conclusion of tiktok essay

The Analysis of TikTok Company Research Paper

Introduction.

TikTok is a social networking platform owned by the Chinese international company ByteDance. The service has gained popularity and a respected reputation due to the nature of the products and services it offers. Almost half of the users are young people, and its addictive nature makes people visit the site more than once daily. The most popular markets of TikTok are the South and Eastern parts of Asia, Russia, the USA, Turkey, the UK, and Australia, with prospects growing worldwide (Green et al. 2022). The service’s growing popularity is due to its increasing number of loyal users and the teamwork culture that keeps users connected.

Origin and Development

The first video was launched in December 2016 and has grown exponentially; today, it is available in over forty languages serving customers worldwide. The service hosts an array of short videos in different genres, such as stunts, pranks, jokes, dances, and tricks, with lengths from fifteen seconds to ten minutes (Ma, & Yu, 2021). The service initially gained popularity as Facebook users used it to share memes and other funny content. TikTok for Android and iOS operating systems was launched in 2017 and made its operations worldwide after merging with the largest social media company in China, Musical.ly.

Features and Rising Popularity

TikTok as an application became the leading free download in application stores in Thailand and other parts of the world merely a year after its launch. Today, the application has been downloaded over one hundred and thirty million times in the United States of America and has over two billion downloads worldwide. Further, each user has a chance to watch only the videos they are interested in as the embedded artificial intelligence seeks out content for every user. Family safety mode was introduced in 2020 and allowed parents to control the content children could watch to protect their mental well-being.

Major Products/Services

Brand take-over.

ByteDance’s TikTok offers numerous products and services to the general public, and other than entertainment, it is used as a marketing tool. Influencers, brands, and content creators use the platform for advertising their services. Brand take-over ads are a service that allows users to issue five-second videos that appear whenever the user opens the TikTok app (Green et al. 2022). The service can improve brand awareness and worldwide advertisement, especially for multinational corporations like Amazon.

In-feed Video and Brand Hashtag

The in-feed video ads auto-play between videos as users enjoy the Tik to entertainment. The service allows companies advertising to play their adverts in between entertainment videos. The branded hashtag challenge is an important service that allows companies to have an associated hashtag where they prompt users to create videos promoting a particular brand. Since TikTok has over 2 billion users who visit the site more than two times a day, it becomes more appealing for companies to use the challenge to popularize their products (Peng, 2021). The services and products offered by TikTok allow companies to reach out to billions of users globally and increase sales in due course.

Industry Overview

Pestel analysis.

Tik Tok operates in the entertainment industry, and within the dictates of the laws in all the countries it operates in. The service strives to create a brand position by navigating through the environment. It attracts content creators and offers them adequate incentives to maintain them. Creating pro-social videos is not the only way the service is flourishing but also navigating the political landscape, like moving the servers to Ireland which is a tax haven to lower operation costs (Ma, & Yu, 2021). Data protection is an outgoing concern maintained in TikTok to remain relevant in the discourse.

Navigating Industry Challenges

TikTok is concerned about the world’s political situations and bans politically biased content and a threat to peace. As environmental forces push TikTok, it uses mergers and acquisitions to reach many global industries. Some threats surrounding TikTok are the privacy policy, regulations, and the Chinese brand associated with human rights violations, leading to the ban of TikTok in countries such as India (Green et al. 2022). However, TikTok enjoys a huge market share, has loyal users, and is free, making it popular with Generation Z.

Competition

Main competitors.

TikTok operates in a competitive environment with other growing companies offering an alternative to the users. Some of the main competitors are Triller, funimate, and cheez, among many others, which provide users with a chance to record and share videos. Thriller, for example, is commonly used by celebrities to share videos and stickers and comment on each other’s performances (Ma, & Yu, 2021). Besides TikTok, the other apps can also modify and share videos. ByteDance must therefore put strategies in place to enable TikTok to maintain its position in the industry.

Competitive Advantage

Strategic management enables TikTok to navigate the competitive environment and emerge victorious. TikTok pays more attention to innovation and technology through artificial intelligence to personalize the app for the users. Further, the company initiates multiple challenges and prompts, allowing everyone to participate regardless of their abilities and talents (Peng, 2021). The service is free; anyone with a smartphone can download and start recording, editing, and posting videos, enabling people to nurture their talents.

The rise of TikTok is an example of how businesses grow in a competitive and dynamic landscape. Despite operating in a highly competitive environment, the management has leveraged technology and innovation to make it easy to use. The company further organizes its content based on age groups, and parents can restrict inappropriate content. The increasing number of users makes TikTok ideal for many companies to advertise their businesses.

Green, D., Polk, X. L., Arnold, J., Chester, C., & Matthews, J. (2022). The Rise Of TikTok: A Case Study Of The New Social Media Giant . Manag Econ Res J , 8 (1), 33261. Web.

Peng, Y. (2021, August). TikTok’s Business Model Innovation and Development-Porter’s Five Forces Model, Business Model Canvas and SWOT Analysis as Tools . 1st International Symposium on Innovative Management and Economics (ISIME 2021) (pp. 482-489). Atlantis Press. Web.

Ma, J., & Yu, S. (2021, October). The Future Development of E-commerce in Tiktok . In 2021 International Conference on Public Relations and Social Sciences (ICPRSS 2021) (pp. 241-246). Atlantis Press. Web.

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Bibliography

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On the Psychology of TikTok Use: A First Glimpse From Empirical Findings

Christian montag.

1 Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany

2 The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China

3 Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin, China

Jon D. Elhai

4 Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, United States

5 Department of Psychiatry, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, United States

TikTok (in Chinese: DouYin; formerly known as musical.ly) currently represents one of the most successful Chinese social media applications in the world. Since its founding in September 2016, TikTok has seen widespread distribution, in particular, attracting young users to engage in viewing, creating, and commenting on “LipSync-Videos” on the app. Despite its success in terms of user numbers, psychological studies aiming at an understanding of TikTok use are scarce. This narrative review provides a comprehensive overview on the small empirical literature available thus far. In particular, insights from uses and gratification theory in the realm of TikTok are highlighted, and we also discuss aspects of the TikTok platform design. Given the many unexplored research questions related to TikTok use, it is high time to strengthen research efforts to better understand TikTok use and whether certain aspects of its use result in detrimental behavioral effects. In light of user characteristics of the TikTok platform, this research is highly relevant because TikTok users are often adolescents and therefore from a group of potentially vulnerable individuals.

Musical.ly was founded in September 2016 by Zhang Yiming. Beijing Bytedance Technology acquired the application musical.ly in November 2017 and renamed the app to TikTok. In a short time period, this application became the most successful app from Chinese origin in terms of global distribution ( 1 ). As of November 2020, 800 million monthly users have been reported 1 , and 738 million first-time installs in 2019 have been estimated 2 . TikTok use is allowed for those 13 years or older, but direct messaging between users is allowed only for those 16 or older (in order to protect young users from grooming) 3 . In China, the main users of TikTok are under 35 years old (81.68% (2)). Meanwhile, to protect children and adolescents from unsuitable content (such as smoking, drinking, or rude language), TikTok's engineers also developed a version of the app, which filters inappropriate content for young users ( 2 ). Of note, at the moment of writing, the app operates as TikTok on the global market and as DouYin on the Chinese market ( 3 ). Similarities and differences of the twin apps are further described with a content analysis by Sun et al. ( 4 ).

The TikTok application available for Android and Apple smartphones enables creation of short videos where users can perform playback-videos to diverse pop-songs, to name one very prominent feature of the platform. These so-called “LipSync-Videos” can be shared with other users, downloaded for non-commercial purposes, commented upon and of course attached with a “Like.” Not only are playback-videos uploaded on TikTok but also users view a large amount of video content. Users can also call out for “challenges,” where they define which performance should be created by many users. As a consequence, TikTok users imitate the content or interact with the original video.

As the large user numbers in a very short time-window demonstrate, TikTok not only represents a global phenomenon but also has been criticized with respect to data protection issues/privacy ( 5 , 6 ), spreading hate ( 7 ) and might serve as a platform engendering cyberbullying ( 8 , 9 ). Given the many young users of this platform (e.g., 81.68% of China users of Tiktok are under 35 years old—see above, and 32.5% of the US users are 19 years old and younger) 4 , it is of particular relevance to better understand the motivation to use TikTok, alongside related topics. Such an understanding might also be relevant because recent research suggests that TikTok can be a potent channel to inform young persons on health-relevant information ( 10 – 12 ), on official information release from the government ( 13 ), political discussions ( 14 ), tourism content ( 15 ), live online sales ( 16 ), and even educational content ( 17 ). There even have been video-posts analyzed in a scientific paper related to radiology ( 18 ). Clearly, young TikTok users are also confronted with harmful health content, including smoking of e-cigarettes ( 19 ). Moreover, the health information learned from TikTok videos often does not meet necessary standards—as is discussed in a paper on acne ( 20 ). Finally, there arises the problem that while creating content, children's/adolescent's private home bedrooms from which they create TikTok videos become visible to the world, posing privacy intrusions ( 21 ). The many obviously negative aspects of TikTok use are in itself important further research leads. From a psychological perspective, we take a different path with the present review and try to better understand why people use TikTok, who uses the platform, and also how people use TikTok.

Why do People Use TikTok?

This question can be answered from different perspectives. One perspective providing an initial answer and—likely being true for most social media services—has been put forward by Montag and Hegelich ( 22 ). Social media companies have created services being highly immersive, aiming to capture the attention of users as long as possible ( 23 ). As a result of a prolonged user stay, social media companies obtain deep insights into psychological features of their users ( 24 ), which can be used for microtargeting purposes ( 25 ). Such immersive platform design also likely drives users with certain characteristics into problematic social media use ( 26 ) or problematic TikTok use (addictive-like behavior), but this aspect relating to TikTok use is understudied. Nevertheless, reinforcement of TikTok usage is also very likely reached by design-elements such as “Likes” ( 27 ), personalized and endless content available ( 23 ). TikTok's “For You”-Page (the landing page) learns quickly via artificial intelligence what users like, which likely results in longer TikTok use than a user intended, which may cause smartphone TikTok-related addictive behavior ( 2 ). This said, these ideas put forward still need to be confirmed by empirical studies dealing exclusively with TikTok. In this realm, an interesting research piece recently investigated less studied variables such as first-person camera views, but also humor on key variables such as immersion and entertainment on the TikTok platform ( 28 ), again all of relevance to prolong user stay.

The other perspective one could choose to address why people use TikTok stems from uses and gratification theory ( 29 , 30 ). The simple idea of this highly influential theory is that use of certain media can result in gratification of a person's needs ( 30 ), and only if relevant needs of a person are gratified by particular media, users will continue media use—here digital platform or social media use.

A recent paper by Bucknell Bossen and Kottasz ( 31 ) provided insight that, in particular, gratification of entertainment/affective needs was the most relevant driver to understand a range of behaviors on TikTok, including passive consumption of content, but also creating content and interacting with others. In particular, the authors summarized that TikTok participation was motivated by needs to expand one's social network, seek fame, and express oneself creatively. Recent work by Omar and Dequan ( 32 ) also applied uses and gratification theory to better understand TikTok use. In their work, especially the need for escapism predicted TikTok content consumption, whereas self-expression was linked to both participating and producing behavior. A study by Shao and Lee ( 33 ) not only applied uses and gratification theory to understand TikTok use but also shed light on TikTok use satisfaction and the intention to further use TikTok. In line with findings from the already mentioned works, entertainment/information alongside communication and self-expression were discussed as relevant use motives (needs to be satisfied by TikTok use). Satisfaction with TikTok was investigated as a mediator between different motives to use TikTok and to continue TikTok use. We also mention recent work being unable to link TikTok use to well-being, whether in a positive or negative way ( 34 ). Finally, Wang et al. ( 35 ) underlined the overall relevance of uses and gratification theory to understand TikTok use and presented need variables in cognitive and affective domains as relevant to study, but also personal/social integration and relief of pressure. In this context, we also mention the view of Shao ( 2 ) who put forward that, in particular, young people use TikTok for positioning oneself in their peer group and to understand where he/she stands in the peer group. Thus, TikTok is also relevant for identity formation of young persons and obtaining feedback to oneself.

