience in this app are
school students who are often seen in school uniforms posting videos of themselves in
classrooms which give an opportunity to stalkers to guess which school they go to. “If at all
china wants demographic data from ByteDance‟s userbase, it will perhaps be able to pull out
more data than the Indian government itself. This is not often considered a threat by local
policy makers, but the truth is that they will have data relating to your height, weight and
even how many users wear spectacles,” said Moses Sam Paul working in Heptagon
Technologies (The New Indian Express, 2019). “A lot of the content (on TikTok) is negative,
especially for children,” said Rudiantara is the reason why this has been blocked in Indonesia
because the content in it is not suitable for children and not educational. Another article from
The Economic Times (2019) states that the court of India ruling to ban the app TikTok from
downloading as it contains “pornographic and inappropriate contents” said the government.
Children were vulnerable and might get uncovered to sexual predators (The Economic Times,
2019). In 2019 India alone has obtained 88.6 million TikTok users regardless of the
inappropriate content it holds. Youngsters who are getting addicted to TikTok or other similar
apps, their future is in danger and because of this the mindset of the young children are
ruined. It also exposes kids and Indian teenagers to cyberstalking, online predators and being
victims of criminal offense. TikTok was compared to Blue Whale Challenge by the Madras
High Court which lead to youth committing violent actions and impose self-harm. Moreover,
it has been expelled from using, spreading and downloading any videos in India. Methods
and Procedures In this paper, a primary research has been conducted through content analysis
of parent‟s comments and feedback on TikTok and its effect on children. The idea was to
look for most commonly used words (expressed as experience with TikTok application).
Based on codes and labels, coded findings of content into semi-structured themes.
Themes included (i) inappropriate researcher contents (ii) privacy and settings and (iii)
mental health. These themes highlighted the key areas where parents left key inputs in the
app store feedback column.
 Inappropriate content theme: It included key concerns of parents like “a lot
of nudity in this app” and “inappropriate songs and lyrics”. One parent said, “I
came across very sexually inappropriate content”. It also includes
“Disgusting”, “offensive songs” are easily searchable and “pornography
exists”. The app also contains pop ups in the newsfeed where “every time I
opened the app it would show a random person‟s video, with no control over
age appropriate parameters.” This app is not recommended for anyone under
18 years of age as it “turned into a child pornography platform”. The
indecency of the app has accelerated to an extent where “adults are friending
kids and spamming them with commercials with inappropriate content.” An
extremely concerned parent states the unacceptable content “will de-sensitize
them and they will think its ok. It subjects your children to extremely foul
language and dancing”. Due to its negatives, this app has been described as
“offensive and toxic”.
 Privacy and settings theme: Parents were of the considerate view that this app
is more worried about gaining high number of users rather than protecting the
youth “App has Poor Privacy Precautions”. Majority of people have reported
“paedophiles” on this app. The duet feature of this app allows older men and
creeps to create inappropriate responses to videos of children and women. The
men record inapt and sexual reactions to videos of kids 18 years and younger,
which is a key issue parents have noticed as well “There are many child
predators.” TikTok is a dangerous app to young kids as it permits people to
easily “gather information” about users from their videos.
 Mental health theme: TikTok has also been a base for users to “bully” other
users which leads to “depression” and “suicide” which need to be reported.
The last objective of this paper was to interview a few up and coming TikTok artist
and their evaluations about this application. These individuals each have over 5k followers on
the app and could be called microcelebrities. Each of them had their own perspective of the
app.
1. Anjana Viswanathan, 19-year-old young girl from Kerala, India. Joined this app in
2018. She joined TikTok after during her vacation post-higher secondary
examination. She felt boredom and was attracted to the digital world of TikTok for
entertainment and for the purpose to kill boredom as there was a lot of hype about
TikTok. “I was not very talented, so for me it was a good platform”. She made a video
and posted it on the application getting some about 10 likes. However, she has 41.7 K
followers now. She started making basic videos that are funny, musical, duet features
and comedy-bits. Her parents encouraged her but warned while “Don‟t post videos in
any inappropriate way”. She said I get “negative comments but not suggestive or
derogatory comments”. She has found micro-fame with this application that viewers
now recognize her, and she felt very happy being recognized and clicked photograph.
Her newfound micro fame contributed towards her self-confidence and appearance
conscious. She has never faced any stalking or bad experience. However, she
mentioned that her friends have faced comments based on their dressing sense from
viewers that are extremely derogatory. She said that under-teenage minor kids should
be careful or supervised by their parents as viewers pose racial comments, based on
their looks and acting skills. She said that “If your account is private there are no
issues”.

