5/11/23, 7:22 PM TikTok addicts waking up - VnExpress International

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TikTok addicts waking up

By Quynh Nguyen, Phan Duong   April 14, 2023 | 10:45 am GMT+7

Minh Duc used to spend at least five hours a day scrolling through TikTok. The 21-year-old Hanoian
often received lots of short, funny videos from his friends.

Whenever he didn’t plug into TikTok, he would suffer FOMO (fear of missing out) because his
demographic peers would know what was trending and he wouldn’t. "I once thought I would be left
behind had it not been for TikTok," Duc shared.

At first, Minh Duc thought of the platform as something "useful and entertaining." He even
recommended the app to his younger sister, his parents, and a lot of his friends.

His TikTok usage "peaked" when he found himself spending around two hours during the day and
three hours at night scrolling through his TikTok feed.

"I would scroll until I became so exhausted that I fell asleep, normally at around 1-2a.m.," he
confessed.

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Minh Duc, 21 years old, scrolls through his TikTok feed while having a coffee in April
2023. Photo courtesy of Duc

However, as time went by, Duc realized how many toxic videos he was becoming exposed to on
TikTok.

Duc voiced his opinions in the comments sections a couple of times, but the more he expressed his
points of view, the more frequently TikTok’s addiction algorithm (which is designed to keep people
addicted to the app at any cost) force-fed him similar videos.

At the beginning of February, when Duc came across a video about "top useless university majors,"
he felt like an alarm bell started ringing in his head. In these videos, undergraduate majors
including Business Administration, Marketing, Real Estate Studies, and English Language Studies
were often listed as "useless," "non prominent," "graduates likely to be unemployed," "graduates
likely to have low income," or "too broad."

"As I was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in English Language Studies, I was upset with this
information," said the University of Languages and International Studies graduate. "I worried that
many high school students could be exposed to this toxic and incorrect career-oriented
information."

As Minh Duc started compensating by limiting his time spent on the app, he noticed that many
more users were being lured into adopting toxic trends like "drop out of school to open a start-up
business instead," or "making money is not difficult." Others were being convinced to buy low
quality products.

A recent survey by VnExpress showed that among around 6,000 TikTok users questioned, over 81%
reportedly often came across toxic content.

Bad actors and ‘brainwashing’

Thanh Vy, 27, a Ho Chi Minh City resident, only stopped using TikTok in mid-2022, after being
hospitalized because of her following a "self-proclaimed professional" she came across on the
platform.

Scrolling through videos on the platform gradually turned into an unbreakable habit. She started
using the app at all times of day or night, slowly beginning to ignore her studies, friends and family

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in favor of the less important things in life. "Every time I unlocked my phone screen, my thumb
would unconsciously touch TikTok’s icon," she said.

After being exposed to something for long enough, our brains start to adopt it. With Vy, she gained
interest in simple ways to lose weight without having to exercise.

She began spending hours every day on TikTok.

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Vy limits her TikTok usage to protect her own health, March 2023. Photo courtesy of Vy

Vy applied what she learned from the short video clips to her daily lifestyle. She started to replace
her water intake with black coffee and green tea, cut carbohydrates from her diet, and took

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supplements endorsed by TikTokers. The videos she watched claimed to help people lose between
five and seven kilograms of weight after one month only.

She soon experienced symptoms such as migraine headaches, dizziness, tiredness, black spots on
her skin, and hair loss. One day, she collapsed. When her parents took her to the hospital, she was
diagnosed with a serious nutritional deficiency.

"Only then did I finally realize that all the advice about weight loss on TikTok were scams aiming to
sell products," she said. "I had been brainwashed."

Time’s up
Vietnamese authorities are planning a major inspection of TikTok next month as a result of its
undeniable role in spreading toxic information that has led to negative economic and social
consequences.

As of February 2023, Vietnam had more TikTok users than any other Southeast Asian nation. Even
though the platform only just reached Vietnam in April 2019, it gained a lot of momentum here
during the pandemic and the number of TikTok users in Vietnam is now ranked the 6th
globally."The TikTok algorithm enables toxic information to spread and affect adolescents more
easily," said an official from the Ministry of Information and Communications during a meeting last
week.

Dr. Tran Thanh Nam, a professor at Hanoi National University, attributed people’s addiction to
TikTok to the feelings of excitement and curiosity elicited by the content, as well as the relaxed
feeling of easily scrolling through entertaining content that takes their mind off the other stresses of
life. But Dr. Nam also said these are the same qualities that make users "addicted."

Many TikTok addicts have reported that using trends they’ve discovered on TikTok changed their
lives. Popular and particularly dangerous trends on TikTok include "the blackout challenge" (which
encourages viewers to hold their breath until they pass out) and the "crossing-roads-while-cars-are-
passing-by challenge." These trends are especially harmful for children who are easily gullible.

In the short term, these videos entertain people. But in the long term, being "addicted to TikTok"
could lead to many physical and mental consequences, including myopia, obesity, sleep disorders,
and short attention spans.

More dangerously, exposure to toxic content for a long time could pose a threat to one’s viewpoint.
There have been many adolescents who now regard the outside world as dangerous, filthy, and

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twisted after watching videos on TikTok.

"If there is nothing done, our adolescents could easily become a generation of those who enjoy lying
down and scrolling through social media [instead of real life]. They will feel confident commenting
online, but in real life they’ll have nothing to say or contribute," Nam claimed.

A week after being discharged from the hospital, Vy tried other hobbies like reading and listening to
music. Every night, before going to bed, she puts her mobile phone in a drawer, hopefully to avoid
coming back to TikTok.

Minh Duc chose a bit different approach. After his two negative encounters, he has been limiting his
TikTok usage to only 30 minutes a day. He also shifted his focus to watching educational videos
about skills he wants to acquire. At the same time, he doesn’t hesitate to hit the "not interested"
button every time he comes across toxic and harmful content.

Vietnam may ban TikTok if violating contents not

removed
TikTok may be banned if it does not remove violating content as instructed, the
information ministry said.

Breaking the cycle of TikTok addiction

I make a conscious effort not to spend more than 30 minutes at a time on TikTok, but I
rarely succeed.

TikTok's danger to teens in focus during US

congressional hearing
U.S. lawmakers at a congressional hearing on Thursday accused TikTok of serving
harmful content and inflicting "emotional distress" on young users, grilling the
Chinese-owned app's CEO on the company's outsized influence on teens.

Tags: social media entertainment

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