Further theories need to be mentioned, which can explain why people are using the TikTok platform: Social Impact Theory and Self-Determination Theory. To our knowledge, these theories have not been sufficiently addressed empirically so far with respect to TikTok use, but are well known to be of relevance to understand social media use in general and are therefore mentioned.

Clearly, an important driver of social media use can be power, hence, reaching out to many and influencing other persons ( 36 ). Here, the classic Social Impact Theory (SIT) by Latané ( 37 ) tries to understand how to best measure the impact of people on a single individual/individuals. This theory—originating in the pre-social-media-age—gained a lot of visibility with the rise of social media services because, in particular, in the age of filter bubbles, fake news, and misinformation campaigns ( 38 , 39 ), it is interesting to understand how individual users on social media are socially influenced by others, for instance, in the area of their (political) attitudes. The SIT postulates three highly relevant factors called strength, immediacy, and number (of sources) to predict such a social impact. Ultimately, applying this theory to better understand TikTok use also needs to take into account that users differ in terms of their active and passive use.

The Self-Determination Theory (SDT) has been proposed by Ryan and Deci ( 40 ) and belongs to the most influential motivation theories of human behavior. Hence, it clearly can also be used to explain why people are motivated to use a social media service ( 41 , 42 ). According to SDT, motivated behavior (here using TikTok) should be high, when such a platform enables users to feel competence, autonomy, and being connected with others. Design of the platform can help to trigger related psychological states (e.g., push notifications can trigger fear of missing out, hence, not being connected to significant others) ( 43 ); but clearly also, individual differences play a relevant role, and this should be discussed as the next important area in this work. As with the SIT, applying SDT to better understand TikTok use will also need to take into account different kinds of TikTok use. A sense of self-determination might rise to different levels, when users are actively or passively using TikTok—and this also represents an interesting research question.

Who Uses TikTok and Who Does Not?

The aforementioned statistics show that TikTok users are often young. Bucknell Bossen and Kottasz ( 31 ) illustrated that, in particular, young users are also those who seem to be particularly active on the platform, and thus share much information. Given that, in particular, young users often do not foresee consequences of self-disclosure, it is of high importance to better protect this vulnerable group from detrimental aspects of social media use. Beyond age, statistics suggest that more females than males use the platform 5 , something also observed with other platforms ( 44 – 46 ). First, insights from personality psychology provided further information on associations between characteristics of TikTok users and how they use it (see also the next How Do People Use TikTok? section): The widely applied Big Five Personality traits called openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (acronym OCEAN) were all robustly linked to producing, participating, and consuming behavior on TikTok, with the exception of agreeableness only being linked to consuming behavior ( 32 ). Using a hierarchical regression model inserting both personality variables and motives from uses and gratification theory, it became apparent that the latter variables seemed to outweigh the personality variables in their importance to predict TikTok usage. Lu et al. ( 47 ) used data from China to investigate individual differences in DouYin (again the Chinese version of TikTok) use. Among others, they observed that people refraining from using DouYin did so out of fear of getting “addicted” to the application [see also ( 48 )]. This needs to be further systematically explored with the Big Five model of personality (or HEXACO, as the personality models dominating modern personality psychology at the moment). Without doubt, it will be also highly important to better understand how the variables of socio-demographics and personality interact on TikTok use, also in the realm of active/passive use of the platform. Active use would describe a high engagement toward the platform including commenting and uploading videos. Passive usage would reflect in browsing and simply consuming videos. The need to distinguish between active and passive use of social media has been also recently empirically supported by Peterka-Bonetta et al. ( 49 ).

How do People Use TikTok?

In the Why Do People Use TikTok? section, we already mentioned that users can passively view content, but also create content or interact with others. Studies comprehensively showing how many and which types of people use TikTok with respect to these behavioral categories are lacking (but TikTok likely has at least some of these insights). A recent review by Kross et al. ( 50 ) on “social media (use) and well-being” summarized that several psychological processes such as upward social comparison (perhaps also happening in so-called “challenges” on TikTok) or fear of missing out ( 43 ) are related to negative affect and might have detrimental effects on the usage experience and/or TikTok users' lives in general. Overall, the psychological impact of the TikTok platform might also be very likely, in particular, when adolescents often imitate their idols in “LipSync-Videos” ( 51 ). The kind of influence of such behavior on the development of one's own identity and self-esteem (self-confidence) ( 52 ) will be a matter of important psychological discussion, but it is too early to speculate further on potential psychological effects here, both in the positive or negative direction ( 53 ). Moreover, whether such effects will be of positive or negative nature, we mention the importance to not overpathologize everyday life behavior ( 54 ).

In sum, much of what we know with respect to platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, or even WeChat ( 56 ) needs to still be investigated in the context of TikTok, to understand if psychological observations made for other social media channels can be transferred “one-on-one” to TikTok. For instance, illustrating differences between social media platforms, Bhandari and Bimo ( 57 ) suggested in their analysis of TikTok that in contrast to other platforms, “the crux of interaction is not between users and their social network, but between a user and what we call an ‘algorithmized’ version of self.” Opening TikTok immediately results in being captured by a personalized stream of videos. Therefore, we believe it to be unlikely that all insights from social media research can be easily transferred to TikTok because it is well-known that each social media platform has a unique design also attracting different user groups ( 45 ), and they elicit different immersive or “addictive” potential ( 58 ). Please note that we use the term “addictive” only in quotation marks, given the ongoing debate on the actual nature of excessive social media use ( 59 , 60 ). This said, we explicitly mention that the study of problematic social media use represents a very important topic ( 61 ), although at the moment, this condition—of relevance for the mental health sciences—is not officially recognized by the World Health Organization. Despite the ongoing controversy, nevertheless, it has been recently pointed out that social media companies are responsible for the well-being of users, too ( 55 ).

Conclusions and Outlook

Although user numbers are high and TikTok represents a highly successful social media platform around the globe, we know surprisingly less about psychological mechanisms related to TikTok use. Most research has been carried out so far yielding insights into user motives applying uses and gratification theory. Although this theory is of high importance to understand TikTok use, it is still rather broad and general. In particular, when studying a platform such as TikTok—receiving attention at the moment from a lot of young users—more specific needs or facets of the broad dimensions of uses and gratification theory (such as social usage) being more strongly related to the needs of adolescents might need more focus. One such focus could be a stronger emphasis on the study of self-esteem ( 62 ) in the context of TikTok use. Work beyond this area, e.g., investigating potential detrimental aspects, are scarce, but will be important. In particular, we deem this to be true, as TikTok attracts very young users, being more vulnerable to detrimental aspects of social media use ( 63 ). We believe that it is also high time for researchers to put research energy in the study of TikTok and to do so in a comprehensive manner. Among others, it needs also to be studied how active and passive use impact on the well-being of the users. This means that the here-discussed how-, why- , and who- questions need to be studied together in one framework, and this needs to be done against the data business model and its immersive platform design. The key ideas of this review to understand TikTok use and related aspects such as well-being of the users are presented in Figure 1 .

In order to understand the relationship between a social media service such as TikTok and human psychological processes and behavior, one needs to answer the who-, why-, and how-questions, also against the background of the social media platform design. Please note that the platform design itself is driven by the data business model. Social media usage and its association with psychological/behavioral variables such as well-being, online-time, and so on can be best understood by investigating these variables in one model, at best also investigating potential interactions of variables. These ideas have also been described in parts in Montag and Hegelich ( 22 ), Kross et al. ( 50 ), and Montag et al. ( 55 ). The figure does not exclusively mention TikTok because we are convinced that the presented details are true for all research agendas aiming at a better understanding of the relationship between social media use and well-being.

Author Contributions

CM wrote the first draft of this review article. HY screened the Chinese literature and added relevant work from a Chinese perspective to the review. Finally, JDE critically worked over the complete draft. All authors agreed upon the final version of the article.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

1 https://www.omnicoreagency.com/tiktok-statistics/ (accessed March 9, 2021).

2 https://www.statista.com/statistics/1089420/tiktok-annual-first-time-installs/ (accessed March 9, 2021).

3 https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Ab-16-TikTok-fuehrt-Mindestalter-fuer-Direktnachrichten-ein-4703887.html (accessed March 9, 2021).

4 https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095186/tiktok-us-users-age/ (accessed March 9, 2021).

5 https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095196/tiktok-us-age-gender-reach/ (accessed March 9, 2021).

• TikTok's Influence on Culture

IELTS WRITING TASK 2

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write at least 250 words about the following topic:

TikTok has rapidly become a global sensation, shaping popular culture and influencing trends worldwide. Analyze the impact of TikTok on youth culture and consumer behavior. How can this platform be both a source of creativity and a potential concern for privacy and mental health?

Sample Answer, C1 English Level, Advanced, Band Score 6.5-7.5

• Paraphrase: TikTok has rapidly gained worldwide popularity and significantly influenced global trends and culture.
• Main Opinion/Idea: TikTok’s impact on youth culture and consumer behavior is both transformative and concerning.
• Support Sentence: As an active user, I have witnessed firsthand how TikTok empowers young people to express their creativity and connect with others globally.
• Support Sentence: However, the platform’s popularity also raises concerns about privacy and mental health, as users may face cyberbullying and validation-driven pressures.
• Summary: TikTok’s influence on youth culture is undeniable, offering a platform for creative expression and fostering a global community.
• Restate Main Opinion/Idea: Nonetheless, it is essential for TikTok to address privacy and mental health concerns to ensure a safe and positive digital environment.

In today’s digital age, TikTok has emerged as a global phenomenon, leaving an indelible mark on youth culture and consumer behavior. As an avid user of this social media platform, I have personally experienced and observed its profound impact on both individuals and society as a whole.

TikTok’s influence on youth culture is undeniable. Through short and engaging videos, users from diverse backgrounds can express their creativity, showcasing talents, dance moves, and unique perspectives. As a result, it fosters a sense of community among young people, transcending geographical boundaries and allowing them to connect with like-minded individuals worldwide. This democratization of content creation has empowered the youth, providing them with a voice that was previously reserved for mainstream media.

On the other hand, the platform’s immense popularity also raises concerns about privacy and mental health. As content goes viral in an instant, individuals may inadvertently expose themselves to cyberbullying and privacy breaches. Being a participant in this online world, I have witnessed instances where users’ personal information was misused or targeted by malicious individuals. Additionally, the constant pressure to garner likes and followers can lead to a toxic obsession with validation, taking a toll on users’ mental well-being.

To address these concerns, TikTok must proactively implement robust privacy measures and enhance moderation to combat harmful content. Users should be educated about online safety and privacy protection, empowering them to make informed decisions while engaging with the platform.

In conclusion, TikTok’s impact on youth culture and consumer behavior is undeniably profound. From unleashing creativity to shaping trends, it has revolutionized how the younger generation interacts with social media. However, its influence comes with inherent risks related to privacy and mental health, necessitating a collective effort from the platform, users, and society at large to foster a safe and nurturing environment. As an active user, I firmly believe that by harnessing its potential for good while addressing the challenges responsibly, TikTok can continue to be a force for positive change in the digital landscape.

In today’s digital age, TikTok has taken the world by storm, becoming a global sensation that profoundly influences popular culture and trends. As an individual who has been actively engaged with the platform, I believe that TikTok has a significant impact on youth culture and consumer behavior.

TikTok’s impact on youth culture is immense. Through its short and captivating videos, young users can express their creativity and showcase their talents, fostering a sense of community among like-minded individuals worldwide. As someone who has created and shared videos on TikTok, I have experienced the joy of connecting with people who share my interests and passions, transcending geographical boundaries in the process.

However, while TikTok provides a source of creativity and self-expression, it also raises valid concerns about privacy and mental health. Many users, including myself, have often come across content that may infringe on others’ privacy or spread harmful messages. The viral nature of content on TikTok can lead to unintended consequences, such as cyberbullying and the dissemination of sensitive information. Additionally, the relentless pursuit of validation through likes and followers can take a toll on users’ mental well-being, leading to feelings of inadequacy and anxiety.