2. Akansha Dudeja, is a 19-year-old girl from Mumbai, India. She joined TikTok in
Nov-Dec 2018 because a “friend of mine had suggested this application”. She always
wanted to be an actress or do with performance arts. She jointed TikTok to explore
her acting talent. She mostly posts videos on famous Bollywood songs, mimicking
dialogues or trending videos, “I choose the videos and craft it the way I like, I do not
take requests from viewers”. Her parents have been fine, are positive and supportive.
She has 10k followers on TikTok. I received positive comment like, “superb, nice,
looking nice”. She said that perhaps she gets these comments more because of her
appearance than talent. As for negative comments, viewers post body shaming
comments that she would ignore and prefer not to react. People can be “nasty and post
extremely cheap comments sometimes”. She feels that she has not achieved micro
fame but yes, at times, people recognize her, and she feels happy about it. She also
felt that this application is not very safe for children as there are stalkers and child
predators. There is high vulgar content, which is not good for children and minor.
This application has also improved “my dressing sense and learnt how to carry myself
socially”. I like some social media influencers: Pinky Francis, Ashiqa Bhatia, Avneet
Kaur and Rishab Chawla and Abhishek Kumar.
3. Rahul Krishna is a 21-year-old boy from Kerala, India. He has 40 k followers. He had
joined Musicl.ly initially in 2015 for entertainment purpose. My “friends suggested,
and I got addicted to it” and what I liked the most was when “people posted their
response and commented that my acting skills was good, I realized I could be an actor
and it became my passion”. Most of his videos are based on emotional and expressive
content. He also takes request from people. “I am doing an album song with my
friends right now”. He doesn‟t think he is a TikTok celebrity and see any micro fame
coming along the way. He said, “Lots of people are there so I am not the one with best
talent”. He agreed to getting a lot of female attention, but not faced any stalking. I do
get negative comments from “people who discourage creative ideas” but he said his
friends have been receiving body shaming comment and trolling. He believes
“TikTok is nice entertainment app but also has a negative side” as one gets public
attention which could be unnecessary. There are people who approach to extract
personal information through fake accounts. My parents have initially called me
“crazy” and didn‟t support. Now they have changed their mind and started
supporting. I think minors and kids should use it properly and carefully as
content/material is way open in India, then in Dubai which is restricted and safer.
Girls post exposing videos to get quick likes and recognition, which is not based on
talent or expression. Rahul felt his confidence level has improved, he speaks better,
and his dressing sense has changed for good.

