TIKTOK, a Chinese application is owned by byte dance which is a IT company founded in the year 2012. It was originally available as musical.ly but later in 2018 it merged with 2 apps and was re branded as TIKTOK which is generally used to create lip sync; short clips; comedy videos and comes with the package of much more 15 and 60 seconds contents. It had been the 2nd most downloaded app in 2019 and in 2020 it went in the first position with almost over 2 billion users globally. Due to increasing trends and craze of the app people had started to wrap it 24/7 in their heads affecting their Psychological health badly by dragging themselves onto its addictive behaviors.
ISSUES WITH TIKTOK
We have been tracked by many social networks in our daily life. But with the case of this particular Chinese application TIKTOK the obsession had made scratching our head and rethink about its existence. Its heavy criticism had made people to look over its serious threats and explosive growth. There are many concerns of people regarding the issues this application had made.
- It has a separate privacy policy for younger users stating the collection of certain information like accessing the user id, IP address, location and much more which shows how the application treats the data of users which are below the age of 13.
- Most of the data of the application is stored or processed in china which creates a threats of security because Chinese government could be using the data that TIKTOK collects worldwide. Although the app claims it doesn’t store user data but still it has a very little transparency into how it works.
- Though the app presented the transparency report at 2019 the report doesn’t collect enough information of the question that privacy advocates had regarding the app. It wasn’t successful to address the concerns of other group TIKTOK was sharing the data with; which show how insecure the app is.
- Although the app is totally associated with socializing with their users but the bitter reality these days had been user’s intension to involve in such a tight knot that they are unable to value the relationships they are bounded with in the way they need to which had taken them into high level of social isolation resulting into depression by devastating the mental health.
TIKTOK AS DIGITAL ADDICTION
Isn’t it a shocking thing that the app you have been addicted and investing hours for earning some sort of fame had been linked with dozens of deaths worldwide. Mostly teenagers who had been dragged into its addiction are committing Suside because of its mental issues due to cringe contents they had to tolerate to be under the platform of this digital wildfire. There had been almost 41 deaths linked regarding controversial application. Among them nine are assumed to be suicides. Some of the result of its addictions leading unconscious mindset are;
- NUR Ansari died while filming the videos on train.
- ANITHA filmed herself inhaling the poison for being banned from TIKTOK.
- ANNA Worden aged 18 suffered skull fracture after she fell and hit her head attempting Kiki challenge.
- Many teens risked their life in “pass out” challenge of the particular application.
Still people spends numerous hours on this application which are said to be unhealthy and unproductive while looking over various aspects of user’s health. With TIKTOK easy access and seductive algorithm which encourage user to stay in trend of fresh contents the addiction of people unwillingly makes them to spend enormous time interrupting everyday life to be into the trends ecosystem.
WILL TIKTOK EVER DIE?
While many of the population had still been hesitating about this app, large scale has already made massive growth into it in the rush of getting viral and famous due to early reach boost offered to content creators. But due to the low data security and Chinese ownership it could mess up with the user’s choice in future. For example,US military personnel had already banned the application with this sort of concerns. Many countries like Bangladesh and Indonesia had banned this application. Also due to breath taking challenges which comes time and over in the name of trend which makes users hurt while attempting it shows the high addiction attached towards it which need to be end very soon and these type of stuff could conclude the existence of application with the user’s unsatisfactorily.
Concluding, nothing is a pure evil in its form but the use of it makes it a choice of blessing or a curse. Same goes with these sorts of applications. Of course, they do have some various good impacts for example it provides a platform to discover and appreciate talents of acting, skills of art and much more to a big bunch of people. They may be a very good source of entertainment which can be used to fill some happiness when you seek it and enhance creativity in your busy schedule. But still “Excess of Everything Is Bad After All” and people need to understand it very soon or will be trapped deeper and deeper into its addiction.
Also See : Smartphone Radiation- How it is effecting our health?