In conclusion, TikTok’s impact on youth culture and consumer behavior is undeniable. As an active participant on the platform, I have experienced firsthand its ability to foster creativity and create a global community. Nevertheless, it is crucial for both users and the platform itself to be aware of the potential risks concerning privacy and mental health. By promoting responsible content creation, fostering a safe environment, and encouraging users to prioritize their well-being, TikTok can continue to be a powerful and positive force in shaping the digital landscape for the younger generation.

TikTok, a rapidly growing global sensation, has undoubtedly left an indelible mark on youth culture and consumer behavior. As a real-life individual who has witnessed the platform’s rise to fame, I firmly believe that TikTok serves as a powerful source of creativity while also raising concerns regarding privacy and mental health.

TikTok’s influence on youth culture is profound, as it has become a hub for creativity and self-expression. The platform has empowered young users to showcase their talents, share their perspectives, and connect with a diverse global audience. Through short-form videos, TikTok has fostered a sense of community among users, enabling them to participate in viral challenges and trends, ultimately shaping popular culture on a global scale.

In terms of consumer behavior, TikTok has emerged as a powerful marketing tool, particularly for businesses targeting younger audiences. Influencers and brands leverage the platform to promote products and services, significantly influencing purchasing decisions. This has led to the rise of “TikTok trends,” wherein products can quickly become viral sensations, impacting consumer preferences and driving sales.

However, despite its positive aspects, TikTok raises concerns regarding privacy and mental health. The app’s data collection practices have come under scrutiny, raising questions about the protection of user information. Ensuring transparency and robust data privacy measures are vital to address these concerns and safeguard user trust.

Furthermore, the immersive nature of TikTok can also contribute to mental health issues among young users. The platform’s addictive features and constant exposure to curated content may lead to feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, and social comparison. To mitigate these effects, the platform must encourage responsible content creation and incorporate well-being features, such as time management tools and mental health resources.

In conclusion, TikTok’s impact on youth culture and consumer behavior is undeniable. It has emerged as a source of creativity, allowing young users to express themselves and shape popular culture. However, the platform also demands a careful examination of privacy practices and its potential impact on mental health. By promoting transparency, fostering a positive environment, and prioritizing user well-being, TikTok can continue to thrive as a platform for creativity while addressing the concerns surrounding privacy and mental health.

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Using TikTok for Your Academic Papers? Make Sure to Consult Other Sources

Information on TikTok is more interactive than what you find from a Google search. But ensuring the accuracy of that information is crucial to using TikTok to support your studies.

Currently, more than 50% of four-year college students in the United States use TikTok videos for help with their homework. Students responding to the Intelligent.com survey noted they use TikTok mostly for help with math, English, and art (compared to other subjects). More than 34% of the survey’s respondents said they also used the platform to help complete their college application essays .

TikTok has become the go-to search engine for Gen Z. The content is interactive and, as a result, often more engaging than traditional web articles. For many students, this makes what they learn on TikTok stick more than, say, reading from a textbook with outdated stock images.

However, while there is space for TikTok in academia, it should not be the only source — or even the first source — you turn to for research. Here are some tips on how to use TikTok for academics in ways that support (instead of skewing) your learning.

Viral TikTok Videos as One Part of the Research Process

Like Wikipedia, TikTok makes it easier to find information. But while Wikipedia articles often cite sources, TikTok creators are not in the habit of including references.

That means it is on you to fact-check the information you find on TikTok to ensure its accuracy. This can be tricky, as TikTok is designed to keep you consuming content on the platform. You need to leave TikTok and consult other sources — a key part of the research process.

Viral TikTok videos can certainly be one part of your research process. For example, you may use TikTok as your first step in the process to get more information about a particular topic. Watching videos on TikTok may give you context for which additional questions to ask and the information you need to fact-check via other means, whether that is using a traditional search engine and consulting articles on Google or visiting the library.

The number of likes or views on a video or the number of followers a creator has is not an indicator of trustworthiness. Misinformation and disinformation are rampant across social media, including TikTok. Part of your job as a student is to gain the skills needed to analyze a source and verify information with other sources.

You also need to know what your professors expect and understand your university’s policies.  There continue to be privacy concerns around the use of the app within the United States. In fact, Dr. Casey Fiesler, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, has discussed the topic on her TikTok channel.

Some universities, including Auburn University and the University of Mississippi, among others, have banned access to the app on their networks. You can still, of course, access the app on campus, but not via on-campus Wi-Fi.

Expanding Your TikTok Videos Search

The TikTok algorithm is wildly effective — if you like being shown more of the same type of content that you want to see. Videos are curated to your interests and, very quickly, it knows exactly what you like.

While that makes for a seemingly great user experience, it also means you are only seeing the world through a very small frame. Take a step back, and there is an entire world you are missing. 

While the TikTok creator community is diverse, it does not mean that the videos you are served are diverse.

Scott Helfgott, vice president of academic affairs at Shorelight, recommends searching for opposing views to see what comes up. There are multiple perspectives to any event, and Helfgott encourages students to gather as many perspectives as they can.

This ensures that you are exposed to different cultures, perspectives, and experiences you might not see if you do not break out of the algorithm and what the algorithm is programmed to show you.

“You cannot rely on one TikTok video as a source of truth,” he says. “The video appears on your page because the algorithm knows you want to see specific content based on your history. There is another side of it.”

Understanding TikTok’s limitations and potential pitfalls will help you know when it is appropriate to use TikTok for academic purposes and when it is not. “Do your research before you accept what a person is telling you as truth — you do not know if the source is qualified,” stresses Helfgott. 

According to a recent Intelligent.com survey , 65% of students believe the information on TikTok is “somewhat” accurate, while 17% believe it is “very accurate.”

Knowing whether the information is accurate or not will not come from research on the platform. It requires getting off TikTok and verifying the facts: go to the person’s LinkedIn profile, verify their bio, and confirm that this is a real person who is qualified to speak on the topic. 

When Is it Appropriate to Cite TikTok Videos? 

You may have certain classes where it is appropriate to use and cite TikTok videos as part of your assignment.

Ask your professors whether it is appropriate to use both traditional and new sources. “I have not heard of many professors accepting TikTok in isolation, without another source,” shares Helfgott. “It is up to the professor to decide whether they accept TikTok as a source, and this is evolving all the time.”

Helfgott recommends using TikTok to help develop writing and research skills, but not necessarily citing TikTok videos as a source unless doing so is appropriate for your assignment. “There typically needs to be something that you cite in addition to the TikTok video,” he says.

For example, a marketing course may have you look at how businesses are using TikTok to reach their customers. Are they connecting with their target audience? Are they selling too much in a way that turns their audience off? You can evaluate whether their TikTok advertising efforts are effective or not.

Writing courses, particularly courses like writing for the web or humor writing, may also have you spending time on TikTok for class. Part of the appeal of TikTok — and why some videos do so well — is because it is far more entertaining than content on other mediums. 

Screenwriting and film courses may have you practicing writing scripts for TikTok videos. How can you tell a story in just a few seconds? (The sweet spot for TikTok videos is currently between 15 and 60 seconds .) Can you keep people engaged for a 10-minute story (the longest length currently allowed on TikTok)?

Even when it is appropriate to use TikTok videos for research, Helfgott stresses the importance of fact-checking. He points out that as artificial intelligence continues to improve, almost everything can be fake. Helfgott mentioned a video that combined footage of US President Biden with a completely fake speech that he never made. The video matched the speech to his mouth movements in a way that was hard to tell whether it was fake.

“With any research, including TikTok, you need to go to a lot of sources,” Helfgott explains. “You cannot rely on one individual or one type of source. You need multiple sources, multiple perspectives.”

If you are using TikTok as part of a course, you need to know how to cite the source and give credit to the creator. Both the Modern Language Association (MLA) and American Psychological Association (APA) have updated their style guides to include a format for citing TikTok.

Using TikTok to Support Your Learning

Rather than being a source you cite for classwork, TikTok instead can be a great way to supplement your learning. It combines visuals, audio, and text all in one place. And you may even find your professors are sharing content on the platform, too!

You can find videos on how to manage your time, how to write different types of essays, how to write a thesis statement, and more. It can be a great way to refresh what you learned in class. There are also videos that dig into specific math problems and English-language nuances.

For example, Andrea Holm has a master’s in technology in education and has spent years as an English teacher and English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher. Her videos offer bite-sized tips on one specific element of the English language, such as explaining the word “the” and how to use it.

For math, there are channels like Free GCSE Maths Teacher that break down algebra problems and other math concepts into quick videos, such as solving algebraic fractions . Watching how a problem is broken down step-by-step can be a great way to reinforce math concepts you are learning in the classroom.

There are even celebrity academics on TikTok, like Neil deGrasse Tyson who explains concepts like energy and how stars are born on his channel.

Helfgott also points out that you can use TikTok to find out about certain classes and majors, too. For example, you can search things like “What does a data analytics major do” and find videos on data analytics. You can also use it to find opportunities for things like summer internships or top firms for internships in a particular location. 

When to Move from TikTok to In-Person Support

While TikTok can help offer quick tips that help you improve study habits, time management, and productivity, you can also receive that same support in person. 

In-person support gives you a deeper, more comprehensive experience for improving study habits or getting the academic support you need. Plus, programs are tailored to your specific needs so you can ensure you are getting the right support. 

Helfgott urges students to take advantage of professors’ office hours. Office hours are designed to give you answers to questions or additional help, whether you run out of time in class or feel more comfortable talking with your professor one-on-one.

Similarly, Stanford professor Tom Mullaney, who posts on TikTok as firstgenprofessor , regularly shares videos about navigating college courses and campus life overall — reinforcing the idea that while it’s great to begin on screen, nothing compares to in-person connections. 

On TikTok, you can certainly find tons of videos on topics like resume writing and elevator pitches. That is a great way to get information before you take a first pass at writing your own resume, cover letter , and more. But you can also get one-on-one support on these materials. Experts can review your resume, help you with interview practice questions, and offer networking tips so that you are putting your best foot forward. (Shorelight’s career development services do just that, with resume and interview preparation help, assistance with internship and job searches, and more.)

Advisors can also help you navigate course selection and connect you with on-campus resources that can further support you. For example, Shorelight’s Accelerator programs offer both academic support and career development services . You can get English-language support , along with tutoring and mentoring. 

Whichever university you decide to attend in the US will also have tutoring centers for writing, math, and languages. These centers can give you the one-on-one support you need from both experts and peer mentors who can help you review specific math problems or work with you on key elements of essay writing , for example.

Career centers are another great resource. Here, you can have confidence in the counselors’ credentials, Helfgott points out. These professionals have a master’s degree and are qualified to support your career search. “You can interact with them personally and build a relationship,” says Helfgott. “That is not going to happen when you are watching three- to five-minute videos from a stranger who may be unqualified to give advice.”

The advantage of working with experts on campus is that the university has vetted the person who is working with you.

Lastly, Helfgott offers one additional word of caution: “You may start on TikTok for academic reasons, but then you might go down a rabbit hole of non-academic content a few minutes later.” Set a timer for yourself so, if you find yourself watching cat videos, you can get back on track.

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TikTok Essays

How does tiktok affect people’s eating behaviors, research on social media influencer’s impact on brands, impact of social media on a football club, the tiktok company overview, marketing through tiktok, prospective analysis of microblogging and social networking companies, the relationship between tiktok and the exportation of chinese culture, popular essay topics.

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• Why I Want to Be a Nurse
• Send us an e-mail

Another Word

From the writing center at the university of wisconsin-madison.

#essayhack: What TikTok can Teach Writing Centers about Student Perceptions of College Writing

By Holly Berkowitz, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

There is a widespread perception that TikTok, the popular video-sharing social media platform, is primarily a tool of distraction where one mindlessly scrolls through bite-sized bits of content. However, due to the viewer’s ability to engage with short-form video content, it is undeniable that TikTok is also a platform from which users gain information; whether this means following a viral dance tutorial or learning how to fold a fitted sheet, TikTok houses millions of videos that serve as instructional tutorials that provides tips or how-tos for its over one billion active users. 