4. Asbar Ali, 22-year-old student partially from Kerala and partially from Mumbai. He
joined TikTok in October-November of 2018 and currently has around 4K followers.
He started TikTok with a group of his friends to entertain others and kill boredom. In
the beginning, He was not used the features of the application but once he got a hang
of it, he opened doors for himself. He has received a lot of positive reviews on his
videos, with people calling it „superb‟, „good acting‟ and encouraging him to
continue. However, he has not received any negative backlash on his videos but
acknowledges the fact that when he makes videos with any girl, people make
derogatory comments on the girls acting and dressing style even. On his account he
makes tons of musical and duet bits as well as videos with his friends. His parents
have watched his videos and encourage him to continue making them, while being
vigilant of the content and maintaining his grades. He is a part of the UAE TikTok
artists group. Once you‟re a member of the TikTok team “you can‟t be a member of
any other social media platform because of the contract” and in case if you enter your
account would get deleted from TikTok as the member has violated the contract. He
has noticed that at times female TikTok stars have trouble reporting inappropriate as
they do not want to indulge in any trouble outside the application. The new policies
instated in the app have made it easier to block out inappropriate content with new
features like blocking comments section, reporting fake profiles etc. He also stated
that in UAE the app is strictly maintained, and improper content get deleted
immediately compared to India. He believes these features have made it easier and
safer for people to make videos on TikTok. As for, what he thinks about children
making videos on the app, “Age is just a number” anyone and even 10 or 100 likes
makes them excited and motivates children to make more videos. Everyone should
make videos on the TikTok and view it only from an entertainment perspective.
Discussion
This study focuses on the concept of TikTok gaining it sudden massive attention. This
is also supported by two theories, one of the theories is the user‟s centric theory which means
which mainly focuses on users and their needs. As TikTok is an app which emphasis on
users‟ requirements which results in easy access to TikTok users. Another theory is the
business model theory where the company mainly focuses on financial, societal, cultural and
other conditions. The main business model behind this app is the Byte Dance which has
secured its funding from SoftBank and additional deposits consist of $3b with an estimate of
$75b. Loren Gray, Baby Ariel, Savannah Soutas, Liza Koshy who have created their
fortunate brands and have their own music careers and most significantly YouTube channels.
These influencers who have gained massive followers and can earn millions of dollars as
more brands are ready to collaborate with them on this phase. Including both Google Play
downloads starts and Apple App store, this app graded third in the world as of November
2018. It has also gained 4th position in the world subsequently at least June 2018. TikTok
was combined with Musicly.ly app in August 2018. This allowed the Chinese app to come in
the US market with Musical.ly which is already a boosting app. The design of the app is also
one of the reasons for TikTok to gain sudden massive attention. First are the features
available for the user like challenges, dance videos, duet feature and magic tricks that attract
the youths to use this app. Second is that it needs less time to make the video which is a
benefit for the users. This app has also used big data analysis which allows them to
understand the likings of users and helps them to recommend varied contents to users as they
prefer. This study also concentrates on the positive and negative impacts of this app. Positive
influences are that this app provides a chance to teacher to illustrate an idea or example which
would help students in classrooms. This app can also be used to raise awareness and for
donation. It also permits users to showcase their acting skills and other talents thorough this
app. As TikTok holds more of negative impacts than positive impacts. Newspaper articles
have found a lot of cases where children and adults are calling counsellors at different times
to complain about harassment, bullying and addiction that they experienced through this app.
TikTok has been such a dangerous impacts on people that has even lead to self-harming and
suiciding because of cyber bullying. This news is evident in the newspaper articles that is
studied in literature review. This app mostly aims school students posting videos. This app
has been creating a lot of negative content for children. The court of India reigning to ban
TikTok as it includes “pornographic and inappropriate contents”. Irrespective of the
inappropriate content it claims India alone has 88.6million users. This news is also
observable in newspaper articles that is studied in literature review. This study also includes
primary research based on content analysis of parent‟s response and observations of this app
and its consequence on their children. Content analysis has been divided into themes like
inappropriate contents, privacy and setting and mental health. Inappropriate contents include
inappropriate songs and lyrics, sexually inappropriate content, child pornography, disgusting
and offensive songs were the key concerns expressed by parents. Privacy and settings were
also major worry by parents like poor privacy precautions, paedophiles, child predators and
bullying. Mental health issues like bullying leads to depression and suicide shared by parents.
As part of the primary data, four interviews were conducted of Students from in India, living
in the UAE who regularly make videos on TikTok. All these interviewees have over 5k
followers and aged from 19-22 years old. Some of the interviewee said that they started
making videos to kill boredom, entertainment and others to explore their hidden talents. All
four of the users had string support and encouragement from their parents but one of the
TikTok user was called “crazy”. This application has helped them to increase their self-
confidence, dressing sense and one of them realized that they had a serious acting potential.
All of them experienced negative comments or their friends experiencing cheap and nasty
comments. Negative comments like “body shaming”, “racial comments”, “their looks” and
“acting skills”. Some of the interviews stated that this app is inappropriate for minor kids a it
contains “high vulgar content”. One of the TikTok user mentioned that female users had a lot
of trouble reporting problems directly. Therefore, TikTok is just an app for entrainment, kill
boredom and to explore their acting skills.
Conclusion Plethora of research and studies have been done to understand why
TikTok has gained its sudden massive attention and its effects on the younger generation.
This study is important so we can improve the functional perspective and user‟s perspective
of this app. This platform also exceedingly provides to the user‟s preferences which often
results in the misuse of its features and vulgarization of the content. There are contents that
disrupts the ordinary mortals of the society, absence of effective and precise value guidance.
The content seems to be standardized and some part of the content contains Violation. The
user-centric theory which effortlessly validates the “uses and gratification” theory. If it‟s only
based on “satisfaction” and if there is no “guidance” the entire function will deteriorate. In
India especially TikTok has be a major concern leading it to the ban of the app due its
inappropriate content and Pornography. I, as an Indian want to preserve a safe and confident
in-app environment at TikTok. More actions should be taken to defend users against
misapplication, their privacy and digital security. It should also enable users to report content
that are inappropriate and violate community guidelines. This study would also help parents
to recognise the negative impact such image-focused applications have on the children and
enlighten teenagers to be more vigilant while using the app. From the above data collected it
was seen that there were similarities in the issues raised by parents‟ opinion and the
participants‟ interviewed. Both parents and the interviewees state that vulgarity and
inappropriate comments are present on the app where the interviewee‟s asserting that girls
are more likely to face cheap and objectifying comments. In the aspect of privacy settings,
most claim that the app is quite safe with new laws being implemented post the ban of the
app in India. As for minors, it‟s not safe with its highly suggestive and vulgar content. Two
