Miles Magee

Ms. Gonzalez
ENC 1102
3/10/24

Title: TikTok Addiction

Overarching Question: How does TikTok persuade people to stay on the app?

Research Questions:
 How does TikTok influence user gratification to keep people on the app?
 How is the TikTok algorithm made to keep viewers on the app?
 How does TikTok persuade people to come back to the app again?
 What are different ways creators have experimented with hooking in viewers at the start
of their videos?
 How does escapism motivate users to stay on TikTok?
 How does creating a community contribute to audience retention?

Significance Statement:
The average kid under 18 years old spends around 1 hour and 47 minutes on just TikTok
every day. This is important to me because I was addicted to TikTok and YouTube when I was a
kid. Throughout my entire time in high school, I would barely get any sleep because I was either
up late doing homework or studying for tests, but no matter what time it was when I finished
studying or doing homework, I would always watch TikTok or YouTube in bed before I went to
sleep. This caused me to miss out on thousands of hours of sleep over the years. Looking back on
those years of my life now, I feel like watching TikTok and YouTube was a significant waste of
time. My ideas fit into conversations within writing studies because my research is going to
connect the many different strategies that TikTok uses to maximize the audience retention on
their app through their algorithm, user gratification system, influencer communities, and video
pacing to persuade people to stay on their app longer. I plan to collect primary research by
looking through several articles on the topics and watching podcasts to find answers to my
research questions. I plan on analyzing at least the four different articles that I have as sources so
far and I also plan on watching at least 2-3 podcasts related to TikTok and its addicting features.
Other researchers should care about this because I plan on bringing new ideas on the subject to
light that haven’t been talked about yet, while also analyzing many other ideas that are already
being talked about. My research will contribute something that other research hasn’t already
because I plan on connecting the different ideas that multiple sources have on how TikTok uses
its addictive audience retention strategies by analyzing its use of rhetoric. TikTok has many
features such as a complex algorithm, infinite scrolling, and micro-entertainment that they use to
influence viewer gratification and persuade users to stay on their app and keep watching their
videos and my plan is to collect research and examine others’ research to help explore these
factors.

Research Design/Description of Study:

1. First, I’m going to start my research by reading and analyzing several different
articles about TikTok that discuss ideas related to my overarching question and other
research questions.
2. Next, I’ll start watching and listening to podcasts with people talking about all the
different addictive features that TikTok has and connect it to writing studies by
explaining how these features are persuading people to stay on the app longer and to
come back to it again later.
3. Then, I’m going to conduct a survey where I’ll ask people some of my research
questions and some other questions related to them that I haven’t thought of yet. My
goal is to get at least 5-8 people to respond.

Sources:
 Source 1: How TikTok influences user gratification to keep people on the app

Borges, Natalia Portilho. “User Gratifications in Social Media Usage – the Case of TikTok.”

https://repositorio.ucp.pt/bitstream/10400.14/41410/1/203322282.pdf

 Source 2: How the TikTok algorithm is made to keep viewers on the app
Sharabati, Abdel-Aziz Ahmad, et al. “The Impact of Tiktok User Satisfaction on Continuous

Intention to Use the Application.” MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 16

July 2022, www.mdpi.com/2199-8531/8/3/125.

 Source 3: How TikTok persuades people to come back to the app again

SÖĞÜT, Yasin, and Alpaslan ÖNGEL. “Examination of TikTok Application in the Axis of Uses

and Gratifications Approach, User Experience and Entertainment Culture.” Dergipark,

2022, https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/2109198

 Source 4: An examination of hooks and how they’re used in TikTok

Ruxin, Yan. “Research on Communication Effect Based on ‘the HOOK Model’ --Take the Short

Video of China in Classics in Tiktok as an Example.” Francis Academic Press, 2022,

www.francis-press.com/.