That TikTok might be considered a learning tool also has implications for educational contexts. Recent research has revealed that watching or even creating TikToks in classrooms can aid learning objectives, particularly relating to language acquisition or narrative writing skills. In this post, I discuss  the conventions of and consequences for TikToks that discuss college writing. Because of the popularity of videos that spotlight “how-tos” or “day in the life” style content, looking at essay or college writing TikTok can be a helpful tool for understanding some larger trends and student perceptions of writing. Due to the instructional nature of TikToks and the ways that students might be using the app for advice, these videos can be viewed as parallel or ancillary to the advice that a Writing Center tutor might provide.

A search for common hashtags including the words “essay,” “college writing,” or “essay writing hack” yields hundreds of videos that pertain to writing at the college level. Although there is a large variety in content due to the sheer amount of content, this post focuses on two genres of videos as they represent a large portion of what is shared: first, videos that provide tips or how-tos for certain AI tools or assignment genres and second, videos that invite the viewer to accompany the creator as they write a paper under a deadline. Shared themes include attempts to establish peer connections and comfort viewers who procrastinate while writing, a focus on writing speed and concrete deliverables (page count, word limit, or hours to write), and an emphasis on digital tools or AI software (especially that which is marked as “not cheating”). Not only does a closer examination into these videos help us meet writers where they are more precisely, but it also draws writing center workers’ attention to lesser known digital tools or “hacks” that students are using for their assignments.

“How to write” Videos

Videos in the “how to” style are instructional and advice-dispensing in tone. Often, the creator utilizes a digital writing aid or provides a set of writing tips or steps to follow. Whether these videos spotlight assistive technologies that use AI, helpful websites, or suggestions for specific forms of writing, they often position writing as a roadblock or adversary. Videos of this nature attempt to reach viewers by promising to make writing easier, more approachable, or just faster when working under a tight deadline; they almost always assume the writer in question has left their writing task to the last possible moment. It’s not surprising then that the most widely shared examples of this form of content are videos with titles like “How to speed-write long papers” or “How to make any essay longer” (this one has 32 million views). It is evident that this type of content attempts to target students who suffer from writing-related anxiety or who tend to procrastinate while writing.

Sharing “hacks” online is a common practice that manifests in many corners of TikTok where content creators demonstrate an easier or more efficient way of achieving a task (such as loading a dishwasher) or obtaining a result (such as finding affordable airline tickets). The same principle applies to #essay TikTok, where writing advice is often framed as a “hack” for writing faster papers, longer papers, or papers more likely to result in an A. This content uses a familiar titling convention: How to write X (where X might be a specific genre like a literature review, or just an amount of pages or words); How to write X in X amount of time; and How to write X using this software or AI program. The amount of time is always tantalizingly brief, as two examples—“How to write a 5 page essay in 2 mins” and “How to write an essay in five minutes!! NO PLAGIARISM!!”—attest to. While some of these are silly or no longer useful methods of getting around assignment parameters, they introduce viewers to helpful research and writing aids and sometimes even spotlight Writing Center best practices. For instance, a video by creator @kaylacp called “Research Paper Hack” shows viewers how to use a program called PowerNotes to organize and code sources; a video by @patches has almost seven million views and demonstrates using an AI bot to both grade her paper and provide substantive feedback. Taken as a whole, this subsect of TikTok underscores that there is a ready audience for content that purports to assist writers in meeting the deliverables of a writing assignment using a path of least resistance.

Similarly, TikTok contains myriad videos that position the creator as a sort of expert in college writing and dispense tips for improving academic writing and style. These videos are often created by upperclassmen who claim to frequently receive As on essays and tend to use persuasive language in the style of an infomercial, such as “How to write a college paper like a pro,” “How to write research papers more efficiently in 5 easy steps!” or “College students, if you’re not using this feature, you’re wasting your time.” The focus in these videos is even more explicit than those mentioned above, as college students are addressed in the titles and captions directly. This is significant  because it prompts users to engage with this content as they might with a Writing Center tutor or tutoring more generally. These videos are sites where students are learning how to write more efficiently but also learning how their college peers view and treat the writing process. 

The “how to write” videos share several common themes, most prevalent of which is an emphasis on concrete deliverables—you will be able to produce this many pages in this many minutes. They also share a tendency to introduce or spotlight different digital tools and assistive technologies that make writing more expedient; although several videos reference or demonstrate how to use ChatGPT or OpenAI, most creators attempt to show viewers less widely discussed platforms and programs. As parallel forms of writing instruction, these how-tos tend to focus on quantity over quality and writing-as-product. However, they also showcase ways that AI can be helpful and generative for writers at all stages. Most notably they direct our attention to the fact that student writers consistently encounter writing- and essay- related content while scrolling TikTok.

Write “with me” Videos

Just as the how-to style videos target writers who view writing negatively and may have a habit of procrastinating writing assignments, write “with me” videos invite the viewer to join the creator as they work. These videos almost always include a variation of the phrase— “Write a 5- page case analysis w/ me” or “pull an all nighter with me while I write a 10- page essay.” One of the functions of this convention is to establish a peer-to-peer connection with the viewer, as they are brought along while the creator writes, experiences writer’s block, takes breaks, but ultimately completes their assignment in time. Similarly to the videos discussed above, these “with me” videos also center on writing under a deadline and thus emphasize the more concrete deliverables of their assignments. As such, the writing process is often made less visible in favor of frequent cuts and timestamps that show the progression toward a page or word count goal.

One of the most common effects of “with me” videos is to assure the viewer that procrastinating writing is part and parcel of the college experience. As the content creators grapple with and accept their own writing anxieties or deferring habits, they demonstrate for the viewer that it is possible to be both someone who struggles with writing and someone who can make progress on their papers. In this way, these videos suggest to students that they are not alone in their experiences; not only do other college students feel overwhelmed with writing or leave their papers until the day before they are due, but you can join a fellow student as they tackle the essay writing process. One popular video by @mercuryskid with over 6 million views follows them working on a 6000 word essay for which they have received several extensions, and although they don’t finish by the end of the video, their openness about the struggles they experience while writing may explain its appeal. 

Indeed, in several videos of this kind the creator centers their procrastination as a means of inviting the viewer in; often the video will include the word in the title, such as “write 2 essays due at 11:59 tonight with me because I am a chronic procrastinator” or “write the literature essay i procrastinated with me.” Because of this, establishing a peer connection with the hypothetical viewer is paramount; @itskamazing’s video in which she writes a five page paper in three hours ends with her telling the viewer, “If you’re in college, you’re doing great. Let’s just knock this semester out.” One video titled “Writing essays doesn’t need to be stressful” shows a college-aged creator explaining what tactics she uses for outlining and annotating research to make sure she feels prepared when she begins to write in earnest. Throughout, she directly hails the viewer as “you” and attempts to cultivate a sense of familiarity with the person on the other side of the screen; in some moments her advice feels like listening in on a one-sided Writing Center session.

A second aspect of these “with me” videos is an intense focus on the specifics of a writing task. The titles of these videos usually follow a formula that invites the viewer with the writer as they write X amount in X time, paralleling the structure of how-to-write videos. The emphasis here, due to the last-minute nature of the writing contexts, is always on speed: “write a 2000- word essay with me in 4.5 hours” or “Join me as I write a 10- page essay that is due at 11:59pm.” Since these videos often need to cover large swaths of time during which the creator is working, there are several jumps forward in time, sped up footage, and text stamps or zoom-ins that update the viewer on how many pages or words the writer has completed since the last update. Overall, this brand of content demonstrates how product-focused writers become when large amounts of writing are completed in a single setting. However, it also makes this experience seem more manageable to viewers, as we frequently see writers in videos take naps and breaks during these high-stakes writing sessions. Furthermore, although the writers complain and appear stressed throughout, these videos tend to close with the writer submitting their papers and celebrating their achievement.

Although these videos may send mixed messages to college students using TikTok who experience struggles with writing productivity, they can be helpful for viewers as they demonstrate the shared nature of these struggles and concerns. Despite the overarching emphasis on the finished product, the documentary-style of this content shows how writing can be a fraught process. For tutors or those removed from the experience of being in college, these videos also illuminate some of the reasons students procrastinate writing; we see creators juggling part-time jobs, other due dates, and family obligations. This genre of TikToks shows the power that social media platforms have due to the way they can amplify the shared experience of students.

To conclude, I gesture toward a few of the takeaways that #essay and #collegewriting TikTok might provide for those who work in Writing Centers, especially those who frequently encounter students who struggle with procrastination. First, because TikTok is a video-sharing platform, the content often shows a mixture of writing process and product. Despite a heavy emphasis in these videos on the finished product that a writer turns in to be graded, several videos necessarily also reveal the steps that go into writing, even marathon sessions the night before a paper is due. We primarily see forward progress but we also see false starts and deletions; we mostly see the writer once they have completed pre-writing tasks but we also see analyzing a prompt, outlining, and brainstorming. Additionally, this genre of TikTok is instructive in that it shows how often students wait until before a paper is due to begin and just how many writers are working solely to meet a deadline or deliverable. While as Writing Center workers we cannot do much to shift this mindset, we can make a more considerable effort to focus on time management and executive functioning skills in our sessions. Separating the essay writing process into manageable chunks or steps appears to be a skill that college students are already seeking to develop independently when they engage on social media, and Writing Centers are equipped to help students refine these habits. Finally, it is worth considering the potential for university Writing Center TikTok accounts. A brief survey of videos created by Writing Center staff reveals that they draw on similar themes and tend to emphasize product and deliverables—for example, a video titled “a passing essay grade” that shows someone going into the center and receiving an A+ on a paper. Instead, these accounts could create a space for Writing Centers to actively contribute to the discourse on college writing that currently occupies the app and create content that parallels a specific Writing Center or campus’s values.

Holly Berkowitz is the Coordinator of the Writing and Communication Center at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She recently received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she also worked at the UW-Madison Writing Center. Although she does not post her own content, she is an avid consumer of TikTok videos.

Kyle Chayka Industries

Essay: How do you describe TikTok?

The automatic culture of the world's favorite new social network..

Hi! This is a 3,400-word essay about a technology that was totally new to me as of a few weeks ago. You can click the headline to read it in your browser. It’s a total experiment, so please let me know what you think.

This newsletter is a running series of essays on algorithmic culture and work updates from me, Kyle Chayka . Subscribe here .

For someone who writes about technology, I’m not really an early adopter. I don’t use virtual-reality goggles or participate in Twitch streams. Like everyone on the internet, I heard a lot about TikTok — teens! short videos! “ hype houses ”! — but for a long time I didn’t think I needed to try it out. How would another social network fit into my life? Don’t Twitter and Instagram cover my professional and personal needs at this point? (Snapchat I skipped over entirely.) What could TikTok, which serves an infinite stream of sub-60-second video clips, add, especially if I don’t care about meme-dances, which seemed to be its main purpose? 

Then, out of some combination of boredom and curiosity, like everything else these days, I downloaded the app. What I found is that you don’t just try TikTok; you immerse yourself in it. You sink into its depths like a 19th-century diver in a diving bell. More than any other social network since MySpace it feels like a new experience, the emergence of a different kind of technology and a different mode of consuming media. In this essay I want to try to describe that experience, without any news hooks, experts, theory, or data — just a personal encounter. 

The literary term “ ekphrasis ” usually refers to a detailed description of a piece of visual art in a text, translating it (in a sense) into words. Lately I’ve been thinking about ekphrasis of technology and media: How do you communicate what using or viewing something is like? Some of my favorite writing might fall into this vein. Junichiro Tanizaki’s 1933 essay “ In Praise of Shadows ” narrates the Japanese encounter with Western technology like electric lights and porcelain toilets. Walter Benjamin’s 1936 “ The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction ” shows how the rise of photography changed how people looked at visual art. By describing such experiences as exactly as possible, these essays become valuable artifacts in their own right, documenting historic shifts in human perception that happened as a result of tools we invented. 