of the interviewees said that kids need to be monitored on the app as “age is just a number” . I
would conclude this study by stating that this app should follow to the part of “gatekeeper”
and should eliminate the energy of harmful content. It can also improve the “aesthetic taste”
and encounter the high level “spiritual needs” of users by giving quality content. This paper
also discusses reviews given by individuals “microcelebrities” about TikTok.
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Research on the Influence of TikTok on Teenagers Jiahong Guo
1Shanghai United International School — Wanyuan campus, Shanghai, 200001, China
*Corresponding author. Email: 18526203399@163.com
ABSTRACT
Nowadays, along with the vast development of social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, and
YouTube. More and more new social networking softwares have come to the public’s mind.
For example, TikTok. TikTok is an application that is available for everyone to publish their
videos, and the length of the video varies from 15 seconds to 1 minute. The videos include
daily entertainment, talent show, popularization of knowledge and so on. Thanks to the
reputation of TikTok, the videos on this platform spread quickly and bring its audience a
sense of relief and a temporary escape from real life. However, along with the increase in the
viewer group, more and more teenagers download this application and start to shoot videos at
home, school, market and everywhere. People begin to argue that TikTok has brought too
many negative effects to teenagers. In the research, there are both the positive and negative
influences of TikTok. The object of this study is basically teenagers, and there will be
different articles from the internet to compare and support the results. All the data are from
CNKI, ScienceDirect, Taylor& Francis Online, etc. The result is, TikTok played a
nonnegligible impact on teenagers in three aspects---TikTok can be used as an educational
tool, it can satisfy teenagers’ mentality but it does contain over-exaggeration content that
shapes teenager’s value in a misleading way.
Keywords: Education, Teenager, TikTok, Social Media, Digital Cultures
1.INTRODUCTION
With the rise of digital media, people are investing more and more enthusiasm on the
Internet. However, trends are always temporary. TikTok is undoubtedly one of the popular
applications at present. Teenagers, as the majority of TikTok, have a new chance to express
themselves on social media. In TikTok, millions of teenagers aged 12-20 years old share their
short videos. There is a high chance that people will go viral just because of one video, and
that is exactly what this kind of system does. It stimulates more and more people into the
composition of short videos, hence leading to the new trend of shooting TikTok. Although
TikTok is a private company, due to its optimistic development, people see the commercial
opportunity of it and begin to explore potential human resources on TikTok. However, the
negative aspects are still unclear to most people, since people only use their fragmented time
to entertain themselves on the app, but the underlying effects of TikTok are one thing to
consider as we dedicate our spare time to it[1]. So in the research paper, the negative effects
of TikTok on teenagers will be analyzed. However, there are, of course, advantages to
watching TikTok videos, so they are going to be included as well. As an extension, this paper
will explore the relaxing and healing functions of TikTok on other people, apart from
teenagers (this will be just a small portion of my research). Then, data will also be collected
from classmates and friends (they are between the ages of 16-19), and the data will be
analyzed using statistics to conclude the final result. Last but not the least, the purpose of this
research is because people need to think more when they are watching short videos. If
TikTok can bring people negative value, it will certainly offer valid value, and that is what
people will hopefully focus on the next time they watch a video. Furthermore, because this is
primarily for teenagers, and there is a mode called "teenager mode" that can send healthy and
optimistic videos that motivate teenagers to cherish their current lives, there is a theory that
discusses how this teenager mode may help to mitigate the negative impact TikTok has
already had. Overall, the impact can be classified into educational, social, and perceptual
aspects. With the understanding of the influence of TikTok, parents and teachers can better
supervise teenagers so they can both enforce rules, such as when studying, TikTok and other
social media are prohibited, but also create a positive relationship with teenagers. In addition,
teenagers themselves can develop self-discipline by determining when to watch TikTok and
what they should watch as they realize how their lives could be shaped by TikTok.
Potentially, teenagers can use TikTok as a tool to enhance their self-esteem.
2. ANALYSIS
2.1. Learning Tool
To begin, many social media tools, such as TikTok, have provided an excellent
opportunity for students to learn in an expression course. However, not only students benefit
from online video platforms. In order to better understand how TikTok can influence
teenagers, we must first lay eyes on how TikTok can shape the way teachers and professors
giving their lectures to students. The research shows that scholars, academic administrator
and university’s professors also take advantage from TikTok, since they can search
professional knowledge on TikTok, and there will always be someone that is an expert in that
field, making a video to spread the knowledge. Also, scholars can gain a reputation through
TikTok. If people look closely when they click into a person’s account, they will see a
symbol that officially announces that the video maker is a professional scholar. There is
usually a red circle with a check mark, and that will show the TikTok official has proved that
the scholar is under authentication. In that case, when students surfing on the internet, or
when they roll down to the next TikTok video, it will be a great chance that they can see
these academic videos. In other words, this is the way how teenagers or school-aged students
learn knowledge through online platforms, and most importantly in an easily acceptable and
creative way. Also, students can like and share the videos their teachers make, so that the
teacher will gain fame, and more students would be able to see the video. This would enhance
a learning environment. Therefore, it is a double-win situation. However, TikTok’s benefits
are more than that. On the other hand, TikTok stimulates students’ talent in the creation of
music. When the analysis focuses on the type of videos that are popular on TikTok, it
conveys to the audience that these videos are composed of people ’ s movements with
melodic music. This type of music video quickly becomes fashion, especially during the
lockdown time due to COVID-19 outbreak. Since teenagers have nothing to do during the
pandemic, they start to follow the trends on TikTok. People could look closely and take the
advantage of it by exploiting the music into student’s music courses, and hence different
teaching and learning models(collaborative learning, mobile learning and so on) can be
developed. In the music category, students can engage more in the learning process since if
they shoot a video, they might need to practice several times behind the scene. In order to
match their movement with music, they will be exposed to music, so the rhythm will be
engraved into teenager’s hearts and can even motivate and inspire their music composition. In
addition, after teenagers filming the video, they will certainly need to edit the fragment of
video. In such circumstances, they can even develop and enhance editing skills from TikTok.
Due to the fact that there are various picture and video editing tools available on TikTok,
waiting for teenager to study and use those, it facilitates the promotion of multimedia art[3].
Last but not the least, TikTok’s music library enables people to edit an audio clip, mix it or
add filters and stickers. In this instance, TikTok can be easily used as a learning tool since it
gives people the great opportunity to get close to music and apply the music into practical
usage.
2.2. Self-Actualization & Social Needs
Furthermore, due to the fact that technology offers students an inspiring opportunity
to use their time flexibly in terms of time, pace and place, TikTok can satisfy teenagers’
mentality. The most popular trends on TikTok nowadays include dancing, scene play, covers
of songs and people’s fun observation in life. TikTok successfully attracts people in the
whole world by sharing the same music under a trend, or simply inviting people’s friends or
family members to join TikTok and imitate the contents. Up to June 2020, Chinese internet
short videos have a user scale that reaches 7.77 hundred million, and that is 94.5% of the
whole internet user. In specific, teenager group comes in 14.8% of the entire online user.
From this data, it is obvious that TikTok has taken the advantage of demographic dividends,
and maximize its company’s potential. Now, as for teenagers, since they are in puberty, they
gradually perceive the world in both physical and mental ways. As they explore, their
personality, perception and morality will begin to shape. Along with the sense of feeling that
teenagers themselves are mature enough, when they are in puberty, they will have a period of
time that they consider themselves as adults, so they also want other people to treat them as
an individual human beings. In this case, they would probably not follow the advice offered
by their parents or elder family members. Instead, social media becomes a place where
teenagers seek for a sense of identity and a sense of belonging. Therefore, teenagers realize
their thinking system situation. In addition to that, puberty is the time that teenager’s morality
form, develop and become stable. When they play with TikTok, their multiple mental
conditions can be fulfilled. First of all, TikTok satisfies the juvenile’s self-actualization. It is
indeed TikTok’s diverse vibe, handy functions make teenagers the chance to express
themselves. As people observe some of the videos on TikTok, it will show that some
teenagers like to reveal their positive speech and spread motivating theory with TikTok users,
and hence gain people’s attention and share their beliefs. Others, on the other hand, use
TikTok as a way to promote their talents or skills, and that is way there are a good deal of
dancing and singing videos on the online platform. However, there are some young adults
that like to express their vulnerable mentality to their online friends, and they could also
receive comfort and encouragement. As a result, teenagers can realize their self-actualization
in different aspects and to a different degree. Moreover, since teenagers publish their videos
for everyone to see, they will have more or fewer followers. And one of the most popular
methods to use TikTok is to follow some of the followers back since people would gain
stable attention. Also, if TikTok detects that you are very active on TikTok, for example, if
you post videos quite frequently, they will increase the probability of other people seeing
you. In that case, a person’s video can be seen by thousands or millions of people. There will
always juveniles that share the same interests, and TikTok can bring these people contact
each other. These teenagers who have common hobby and arrange an offline meeting, and
they can gather around and form the traditional-called group. Also, since there are always
present trends or buzzword spread by people in TikTok, when teenagers are at schools talking
to their classmates, they can have new topics to discuss, so that it will reduce the alienation
brought by different cultures. However, over 60% teenagers value TikTok simply as a tool to
relax themselves, or reduce their academic or peer pressure. In school, due to various
assignments such as oral presentations, group projects, or lab reports, students are put onto
tons of pressure. Along with peer competition, if teenagers can have a temporary escape from
studying in their spare time, TikTok can serve as a perfect app.
2.3. Aesthetic Fatigue
Nevertheless, there are some side effects of using TikTok, such as blindly imitate
video’s content, aesthetic fatigue and biased value (how juveniles would view things)[4]. To
start with, the most appealing function of TikTok is that it will detect what kind of video a
person like, and the backstage supporter will send the same kind of video for that person to
see. However, since the same videos will have exactly the same background music, and
people will mimic the original video’s content. This kind of video can easily gain hits in a
short period of time, but the consequences are obvious. In addition, some of TikTok videos
contain violent scenario or risky actions[5], if teenagers overuse TikTok, a minority of them
would imitate the action and eventually lead to a tragedy. TikTok mislead teenagers and let
them think it is easy to earn money, so that teenagers will focus less on the creativity and
high-quality video making; instead, they would only follow the current trend and beg for
some followers. Since social media make it easier to post video right now, everyone has the
chance to become a vlogger. This circumstance stimulates the quantity of videos, but not the
quality. In order to solve this problem, TikTok releases a function, in which if people like an
original video, they can click in this bottom and they will have the same music and same
filter and same everything with the primary video. This mechanism ensures that people are
watching the videos they like. However, if TikTok users get exposed to the identical content
of video over and over again, it is easier for teenagers to get tired of the genre of video they
are watching[6]. Last but not the least, TikTok would warp teenagers ’ value of life.
Admitted or not, the most popular video on TikTok is always debatable or argumentative. In
this way, when people discuss about the video in comment section, it will also bring
reputation to the video maker. However, the video might be vulgar or biased[7]. More
commonly, there are people who show off their luxury items, or scatter his/ her money, and
make a video about that[8]. This gives teenagers, who lack the independent thinking, a wrong
perception that money is easy to gain and maintain. Most importantly, teenagers would think
TikTok reveals the real world to them, but it turns out to be the opposite. TikTok users might
have an extravagant life, but students must know the importance of study, instead of
becoming internet influencers.
3. CONCLUSION
To summarize, as a part of the high sense of existence in teenagers’ network world,
TikTok has a profound influence on the youth, in an educational, social, and perceptual way.
Although the majority of the effects it brought to the public were positive, some flaws should
be noted. However, overall, TikTok provides people with a platform to express themselves.
Without a doubt, it has changed people's ways of socializing, but TikTok still faces great
challenges[10]. To correctly guide the public’s health development, TikTok should
consciously assume public responsibility, and consider the advantages of short video
transmission, and contribute to the publicity of culture[11]. To be specific, there are some
improvements TikTok can make in the future. For instance, TikTok can force all minors to
have name authentication, meaning teenagers under the age of 18 need to use their
identification card to create an account on TikTok. In this way, both the TikTok management
team and the teenagers’ parents can better supervise the usage of TikTok and hence correct
potential mistakes. On the other hand, TikTok already has a mode called juvenile mode, in
which it will constantly filter unhealthy videos and make sure juveniles get to see learning
and news videos. Also, TikTok could coerce teenagers to take a break when they've been
endlessly using TikTok for more than two hours. After two hours, the app will automatically
exit the interface, and teenagers will not be able to log in until tomorrow. In a word, since
TikTok is one of the greatest social media software, it should take on the responsibility of
promoting a positive guiding strategy, advocating the advantages of a short video, and finally
contributing to the growth of teenagers' minds.
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[3] Escamilla-Fajardo, P., Alguacil, M. and López-Carril, S., 2021. Incorporating TikTok in
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privacy> [Accessed 29 October 2021].
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traits. Telecommunications Policy, 45(7), p.102172.
[6] Scherr, S. and Wang, K., 2021. Explaining the success of social media with gratification
niches: Motivations behind daytime, nighttime, and active use of TikTok in China.
Computers in Human Behavior, 124, p.106893.
[7] Zeng Ying & Liu Yang. (2021). Negative effects of TikTok short video content and
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[8] Huang Wei Wei. (2021) TikTok's influence on young people and guidance strategy.
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impact-of-tik-t ok-on-young-generation/.
[10] Song Yang. (2021). The impact of short video on users' cognition from the perspective
of visual communication. Audiovisual (09), 164-165. Doi: 10.19395/j.cnki.1674-246x.
2021.09.072.
[11] Tang Yue. Study on the impact of short video use on adolescent self-identity. 2021.
Liaoning Normal University, MA thesis.