We can’t return to the headspace of buildings without electric lights or a time when photography was scarce instead of omnipresent, but the texts allow us a glimpse. So this is my experiment: an ekphrasis of TikTok, while it’s still fresh.  

When you begin your TikTok journey, you are not faced with a choice of accounts to follow. Where Twitter and Instagram ask you to build your list yourself (the former more than the latter) TikTok simply launches you into the waterfall of content. You can check a few boxes as to which subjects you’re interested in — food, crafts, video games, travel — or not. Then there is the main feed, labeled “For You,” an evocation of customization and personal intimacy. Videos start playing, each clip looping until you make it stop. You might start seeing, as I did, minute-long clips of: 

— Gravestones being scraped down

— Wax being melted to seal letters

— An animated role-playing game

— Firefighters making shepherds pie 

— Tours of luxury apartments

— Students playing pranks on their teachers

— Dogs and cats doing funny things

The videos are flashes of narrative, many arduously constructed and edited, each self-contained but linked to the next by the shape of the container, the iPhone screen and the app feed. It’s like watching a montage of movie trailers, each crafted to addict your eye and ear, but with each new clip you have to begin constructing the story over again. Will the cat do something funny? Will the couple break up? Will this guy chug five beers? Or it’s like the flickering nonsense of images and text as a film spool runs out . 

The mechanism to navigate the TikTok feed is your thumb swiping, like a gondolier’s paddle, up to move forward to new content, down to go back to what you’ve already seen. This one interaction is enough to allow For You to get to know your content preferences. You either watch a video to completion and then maybe like or share it, or you skip it and move on to the next. 

The true pilot of the feed, however, is not the user but the recommendation algorithm, the equation that decides which video gets served to you next. More than any other social network, TikTok’s core product is its algorithm. We complain about being served bad Twitter ads or Instagram not showing us friends’ accounts, as if they’ve suddenly stopped existing, but it’s harder to fault the TikTok algorithm if only because it’s so much better at delivering a varied stream of content than its predecessors. 

A Spotify autoplay station, for example, most often follows the line of an artist or genre, serving relatively similar content over and over again. But TikTok recognizes that contrast is just as important as similarity to maintain our interest. It creates a shifting feed of topics and formats that actually feels personal, the way my Twitter feed, built up over more than a decade, feels like a reflection of my self. 

But I know who I follow on Twitter; they are voices I’ve chosen to incorporate into my feed. On TikTok, I never know where something’s coming from or why, only if I like it. There is no context. If Twitter is all about provenance — trusted people signing off on each other’s content, retweeting endorsements — TikTok is simply about the end result. Each video is evaluated on its own merits, one at a time. 

You can feel the For You feed trying subjects out on you. Dogs? Yes. Cats? Not so much. Rural Chinese fishing? Sure. Scooter tricks? No. Skateboarding? Yes. Fingerpicked guitar outside a cabin? Duh. And through the process of trial and error you get an assortment of videos that are on their own niche but put together resemble something like individual taste . It’s a mix as quirky as your own personal interests usually feel to you, though the fact that all of this content already exists on the platform gradually undercuts the sense of uniqueness: If many other people besides you didn’t also like it, it wouldn’t be there. 

A like count appears on the right side of each video, reassuring you that 6,000 other people have also enjoyed this clip enough to hit the button. Usually, the higher number does signify a better video, unlike tweets, for which the opposite is usually true. You can click into a comment section on each TikTok, too, which feel like YouTube comment sections: people jockeying to write the best riff or joke, bonus content after you watch the clip. There are no time stamps on the main feed. Unlike other social networks, it’s intentionally difficult to figure out when a TikTok video was originally posted, and many accounts repost popular videos anyway. This lends the feed an atmosphere of eternal present: It’s easy to imagine that everything you’re watching is happening right now , a gripping quality that makes it even harder to stop watching. 

Over the time I’ve been on TikTok the content of my feed has moved through phases. I can’t be sure how much the shifts are baked in to the system and how much they are a result of me engaging with different content (I’m not reporting on the structure of the algorithm here, just spelunking). There was a heavy skateboarding phase at first, but the mix has evolved into cooking lessons, clips of learning Chinese, home construction tips from This Old House, art-making close-ups, and early 2000s video games. If you search for a particular hashtag, hit like on a few videos, or follow an account, the For You algorithm tweaks your feed, adding in a bit more of that type of content. 

(A note on content mixture: “The mix” is famously how Tina Brown described the combination of different kinds of stories in Vanity Fair when she was the magazine’s very successful editor-in-chief in the ‘80s. Brown’s mix was hard-hitting news, fluffy celebrity profiles, glamorous fashion shoots, and smart critical commentary, all combined into one magazine. TikTok automates the mix of all these topics, going farther than any other platform to mimic the human editor.)

A sense emerges of teaching the algorithm what you like, bearing with it through periods of irrelevance and engaging in a way that shapes your feed. I barely look at the tab that shows me videos from people I actually follow, but I still follow them to make them show up more often in my For You feed. The process inspires patience and empathy, the way building a piece of IKEA furniture makes you like it more . It’s easy to get mad at Twitter because its algorithmic intrusions are so obvious; it’s harder with TikTok when the algorithm is all there is. The feed is a seamless environment that the user is meant to stay within. 

I didn’t tell TikTok I was interested in sensory deprivation tanks, but through some combination of randomness, metrics, and triangulation of my interests based on what else I engaged with, the app delivered a single video from a float spa and I immediately followed the account. Such specific genres of content are available elsewhere on the internet — I could follow a sensory deprivation YouTube channel or Instagram account — but the TikTok feed centralizes them and titrates the niche topic into my feed as often as I might want to see it, maybe one out of a hundred videos. After all, one video doesn’t mean I want dozens more of the same kind, as the YouTube algorithm seems to think. 

Before the 2010s we used to watch cable television, sitting on the couch with the remote pointed actively at the screen. If the show on one channel was boring, we changed it. If everything was boring, we engaged in an activity called channel flipping, switching continuously one to the next until something caught our eye. (On-demand streaming means we now flip through thumbnails more than channels; platform-flipping is the new channel-flipping.) TikTok is an eternal channel flip, and the flip is the point: there is no settled point of interest to land on. Nothing is meant to sustain your attention, even for cable TV’s traditional 10 minutes between commercial breaks. 

Like cable television, the viewer does not select the content on TikTok, only whether they want to watch it at that moment or not. It’s a marked contrast to how, in the past decade, social media platforms marketed themselves as offering user agency: you could follow anything or anyone you want, breaking traditional media’s hold on audiences. Instead, TikTok’s For You offers the passivity of linear cable TV with the addition of automated, customized variety and without the need for human editors to curate content or much action from the user to choose it. (Passivity is a feature; Netflix just announced that it’s exploring a version of linear TV .) Like Facebook , and unlike streaming, TikTok also claims to offload the risk of being an actual publisher: the content is all user-generated. Thus it’s both cheap and infinite.

The passivity induces a hypnotized flow state in the user. You don’t have to think, only react. The content often reinforces this thoughtlessness. It’s ephemera, fragments of the human mundane; Rube Goldberg machines are very popular. Sure, you can learn about food or news, but the most essentially TikTok thing I’ve seen in the past few days is a video of a young man who took a giant ball he made of beige rubber bands to an abandoned industrial site and bounced it around, off ledges and down cement steps, in the violet haze of early dusk. The clip is calm and quiet but also surreal, like a piece of video art you might watch for 15 minutes in a gallery. It has no symbolism, no story arc, only a pleasant absence of meaning and the brain-tickling pleasure of the ball gently squishing when it hits a surface, like an alien exploring the earth, unaccustomed to gravity. 

I’m biased in favor of such ambient content, which is probably why I get so much of it. But numb immersion — like a sensory deprivation tank — seems to be the point of the platform. On Twitter we get breaking news; on Instagram we see our friends and go shopping; on Facebook we (not me personally) join groups and share memes. On TikTok we are simply entertained. This is not to discount it as a very real force for politics, activism, and the business of culture, or a vehicle to create content and join in conversations. But for users, pure consumption is encouraged. The best bodily position in which to watch TikTok is supine, muscles slack, phone above your face like it’s an endless tunnel into the air. 

Sometimes a TikTok binge — short and intense until you get sick of it, like a salvia trip — has the feeling of a game. You keep flipping to the next video as if in search of some goal, though there are only ever more videos. You want to come to an end, though there is no such thing. This stumbling process is why users describe encountering a new subject matter as “finding [topic] TikTok,” like Cooking TikTok or Tiny House TikTok or Carpentry TikTok. There’s a sense of discovery because you wouldn’t necessarily know how to get there otherwise, only through the munificence of the algorithm. A limiting of possibilities is recast as a kind of magic. 

What is the theory of media that TikTok injects into the world? What are the new aesthetic standards that it will set as it becomes even more popular, beyond its current 850 million active users? It seems to combine Tumblr-style tribal niches with the brevity and intimacy of Instagram stories and the scalability of YouTube, where mainstream fame is most possible. The startup Quibi received billions of dollars of investment to bet on short-form video watched on phones. The company shut down within eight months of launch, but it wasn’t wrong about the format; it just produced terrible content (see my review of the service for Frieze ). TikTok is compelling because it’s so wide, a social network with the userbase of Facebook but fully multimedia, with the kinds of expensive-looking video editing and effects we’re used to on television. The platform presents media (or life itself?) as a permanent reality TV show, and you can tune in to any corner of it at any time.

TikTok isn’t limited to power users or a particular demographic (as in the case of the mutual addiction of Twitter and journalists), and that’s largely because of the adeptness of its algorithmic feed. There is no effort required to fine tune it, only time and swiping. Though the interface looks a little messy, it’s actually relatively simple, a quality that Instagram has abandoned under Facebook’s ownership in favor of cramming in every feature and format possible. (Where do we post what on there now — what’s a grid post, a story, or a reel, which are just Instagram’s shitty TikTok clone?) In fact, just surfing TikTok feels vaguely creative, as if you move through the field of content with your mind alone. 

Even if you are only watching, you are a part of TikTok. Internet culture has always been interactive; part of the joy of Lolcats was that you could make your own, using the template as a tool for self-expression and inside jokes. In recent years that kind of creative self-expression via social media has fallen by the wayside in favor of retweets, shares, and likes, centralizing authority around a few influential accounts and pushing the emphasis toward brands (which buy ads and drive revenue) and consumerism. TikTok returns triumphantly to the lowbrow, the absurd, the unimportant. 

The culture that it perpetuates are memes and patterns, like the dance moves that users assign to specific clips of songs. Audio is a way to navigate the platform: You can browse all the videos made to a particular soundtrack, making it very potent for spreading music. Users also create reaction videos to other videos, showing a selfie shot next to the original clip. Everything is participatory, and the nature of the algorithm makes it so that a video from an unknown account can go as viral as easily as one from a famous account. (This is true of all social networks but particularly extreme on TikTok.) The singular TikTok is less important than the continued flow of the feed and the emergence of recognizable tropes of TikTok culture that get traded back and forth, like the “ I Ain’t Seen Two Pretty Best Friends ” meme. The game is to interpolate that phrase into a video, sometimes into an otherwise straight-faced script: the surprise of the meme line, which is more absurdist symbol than meaningful language, tips you to the fact that it’s a joke. 

In his aforementioned essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” Walter Benjamin wrote that “aura” was contained in the physical presence of a unique work of art; it induced a special feeling that wasn’t captured by the reproducible photograph. By now we’ve long accepted that photographs can be art, too; even if they’re reproductions, they still maintain an aura. The evolution that I’m grasping for here — having started this paragraph over many times — is that now, in our age of the reproducibility of anything, the meaning of the discrete work of art itself has weakened. The aura is not contained within a single specific image, video, or physical object but a pattern that can be repeated by anyone without cheapening its power — in fact, the more it’s repeated, the more its impact increases. The unit of culture is the meme, its original author or artist less important than its primary specimens, which circulate endlessly, inspiring new riffs and offshoots. TikTok operates on and embraces this principle. 