TIKTOK - THE INFLUENCE ON SCHOOL PERFORMANCE


AND SOCIAL LIFE OF ADOLESCENTS
Adina NICHITA1, Dumitru ENACHE2, Cristina Veronica ANDREESCU3,

MSc, Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Food Science; 2PhD in Systems


1

Engineering, University of Oil and Gas, Ploiești; 3 Lecturer, PhD, The University of Medicine
and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”, Bucharest;
ROMANIA
E-mail: nichitaadina79@gmail.com, 2ing.dumitru.enache@gmail.com,
1

3
cristina.andreescu@umfcd.ro

ABSTRACT
Mobile applications are a significant part of our lives, especially the applications
that help solve particular problems at certain stages of our lives or those that are the
very object of our work. In the field of education, mobile applications have been
integrated in the teaching of lessons or in the transmission of information. Various
applications on the market have been largely adopted for the information
transmission from the educational environment. TikTok is one of these applications,
and in this article we aim to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of using this
application in the educational environment. At the same time, the effects of the heavy
use of this application by adolescents are analyzed and also inadequate situations to
be avoided in the use of the application are highlighted. Statistical data are
presented through a questionnaire-based study. At the end of the article opinions on
the purpose of the application and its use in education, as an educational tool are
presented.

Keywords: applied questionnaire; educational tool; social media; TikTok;

INTRODUCTION
Currently, social media are some of the first means of communication and interaction
in the world, blossoming enormously in the recent years, in addition getting diversified both
in number and in terms of the functions they possess. Each social network has a special
character and exhibits common and yet unique functions. The use of social networks in the
field of education implies one of the measures accessible to pupils, students, teachers, that
have been adopted as a fragment within the life of each of us.
From an educational point of view, these can be seen as a simple educational tool,
designed to transmit different types of media content among the users, offering within them
various functions, in order to facilitate communication, such as text messaging, multimedia
messaging, user account creation, possibility to create groups. Thus, the information
transmission is simplified by a few clicks, but also by the speed with which the information is
conveyed to the users.
Since the occurrence of the social media, they have been surrounded by various pros
and cons about their existence and the benefits and risks they present.
In the education field, the advantages of the social media are: fast interaction with
other users, videocall, transmission of multimedia files, the possibility of a private
conversation, encryption of the conversations, back-up of conversations, inconsiderable
distance between users, instant feedback, through push notifications .
Among the disadvantages there should be mentioned: data confidentiality, security of
personal data, cyberbullying, the possible addiction it generates, the display of inappropriate
information, the permanent internet connection, the consumption of considerable time
resources.
Looking from different points of view, both students, teachers and all the persons
involved in education, may use the different social networks as a new method of transmitting
information to their own pupils/students and not only. Thus, the field of education may be
extended from the school to the social area. On the other hand, the negative effects that
social networks have should be also taken into account and therefore, their management
should be performed consciously, prior to the disadvantages changing the course of our lives.