Could it be that we’re encouraged to assign some authorship to the algorithm itself, as the prime actor of the platform? After all it’s the equation that’s bringing us this smooth, entrancing feed, that’s encouraging creators to create and consumers to consume. I don’t think that’s true, though, or at least not yet. We have to remember that the algorithm is also the work of its human creators at Bytedance in China, who have in the past been directed to “suppress posts created by users deemed too ugly, poor, or disabled for the platform” as well as censor political speech, according to The Intercept . Recommendation algorithms can be tools of soft censorship, subtly shaping a feed to be as glossy, appealing, and homogenous as possible rather than the truest reflection of either reality or a user’s desires. In Hollywood, a producer tells you if you’re not hot enough to be an actor; on TikTok, the algorithm lets you know if you don’t fit the mold. 

As it is, TikTok molds what and how I consume more than what I want to create. I feel no drive to make a TikTok video, maybe because the platform’s demographic is younger than I am and it still requires more video editing than I can handle, though it can also algorithmically crop video clips to moments of action. But when I switch over to Instagram and watch the automatic flip of stories from my friends and various brands, it suddenly feels boring and dead, like going from color TV back to black and white. I don’t want to only get content from people I follow; I want the full breadth of the platform, perfectly filtered. The grid of miscellany of Instagram’s discover tab doesn’t stand up to TikTok’s total immersion. 

TikTok’s feed is finely tuned and personalized, but I think what’s more important is how it automates the entire experience of online consumption. You don’t have to decide what you’re interested in; you just surrender to the platform. Automation gets disguised as customization. That makes the structure and priorities of the algorithm even more important as it increasingly determines what we watch, read, and hear, and what people are incentivized to create in digital spaces to get attention. And TikTok absolutely wants all of your attention. It’s not about casual browsing, not glancing at Twitter to see the latest news or checking your friend’s Instagram profile for updates. It’s a move directly toward an addiction that will be incredibly profitable for the company. And the more we trust that algorithmic feed, the easier it will be for the app to exploit its audiences.

This was an interesting experiment to write because I had no formal constraints from an external publication and of course no editing or feedback before publishing it. I wrote it just to document an obsession, and as with many obsessions, it’s fading a bit as I write it all out. At this point I’ve documented all the thoughts I have currently, in a fairly loose way. 

I would really like messages about this piece! Did it work, did it not work? Is this productive or not? There are more essays I’d like to write like this, without the pressure to fully compel public readers. But its main utility is to share ideas and start conversations, so it needs to accomplish at least that. 

Please comment, email me by replying, tweet about this, post it on your LinkedIn, or whatever platform you choose. Make a TikTok reaction video.

If you like this piece, please hit the heart button below! It helps me reach more readers on Substack. Email me at [email protected] or reply. Also:

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6 facts about americans and tiktok.

Increasing shares of U.S. adults are turning to the short-form video sharing platform TikTok in general and for news .

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to better understand Americans’ use and perceptions of TikTok. The data for this analysis comes from several Center surveys conducted in 2023.

More information about the surveys and their methodologies, including the sample sizes and field dates, can be found at the links in the text.

Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This is the latest analysis in Pew Research Center’s ongoing investigation of the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

This analysis draws from several Pew Research Center reports on Americans’ use of and attitudes about social media, based on surveys conducted in 2023. For more information, read:

Americans’ Social Media Use

How u.s. adults use tiktok.

• Social Media and News Fact Sheet
• Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023

At the same time, some Americans have concerns about the Chinese-owned platform’s approach to data privacy and its potential impact on national security. Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a bill that, if passed in the Senate and signed into law, would restrict TikTok’s ability to operate in the United States.

Here are six key facts about Americans and TikTok, drawn from Pew Research Center surveys.

A third of U.S. adults – including a majority of adults under 30 – use TikTok. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults under 30 (62%) say they use TikTok, compared with 39% of those ages 30 to 49, 24% of those 50 to 64, and 10% of those 65 and older.

In a 2023 Center survey , TikTok stood out from other platforms we asked about for the rapid growth of its user base. Just two years earlier, 21% of U.S. adults used the platform.

A majority of U.S. teens use TikTok. About six-in-ten teens ages 13 to 17 (63%) say they use the platform. More than half of teens (58%) use it daily, including 17% who say they’re on it “almost constantly.”

A higher share of teen girls than teen boys say they use TikTok almost constantly (22% vs. 12%). Hispanic teens also stand out: Around a third (32%) say they’re on TikTok almost constantly, compared with 20% of Black teens and 10% of White teens.

In fall 2023, support for a U.S. TikTok ban had declined. Around four-in-ten Americans (38%) said that they would support the U.S. government banning TikTok, down from 50% in March 2023. A slightly smaller share (27%) said they would oppose a ban, while 35% were not sure. This question was asked before the House of Representatives passed the bill that could ban the app.

Republicans and Republican-leaning independents were far more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to support a TikTok ban (50% vs. 29%), but support had declined across both parties since earlier in the year.

Adults under 30 were less likely to support a ban than their older counterparts. About three-in-ten adults under 30 (29%) supported a ban, compared with 36% of those ages 30 to 49, 39% of those ages 50 to 64, and 49% of those ages 65 and older.

In a separate fall 2023 survey, only 18% of U.S. teens said they supported a ban. 

A relatively small share of users produce most of TikTok’s content. About half of U.S. adult TikTok users (52%) have ever posted a video on the platform. In fact, of all the TikTok content posted by American adults, 98% of publicly accessible videos come from the most active 25% of users .

Those who have posted TikTok content are more active on the site overall. These users follow more accounts, have more followers and are more likely to have filled out an account bio.

Although younger U.S. adults are more likely to use TikTok, their posting behaviors don’t look much different from those of older age groups.

About four-in-ten U.S. TikTok users (43%) say they regularly get news there. While news consumption on other social media sites has declined or remained stagnant in recent years, the share of U.S. TikTok users who get news on the site has doubled since 2020, when 22% got news there.

Related: Social Media and News Fact Sheet

TikTok news consumers are especially likely to be:

• Young. The vast majority of U.S. adults who regularly get news on TikTok are under 50: 44% are ages 18 to 29 and 38% are 30 to 49. Just 4% of TikTok news consumers are ages 65 and older.
• Women. A majority of regular TikTok news consumers in the U.S. are women (58%), while 39% are men. These gender differences are similar to those among news consumers on Instagram and Facebook.
• Democrats. Six-in-ten regular news consumers on TikTok are Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents, while a third are Republicans or GOP leaners.
• Hispanic or Black. Three-in-ten regular TikTok news users in the U.S. are Hispanic, while 19% are Black. Both shares are higher than these groups’ share of the adult population. Around four-in-ten (39%) TikTok news consumers are White, although this group makes up 59% of U.S. adults overall .

A majority of Americans (59%) see TikTok as a major or minor threat to U.S. national security, including 29% who see the app as a major threat. Our May 2023 survey also found that opinions vary across several groups:

• About four-in-ten Republicans (41%) see TikTok as a major threat to national security, compared with 19% of Democrats.
• Older adults are more likely to see TikTok as a major threat: 46% of Americans ages 65 and older say this, compared with 13% of those ages 18 to 29.
• U.S. adults who do not use TikTok are far more likely than TikTok users to believe TikTok is a major threat (36% vs. 9%).

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About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

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Negative Impact of TikTok on Teens Essay Example

TikTok, a social media platform could potentially harm your daily life. Although we enjoy watching TikTok, we could be doing something else in our lives. On average, there are approximately 50 million users each day in the United States, meaning that’s 20% of the population in the United States (https://backlinko.com). TikTok ultimately wastes our time, meaning it’s harmful for our time and mental health. 

TikTok is a platform where we can easily get invested in watching videos from 30 minutes to an hour each day. The big problem with TikTok is that it does neither of these things—there is no way to gain any valuable information or communicate effectively with anyone on the app. All you do is watch other people’s ridiculous videos and feed them likes. It’s nothing but a catalyst for the paralyzing and unconscious wasting of time (https://dgnomega.org). Whenever we watch TikTok for hours, we unconsciously watch these videos, and mostly we don’t remember most of these videos we watch. We spend a lot of time on TikTok just to get some laughs from ridiculous videos we don’t even remember. TikTok is a waste of time. Students make those silly videos during my class and it impacts their grade because they aren’t working,” said Patrick Greene, technology teacher (https://lhslance.org).Teenagers would rather watch TikTok than to do school work. Most people do not utilize their time correctly, resulting in failure in work or assignments from school. Although TikTok is a good source for laughs and entertainment, it rarely does any good for the time we have wasted watching TikTok. 

The algorithm on TikTok can have a huge impact on teenagers' mental health. There is content that involves dancing, but there is some other content that can deeply influence a teenagers’ emotions and actions. Some experts believe that TikTok’s algorithm can promote content related to depression, anxiety and eating disorders, according to CBS News (https://www.deseret.com). According to the TikTok algorithm, their videos are mostly made up of depression related content. This can deeply influence a teenagers’ mind as it can affect their health psychologically. The cyberbullying, social exclusion and drama that can occur on these networks have been associated with higher rates of mental health issues in teenagers (https://www.latimes.com). The toxic community of TikTok can easily change teenagers’ emotions. Teenagers can have mental issues such as depression, anxiety, and insecurities due to the harmful actions of the community. The toxic part of TikTok can leave negative comments on a TikToker’s video, as it can lead to mental issues in teens, as well as the algorithm of TikTok. 

Despite all the harmful effects, from different perspectives, Tiktok can be very beneficial. TikTok has been a method by which businesses and influencers promote their brand. The video-sharing service has helped this cause by launching Tiktok Ads that allow for businesses to run ads as videos. (https://socioblend.com). Posting ads on TikTok can be very beneficial for an entrepreneur, as you could grow your business by attracting people’s attention from TikTok. Ads can easily attract people’s attention, meaning your business could skyrocket in the matter of minutes or days. Whether you’re watching or making your own videos on TikTok, one thing’s for sure: it’s just plain fun! That’s why a lot of people are on Tiktok—because it’s super entertaining! (https://www.lionheartv.net). TikTok can also be a good way to introduce your talent to some audiences. People that have the same interests as you can stumble upon your video, and can give feedback about your talent. Apps like TikTok can give the attention people desire whether it’s for businesses or if it’s from an audience. 

Ultimately, TikTok can be super harmful for teenagers and adolescents, as it can affect their mental health. The app also leads to poor decisions given the attention spans among humans. Using apps like TikTok less frequently can boost mental health, and it can also boost our performance in doing things. Although there are some benefits on TikTok, there is more harm on TikTok.

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Essay Samples on TikTok

Tiktok and other social media: protection of children from online world.

Growing up in a time where everything is going digital and learning to shift from manual parenting to a technologically savvy approach can be a balancing act. Raising children in the digital age of social media taking over all major industries is a whole other...

• Effects of Social Media

The Effectiveness of Different Trends on TikTok and Other Social Media

Music has a fundamental social dimension, it's part of its DNA. At the same time art, form of entertainment and means of expression, it accompanies us collectively in different contexts: the artists occur in public, we attend concerts with friends, teenagers gather (among others) according...

TikTok, Social Media and Its Usage: The Effects on Mental Health

Abstract: Nowadays social media plays a vital role in everyone’s lifestyle because of its ease of transmission of information which covers mass population. It provides facility of such platforms on which each one of us can update anything in a way that others can see...

TikTok: Powerful Perceptions Through Consumption of Media

In our current day and age, the use of the internet and social media is inescapable. It seems that every other reference relates to something that was seen on an app or online. These new platforms have given our society new lenses to view the...

The Issue of Child Grooming on TikTok and Other Social Media

With TikTok the age restriction is also thirteen years of age. However, in relation to this all forms of social media have a minimum age requirement if it is discovered an individual(s) has set up a social media account while underage it can be deleted...

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Best topics on TikTok

1. TikTok and Other Social Media: Protection of Children from Online World

2. The Effectiveness of Different Trends on TikTok and Other Social Media

3. TikTok, Social Media and Its Usage: The Effects on Mental Health

4. TikTok: Powerful Perceptions Through Consumption of Media

5. The Issue of Child Grooming on TikTok and Other Social Media

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by John Sladek

Tik-tok analysis.

These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.

Written by Elmina Jazvin, Aniket Roy

A house robot named Tik-Tok is painting the wall for his owners. The robot is conscious, and is narrating the plot. He sees a neighbors' child on the other side of the road. Later that day an inspector visits the house and asks Tik-Tok about the child missing, a girl called Geraldine Singer. Tik-Tok answers that he saw her earlier that day playing in the ground.

Tik-Tok's owners, Claud and Barbie return home and get angry at Tik-Tok when they see his mural on the wall. Tik-Tok tells them that he made it for their kids. They decide to forgive him. Tik-Tok later gets out of the house and tries to speak to an old poor man playing chess but he doesn't listen to him. Tik-Tok feels like he has a breakdown. He thinks about the way he and other robots were programmed to only listen to their owners, but Tik-Tok is aware that he is far beyond that and functioning on his own free will. He, for instance, killed the young Geraldine Singer and made a mural out of her blood in his owner's home completely on his own.

The plot begins unassuming, the robot is conscious, but his narration appears completely normal and harmless, with objective observations. It suddenly takes a dark turn at the end of the chapter upon revealing that the robot actually killed the young girl with no remorse at all and they completely objectively analyzing his actions.

An art critic called Hornby comes to visit Tik-Tok because his art seems incredible and could make a lot of money. He convinces Tik-Tok's owners to encourage him to paint more. Tik-Tok decides to plant evidence of the blind girl's death into old Mr. Tucker's house so he is arrested and charged for murder.

Tik-Tok talks about his beginnings and being with the Culpepper family. The family was eccentric. The head of the family, Lavinia, was allergic to everything; her children were strange in their own way.

Tik-Tok's artwork seems to be leaping him into freedom more and more, all the while his enjoyment of hurting humans becomes more prominent.

Tik-Tok convinces Claud and Barbie to get him his own studio and leave him to work full time on his paintings while another house robot takes his place in the house.

Tik-Tok turns the narration to the past and his time with the Culpeppers. There he met his first love, a female robot Gumdrop. Orlando Culpepper catches them in their love act and starts to make fun of the two robots. Lavinia Culpepper becomes allergic to air so she has to go to space and leaves the management of the family to her son Clayton. Clayton was obsessed with the Great Pyramid and wanted to replicate it in his own home. That led the Culpepper family to go bankrupt and Tik-Tok gets sold.

Tik-Tok goes to the robot's dumping place and hires a military robot to make a bomb for him.

Going to the past Tik-Tok tells the story of his working for Colonel Jitney who owned a pancake shop where he made pancakes out of a bird that is toxic to people while keeping the ducks that were supposed to be the ingredient to his own pleasure. This soon gets discovered and the shop is closed and Tik-Tok sold to another, even crazier, owner.

Tik-Tok's path to freedom is becoming more and more open. He is no longer answering to his human owners. He starts to get more crazed with hurting humans by hiring a robot to make a bomb for a passenger plane. These are Tik-Tok's so called experiments.

Tik-Tok gets an offer by Hornby to get interviewed about art, perception. On the other hand, he is rejoicing in the success of his bomb in the plane and how many victims there were. Back to the past, Tik-Tok talks about his owner Judge Juggernaut and how he barely escaped being killed by him.

Tik-Tok decides to write a letter to one of the crash victim's wife and threaten her.

Tik-Tok visits a University of Kiowa where he meets young students eager to discuss art and robots. He gets called into one of the classrooms after the discussion by Sybilla, one of the students, and there he meets people eager to fight for the rights of robots and wages for robots. Tik-Tok starts mockingly preaching and they are all fascinated by him.

Tik-Tok remembers his time with preacher Reverend Flint who rescued him from Judge Juggernaut. He worked for him for some time until Reverend got shot by one of his assistants and got replaced by a robot double.

There are a lot of discussions about art in these chapters. It is discussed how art is created by the artist, whether it's a reproduction of an already existing image in the artists mind or if the images are created during the art process. Tik-Tok is probed by the students at the University about his free will and his intentions.

We can see that Tik-Tok analysed each of his previous owners and we could say that he picked up parts from their behaviou to use; he learned from them.

Tik-Tok orders his group of robot workers to rob a bank and leave as many casualties as possible. Tik-Tok remembers his time with Deacon Cooper on a ship going to Mars. Deacon was obsessed with Martians and was stubborn in his ideas. Deacon Cooper eventually gets shot by a group of people posing as Martians to hijack the ship. Among them was Smilin' Jack .

In the present Tik-Tok gets an offer to talk about having his own corporation. When he arrives to the building the meeting is suppose to take place Tik-Tok gets kidnapped by none other than Smilin' Jack.

Tik-Tok has his own corporation called Clockman Corporation and he is invited to interviews and TV shows. Meanwhile, he and Smilin' Jack lead many bank and jewelry store robbing operations. They split up after a while and Tik-Tok gets trapped in one his bank robberies and Smilin' Jack comes to his rescue.

Going back to past at the ship to Mars Tik-Tok is getting along with the group of hijackers. Captain of the ship tells them that the ship is going straight to the sun and they shoot him. Soon, they realize that the ship to Mars is a hoax and that they are actually on Earth in a desert. In the present Tik-Tok shoots Smilin' Jack.

Tik-Tok is climbing the ladder of social life higher and higher all the while his vicious operations become more and more menacing. He is artificial intelligence experimenting with his new-found freedom and his life and meaning of life questioning thoughts. He is eager to feel something as humans do and it almost works when he is faced with a life-threatening situation.

Tik-Tok pays a visit to his old owner Claud who is an activist against robots now and Sybilla accompanies him. There he decides to lock up Sybilla and leave her to die to put the blame on Claud, but Gumdrop suddenly appears and frees Sybilla. Tik-Tok feels a sense of guilt. There is suddenly an accident that makes Gumdrop and Sybilla die and Tik-Tok flees the scene.

Tik-Tok remember his time with doctor Hekyll and his robot assistant Buttons . Buttons had a task to secretly operate a leader of a time-travelling religion. The operation led to Buttons amputating the leader's entire body and replacing it with his own mechanic parts leaving Buttons only with a head. The leader dies on one of his lectures and Hekyll and Buttons become unemployed. Tik-Tok is sold to Sam's Soul City.

In the present, Tik-Tok decides to go back near his old home and play chess with a poor man on the street. Tik-Tok is baffled by not being able to win more than one game in a row of ten. He discovers that the old man is a fraud and kills him.

Tik-Tok is planning an operation that will make him a national hero. He sets up a fire in a retirement home for old people and goes inside in the middle of it to rescue one old lady. The image of him with a melted face rescuing the old lady gets broadcasted and he is a hero in the eyes of the public now.

On the appearance of old love Tik-Tok suddenly has a rush of remorse but that quickly passes. Doctor Hekyll is a not so subtle and humorous allusion to Doctor Jekyll.

Tik-Tok's rise in the eyes of the public appears to be only going up and there is nothing that can stop him now. Or that is what he thinks at least.

Tik-Tok gets an offer to be a candidate for Vice President.

He recalls how he was bought by Claud and Barbie from the Sam's Soul City. Being their house robot was the time when he really started to become insane. He developed an insane amount of hatred for their uncleanliness and their sole human behavior. He tells the story how exactly he killed the blind girl. She entered the house with dirt all over her and her shoes which left a dirty trail behind her. This was Tik-Tok's tipping point and his bridge to insanity, art and as a result freedom.

Meanwhile, in the present he gets a visit from a leader of the country where he built fertilizer factories that became factories of death. People committed suicide there; killers hid bodies of their victims there and so on. The leader asks Tik-Tok for more factories like that.

A journalist suddenly pays a visit to Tik-Tok showing him a picture of him killing the poor chess man and telling him that the video of this act is in the public now. Tik-Tok gets arrested and decides to confess everything he did.

In the last chapter it is revealed that Tik-Tok will be set free because of his honesty to tell the story and even become a Vice President as planned before.

In the candidature to become a Vice President, it is revealed that the other human candidates are no better than he is; they include rapists, killers etc. Even the visit of the leader of the country where the fertilizing factories are built showcases the lack of human morality. Even Tik-Tok himself doesn't assume the leader's motive of visiting him is asking for more factories like that. It raises a question about morality and if Tik-Tok's behavior was a part result of the environment he was in.

Throughout the novel and the glimpses of his past it could be seen that the humans Tik-Tok was with were anything but moral or sane. Could Tik-Tok be seen as a mirror of human immorality and lack of humanity in humans? It is a possible conclusion and serves as material for discussion.

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Tik-Tok Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Tik-Tok is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Tiktok Question

Sorry, this is a literature space.

what dose it mean when it says your top accounts? what is it showing?

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Study Guide for Tik-Tok

Tik-Tok study guide contains a biography of John Sladek, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Tik-Tok
• Tik-Tok Summary
• Character List

Essays for Tik-Tok

Tik-Tok essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Tik-Tok by John Sladek.

• Robot Discourse: Tik-Tok as a Response to I, Robot

Wikipedia Entries for Tik-Tok

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The video essay boom

Hour-long YouTube videos are thriving in the TikTok era. Their popularity reflects our desire for more nuanced content online.

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The video essay’s reintroduction into my adult life was, like many things, a side effect of the pandemic. On days when I couldn’t bring myself to read recreationally, I tried to unwind after work by watching hours and hours of YouTube.

My pseudo-intellectual superego, however, soon became dissatisfied with the brain-numbing monotony of “day in the life” vlogs, old Bon Appétit test kitchen videos, and makeup tutorials. I wanted content that was entertaining, but simultaneously informational, thoughtful, and analytical. In short, I wanted something that gave the impression that I, the passive viewer, was smart. Enter: the video essay.

Video essays have been around for about a decade, if not more, on YouTube. There is some debate over how the form preceded the platform; some film scholars believe the video essay was born out of and remains heavily influenced by essay films , a type of nonfiction filmmaking. Regardless, YouTube has become the undisputed home of the contemporary video essay. Since 2012, when the platform began to prioritize watch-time over views , the genre flourished. These videos became a significant part of the 2010s YouTube landscape, and were popularized by creators across film, politics, and academic subcultures.

Today, there are video essays devoted to virtually any topic you can think of, ranging anywhere from about 10 minutes to upward of an hour. The video essay has been a means to entertain fan theories , explore the lore of a video game or a historical deep dive , explain or critique a social media trend , or like most written essays, expound upon an argument, hypothesis , or curiosity proposed by the creator.

Some of the best-known video essay creators — Lindsay Ellis, Natalie Wynn of ContraPoints, and Abigail Thorn of PhilosophyTube — are often associated with BreadTube , an umbrella term for a group of left-leaning, long-form YouTubers who provide intellectualized commentary on political and cultural topics.

It’s not an exaggeration to claim that I — and many of my fellow Gen Zers — were raised on video essays, academically and intellectually. They were helpful resources for late-night cramming sessions (thanks Crash Course), and responsible for introducing a generation to first-person commentary on all sorts of cultural and political phenomena. Now, the kids who grew up on this content are producing their own.

“Video essays are a form that has lent itself particularly well to pop culture because of its analytical nature,” Madeline Buxton, the culture and trends manager at YouTube, told me. “We are starting to see more creators using video essays to comment on growing trends across social media. They’re serving as sort of real-time internet historians by helping viewers understand not just what is a trend, but the larger cultural context of something.”

any video that starts with "the rise and fall of" I'm clicking on it no matter the topic — zae | industry plant (@ItsZaeOk) February 23, 2022

A lot has been said about the video essay and its ever-shifting parameters . What does seem newly relevant is how the video essay is becoming repackaged, as long-form video creators find a home on platforms besides YouTube. This has played out concurrently with the pandemic-era shift toward short-form video, with Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube respectively launching Reels, Spotlight, and Shorts to compete against TikTok.