1. TIKTOK – EDUCATIONAL TOOL


TikTok is a mobile application available on different operating systems, Android, iOS
and is considered a media application because its functionalities are the creation of shortform
video and its sharing. The application is available worldwide through various Market Apps
such as Huawei App Gallery, Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Being an application
available worldwide, it quickly attracted the attention of the users of other social media
platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and as users began utilizing it, the interest
for it increased exponentially. Hence, an assessment made by Sensor Tower (2019) showed
that this app registered a number of 33 million downloads in the App Store in the first quarter
of 2019, thus surpassing the other social platforms mentioned above.
(https://www.oberlo.com/blog/tiktok-statistics#5_TikTok_Usage_by_Country )
According to a statistical report conducted in January 2021 by Brandon Doyle, TikTok
is available in over 150 countries, with over 1 billion users. Brandon states that most of the
TikTok audience is in the 13-40 age range. Referring to some statistics, according to
Brandon, TikTok has almost one billion active users per month. Starting in November 2018,
when there were approximately 680 million active users the number has currently risen to 1
billion. (https://wallaroomedia.com/blog/social-media/tiktok statistics / #: ~: text = Total%
20App% 20Downloads% 20% E2% 80% 93% 20The% 20TikTok, Tower% 200n% 20April
% 2029% 2C % 202020)
Given this exponential development, the question has arisen as to whether this video
share application may be used as an educational tool to convey knowledge to one's students
via short videos. Various teachers have embraced this application as a means of transmitting
information, whether we are talking about math teachers, biology teachers or about teachers
of other subjects, they all have the opportunity, by creating short videos, to transmit the
information online.
The main advantages of TikTok in content creation are: the duration of the videos,
their length being as short as a couple of seconds, the possibility of making a video through
the application on your smartphone, without the need for a sophisticated film equipment,
editing may be performed also from the phone, therefore the time to create and post a video is
reduced, without the need for a PC and complex editing programs. Among other advantages
of TikTok in the transmission of knowledge is the content categories from which users can
watch videos, the organization by areas of activity allowing users to watch videos from that
particular segment. Moreover, a video added in the educational field, is viewed through the
platform not only by its own students but also by other students, from other regions, schools,
but also by users who are not pupils or students, but individuals from society, hence widening
the audience, one may discuss about an extension of the school education towards an
informal, social one.
The disadvantages of TikTok in the educational environment are: the impossibility of
conducting video conferences, the time allotted to a video is reduced, in comparison to other
platforms such as Youtube, so lectures may not be posted, or activities to conduct a lesson in
class. Being a video platform, it does not allow sharing text files, spreadsheets or PPT / Prezi
presentations or their storage in a designated space, in comparison to Google Classroom.

2. PSYCHO-SOCIA L ASPECTS OF TIKTOK AMONG ADOLESCENTS


In the UNICEF Publication “Creating resilient education systems in the context of the
Covid- As described in the previous passage, TikTok has positive effects on the pupils and
the society as a whole, but it also has negative effects. They largely depend on the end user as
well as on how he understands the use of TikTok. The improper use of the platform by users
implicitly leads to the creation or distribution of inappropriate content.
Thus, certain negative aspects are distinguished:
- Having mostly a young audience, they develop a possessive character to improve their
own physical appearance, which can sometimes lead to frustrations and even a slight
depression related to the way each one looks;
- Choosing the wrong topic attracts viewing unwanted content.
- Most users believe that TikTok is a way to make any type of content go viral; in this
way, in order to increase one's audience, one posts certain videos with different
themes, some pleasant, others inappropriate, which leads to a reduced viewing. As a
result, depression, frustration may appear as to the expected personal outcome of a
video, which implies emotional discomfort.
- Dangerous physical actions sometimes become intensely viewed; hence, stunts,
unsupervised fighting, the use of pyrotechnic objects for various purposes, represent a
series of actions that involve physical injury, either in a mild or in a serious form,
these being performed not according to some protection laws, but only according to
everyone's beliefs.
- By excessively using TikTok, teenagers dismiss a lot of the time offered to the family,
friends, so most of the time they spend online, this having negative consequences in
terms of the indivisual's social life.
- TikTok is an application that requires, for viewing different videos, an important
resource of time, some users not being aware of the duration spent online, and that the
time allotted for the study is diminished. In their minds, an addiction is created on
viewing as many videos as possible and thus the notion of time is lost.
All these aspects were reported by Sonika Garg in an article called "Tik Tok Latest
News: How it's affecting Youth and teen negatively ”posted in May 2020.
(https://techzimo.com/tik-tok-negative-impact/ )
2. QUESTIONNAIRE-BASED SURVEY AND INTERPRETATION OF THE
RESULTS
This survey aimed to fill in a questionnaire with a content of seven questions. The
questionnaire was applied to a sample of 50 adolescents, both girls and boys aged between 14
and 18, from different high schools in Dâmbovița County.
According to the questionnaire, the following results were obtained:
Question number one of the survey aimed to identify the use of the TikTok application
among adolescents. The result processing of this question identified that 82% used this
application, and 18% of adolescents did not.

Chart 1: Interpreting survey results from question 1

Question number two aimed to identify the time spent by teenagers on this
application. Therefore, the time spent by the teenagers on TikTok application was less than
30 minutes / day for 40% of them, and 60% of teenagers stated that the time spent on this
application was more than 30 minutes / day.
By watching the clips, the time spent in a day on the app is?

Under 30 minutes;
40%

Over 30 minutes;
60%

Chart 2: Interpreting survey results from question 2

Question number three aimed to identify the behavior of the adolescents after watching
videos on the TikTok application. 38% of the interviewed students stated that they usually
left assessments or comments for the watched videos, and 62% stated that they only watched
the videos without leaving assessments or comments about them.

Do you want to leave comments or likes to the clips you watch?

Yes
38%

No
62%

Chart 3: Interpreting survey results from question 3

Question number four meant to identify whether the pupils have watched inappropriate
videos that might have involved physical injury or racial discrimination. 62% of teenagers
stated that they watched such videos, and 38% said they did not watch.
Have you watched any inappropriate videos involving physical injury or
racist ness?

No
38%

Yes
62%

Chart 4: Interpreting survey results from question 4


Question number five meant to identify whether adolescents were watching videos on the
TikTok app or they were actually participating by posting videos. 32% said they watch but
also post videos on the TikTok application, and 68% said they only watch.

Do you post videos on the app or just view the videos offered?

I watch different
clips, but I also post
clips;
32%

I don't post anything,


I just watch various
clips;
68%

Chart 5: Interpreting survey results from question 5

By asking question number six, we wanted to get feedback from teenagers about the TikTok
application, on the use of short videos for educational purposes. 60% of teenagers believed
that the TikTok application could be used for educational purposes, and 40% of teenagers
believed that the TikTok application could not use short videos as an educational tool.
No
40%

Yes
60%

Chart 6: Interpreting survey results from question 6

In question number 7 from the survey, 100% of the interviewed adolescents agreed that the
data be processed in order to obtain this statistic.
Do you agree that your data should be stored, used, processed and
imported?

No
0%

Yes
100%

Chart 7: Interpreting survey results from question 7


DISCUSSION
The article makes a contribution by applying the questionnaire and interpreting the
results, which makes us reflect, analyze the positive and negative effects of TikTok. It also
deals with the argument of using TikTok as an educational tool. Analyzing the application
and the whole package of functions it possesses, the problem of managing the time that
people spend on this application by scrolling from one video to another still remains an issue.
In order to reduce this time or to facilitate the viewing for educational purposes, it is
necessary to create a study program, but also one for moments of relaxation. Thus, through an
established program, the time allotted to the study may contribute to the improvement of
school performance, and the time for viewing videos may be imagined for the relaxation
moments and/or for reading the comments or for the chat corresponding to the videos.
In the article "Navigating the New Era of Influencer Marketing: How to be Successful
on Instagram, TikTok, & Co." authors Michael Haenlein, Ertan Anadol, Tyler Farnsworth,
Harry Hugo, Jess Hunichen, and Diana Welte describe TikTok as a 20-second attack to grab
the attention of content consumers, this is especially favored among the young population.
According to: (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0008125620958166). With a huge
user population, this application is a very effective means of marketing and promotion, the
presentation of short videos in the form of advertisements implies a financial gain for
companies promoting products or services on this application saving a lot of money
compared to the promotion through television advertising.

CONCLUSION
TikTok may be used as an educational tool, but within limited limits, due to the length
of the videos. This application has advantages, but also disadvantages that may predominate
depending on the analytical ability of the person using the application, but also depending on
the content they want to view. TikTok is currently an application for video content, intended
for watching videos for fun. Due to the large number of users this application may be used for
the promotion of products and / or service packages, the application being adopted for
marketing. From an educational point of view, it is limited, and the current functionality of
the application is not to favor the educational environment as a whole. The important thing is
that by using the application, either for an educational purpose, or a marketing one or in other
fields, its benefits should be fully exploited, while its disadvantages should be minimized.
Further efforts should be made to facilitate exchanges regarding the challenges and
measures taken by Member States, including by connecting and improving the availability of
databases containing open educational resources and the access thereof, in order to facilitate
the exchange of different remote learning methodologies, tools and materials. In this context,
to capitalize on existing opportunities, such as those available through eTwinning, the School
Education Gateway platform and the e-Platform for Adult Learning in Europe (EPALE), to
promote the use of self-assessment tools such as SELFIE and HEInnovate to support the
capacity and digital transformation of schools and higher education institutions.

BIBLIOGRAFY:
[1] Brandon Doyle (January, 2021). TikTok Statistics. According
toto: https://wallaroomedia.com/blog/social-media/tiktokstatistics/#:~:text=Total%20App
%20Downloads%20%E2%80%93%20The%20TikTok,Tower%200n%2 0April%2029% 2C% 202020.
[2] Maryam Mohsin (September 2020). 10 TikTok statistics that you need to know in 2021
[Infographic]. According to: https://www.oberlo.com/blog/tiktok-
statistics#5_TikTok_Usage_by_Country
[3] Michael Haenlein, Ertan Anadol, Tyler Farnsworth, Harry Hugo, Jess Hunichen, Diana Welte
(2020) Navigating the New Era of Influencer Marketing: How to be Successful on Instagram, TikTok, &
Co. According to: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0008125620958166
[4] Sonika Garg (May 2020) TikTok Latest News: How it’s affecting Youth and teen negatively.
Conformable: https://techzimo.com/tik-tok-negative-impact/
[5] Florin POP, (2017). 20 reasons to use the Google Classroom app. According to:
https://www.eduapps.ro/blog/20-de-motive-pentru-care-sa-folosesti-aplicatia-google-classroom/

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