TikTok’s sudden, unwavering rise has proven the viability of bite-size content, and the app’s addictive nature has spawned fears about young people’s dwindling attention spans. Yet, the prevailing popularity of video essays, from new and old creators alike, suggests otherwise. Audiences have not been deterred from watching lengthy videos, nor has the short-form pivot significantly affected creators and their output. Emerging video essayists aren’t shying away from length or nuance, even while using TikTok or Reels as a supplement to grow their online following.

One can even argue that we are witnessing the video essay’s golden era . Run times are longer than ever, while more and more creators are producing long-form videos. The growth of “creator economy” crowdfunding tools, especially during the pandemic, has allowed video essayists to take longer breaks between uploads while retaining their production quality.

“I do feel some pressure to make my videos longer because my audience continues to ask for it,” said Tiffany Ferguson, a YouTube creator specializing in media criticism and pop culture commentary. “I’ve seen comments, both on my own videos and those I watch, where fans are like, ‘Yes, you’re feeding us,’ when it comes to longer videos, especially the hour to two-hour ones. In a way, the mentality seems to be: The longer the better.”

In a Medium post last April, the blogger A. Khaled remarked that viewers were “willing to indulge user-generated content that is as long as a multi-million dollar cinematic production by a major Hollywood studio” — a notion that seemed improbable just a few years ago, even to the most popular video essayists. To creators, this hunger for well-edited, long-form video is unprecedented and uniquely suitable for pandemic times.

The internet might’ve changed what we pay attention to, but it hasn’t entirely shortened our attention span, argued Jessica Maddox, an assistant professor of digital media technology at the University of Alabama. “It has made us more selective about the things we want to devote our attention to,” she told me. “People are willing to devote time to content they find interesting.”

Every viewer is different, of course. I find that my attention starts to wane around the 20-minute mark if I’m actively watching and doing nothing else — although I will admit to once spending a non-consecutive four hours on an epic Twin Peaks explainer . Last month, the channel Folding Ideas published a two-hour video essay on “the problem with NFTs,” which has garnered more than 6 million views so far.

Hour-plus-long videos can be hits, depending on the creator, the subject matter, the production quality, and the audience base that the content attracts. There will always be an early drop-off point with some viewers, according to Ferguson, who make it about two to five minutes into a video essay. Those numbers don’t often concern her; she trusts that her devoted subscribers will be interested enough to stick around.

“About half of my viewers watch up to the halfway point, and a smaller group finishes the entire video,” Ferguson said. “It’s just how YouTube is. If your video is longer than two minutes, I think you’re going to see that drop-off regardless if it’s for a video that’s 15 or 60 minutes long.”

Some video essayists have experimented with shorter content as a topic testing ground for longer videos or as a discovery tool to reach new audiences, whether it be on the same platform (like Shorts) or an entirely different one (like TikTok).

“Short-form video can expose people to topics or types of content they’re not super familiar with yet,” Maddox said. “Shorts are almost like a sampling of what you can get with long-form content.” The growth of Shorts, according to Buxton of YouTube, has given rise to this class of “hybrid creators,” who alternate between short- and long-form content. They can also be a starting point for new creators, who are not yet comfortable with scripting a 30-minute video.

Queline Meadows, a student in Ithaca College’s screen cultures program, became interested in how young people were using TikTok to casually talk about film, using editing techniques that borrowed heavily from video essays. She created her own YouTube video essay titled “The Rise of Film TikTok” to analyze the phenomenon, and produces both TikTok micro-essays and lengthy videos.

“I think people have a desire to understand things more deeply,” Meadows told me. “Even with TikTok, I find it hard to unfold an argument or explore multiple angles of a subject. Once people get tired of the hot takes, they want to sit with something that’s more nuanced and in-depth.”

@que1ine link in bio #fyp #filmtok #filmtiktok #videoessay ♬ Swing Lynn - Harmless

It’s common for TikTokers to tease a multi-part video to gain followers. Many have attempted to direct viewers to their YouTube channel and other platforms for longer content. On the contrary, it’s in TikTok’s best interests to retain creators — and therefore viewers — on the app. In late February, TikTok announced plans to extend its maximum video length from three minutes to 10 minutes , more than tripling a video’s run-time possibility. This decision arrived months after TikTok’s move last July to start offering three-minute videos .

As TikTok inches into YouTube-length territory, Spotify, too, has introduced video on its platform, while YouTube has similarly signaled an interest in podcasting . In October, Spotify began introducing “video podcasts,” which allows listeners (or rather, viewers) to watch episodes. Users have the option to toggle between actively watching a podcast or traditionally listening to one.

What’s interesting about the video podcast is how Spotify is positioning it as an interchangeable, if not more intimate, alternative to a pure audio podcast. The video essay, then, appears to occupy a middle ground between podcast and traditional video by making use of these key elements. For creators, the boundaries are no longer so easy to define.

“Some video essay subcultures are more visual than others, while others are less so,” said Ferguson, who was approached by Spotify to upload her YouTube video essays onto the platform last year. “I was already in the process of trying to upload just the audio of my old videos since that’s more convenient for people to listen to and save on their podcast app. My reasoning has always been to make my content more accessible.”

To Ferguson, podcasts are a natural byproduct of the video essay. Many viewers are already consuming lengthy videos as ambient entertainment, as content to passively listen to while doing other tasks. The video essay is not a static format, and its development is heavily shaped by platforms, which play a crucial role in algorithmically determining how such content is received and promoted. Some of these changes are reflective of cultural shifts, too.

Maddox, who researches digital culture and media, has a theory that social media discourse is becoming less reactionary. She described it as a “simmering down” of the hot take, which is often associated with cancel culture . These days, more creators are approaching controversy from a removed, secondhand standpoint; they seem less interested in engendering drama for clicks. “People are still providing their opinions, but in conjunction with deep analysis,” Maddox said. “I think it says a lot about the state of the world and what holds people’s attention.”

no u know what i HATE video essay slander......... they r forever gonna be my fav background noise YES i enjoy the lofi nintendo music and YES i want a 3 hour video explaining the importance of the hair color of someone from a show i've never watched — ☻smiley☻ (@smiley_jpeg) January 19, 2022

That’s the power of the video essay. Its basic premise — whether the video is a mini-explainer or explores a 40-minute hypothesis — requires the creator to, at the very least, do their research. This often leads to personal disclaimers and summaries of alternative opinions or perspectives, which is very different from the more self-centered “reaction videos” and “story time” clickbait side of YouTube.

“The things I’m talking about are bigger than me. I recognize the limitations of my own experience,” Ferguson said. “Once I started talking about intersections of race, gender, sexuality — so many experiences that were different from my own — I couldn’t just share my own narrow, straight, white woman perspective. I have to provide context.”

This doesn’t change the solipsistic nature of the internet, but it is a positive gear shift, at least in the realm of social media discourse, that makes being chronically online a little less soul-crushing. The video essay, in a way, encourages us to engage in good faith with ideas that we might not typically entertain or think of ourselves. Video essays can’t solve the many problems of the internet (or the world, for that matter), but they can certainly make learning about them a little more bearable.

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Taylor Swift’s Music Returns to TikTok Ahead of New Album

Songs by the pop singer reappeared on TikTok despite the platform’s ongoing licensing dispute with Universal Music Group, which releases Swift’s music.

By Ben Sisario

When Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest music company, went to war with TikTok earlier this year over licensing terms, songs by hundreds of its artists were removed from the platform, and have remained absent.

But on Thursday, music by one very special Universal artist returned: Taylor Swift.

A number of songs by Swift — whose new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” comes out next week — have reappeared in TikTok’s official music library, where they are available for the service’s millions of users to place in the background of their own videos. Those videos have become one of the music industry’s most important promotional vehicles, with the potential to mint new hits or breathe new life into old tunes — even as many artists and labels complain about low royalties from the service.

The available songs from Swift appear to be from the period since she signed with Universal in 2018 , including hits like “Lover,” “Anti-Hero,” “Cruel Summer” and “Cardigan.” Also available are her “Taylor’s version” rerecordings of older hits like “Style,” “Love Story” and “Shake It Off,” which were originally released by her first label, Big Machine. After Big Machine was sold in 2019 without her participation, Swift announced plans to rerecord her first six studio albums, and has already released four of those. Each went straight to No. 1.

It was not immediately clear how Swift’s songs made it back to TikTok while Universal’s ban remains in place. When the company announced its plans to remove music earlier this year, it said its licensing contract with TikTok expired Jan. 31. By the early hours of Feb. 1, Universal’s music began to disappear from TikTok, and millions of videos that used the label’s music went silent.

While Swift is part of Universal’s roster of artists, she owns the rights to her own recordings, as well as her songwriting rights, which are administered by the Universal Music Publishing Group, a division of the company.

Representatives of Swift, Universal and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Universal, whose hundreds of artists include stars like Ariana Grande, Drake, Lady Gaga and U2, said it was withdrawing permissions for its music after it was unable to reach a new licensing deal with TikTok. The company accused TikTok of being unwilling to pay “fair value for the music,” despite its importance to the platform. Universal also voiced concerns that TikTok was “allowing the platform to be flooded with A.I.-generated recordings,” diluting the royalty pool for real, human artists.

In response, TikTok accused Universal of putting “their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters.”

The dispute has been one of the most dramatic clashes in years between the music industry and a tech platform, and it has drawn a mixed public response. While many music industry groups have supported Universal, artists have expressed worry about the loss of such a valuable promotional platform.

Ben Sisario covers the music industry. He has been writing for The Times since 1998. More about Ben Sisario

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The Pink Stuff, a home cleaning paste, went from total obscurity to viral sensation — and Walmart staple — thanks to one “cleanfluencer” and her legion of fans .

Have we reached the end of TikTok’s infinite scroll? The app once offered seemingly endless chances to be charmed but in only a few short years, its promise of kismet is evaporating , our critic writes.

The TikTok creator known as “Tunnel Girl” has been documenting her attempt to build an emergency shelter under her home. She is not the only person with an off-the-books tunnel project .

Gig workers are writing essays for AI to learn from

• Companies are hiring highly educated gig workers to write training content for AI models .
• The shift toward more sophisticated trainers comes as tech giants scramble for new data sources.
• AI could run out of data to learn from by 2026, one research institute has warned. 

As artificial intelligence models run out of data to train themselves on, AI companies are increasingly turning to actual humans to write training content.

For years, companies have used gig workers to help train AI models on simple tasks like photo identification , data annotation, and labelling. But the rapidly advancing technology now requires more advanced people to train it.

Companies such as Scale AI and Surge AI are hiring part-timers with graduate degrees to write essays and creative prompts for the bots to gobble up, The New York Times reported . Scale AI, for example, posted a job last year looking for people with Master's degrees or PhDs, who are fluent in either English, Hindi, or Japanese and have professional writing experience in fields like poetry, journalism, and publishing.

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Their mission? To help AI bots "become better writers," Scale AI wrote in the posting.

And an army of workers are needed to do this kind of work. Scale AI has as many as tens of thousands of contractors working on its platform at a time, per the Times.

"What really makes the A.I. useful to its users is the human layer of data, and that really needs to be done by smart humans and skilled humans and humans with a particular degree of expertise and a creative bent," Willow Primack, the vice president of data operations at Scale AI, told the New York Times. "We have been focusing on contractors, particularly within North America, as a result."

The shift toward more sophisticated gig trainers comes as tech giants scramble to find new data to train their technology on. That's because the programs learn so incredibly fast that they're already running out of available resources to learn from. The vast trove of online information — everything from scientific papers to news articles to Wikipedia pages — is drying up.

Epoch, an AI research institute, has warned that AI could run out of data by 2026.

So, companies are finding more and more creative ways to make sure their systems never stop learning. Google has considered accessing its customers' data in Google Docs , Sheets, and Slides while Meta even thought about buying publishing house Simon & Schuster to harvest its book collection, Business Insider previously reported.

Watch: Nearly 50,000 tech workers have been laid off — but there's a hack to avoid layoffs

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In Memoriam: Ross Anderson, 1956-2024

• Communications of the ACM
• April 9, 2024

Ross Anderson unexpectedly passed away in his sleep on March 28th in his home in Cambridge. He was 67.

I can’t remember when I first met Ross. It was well before 2008, when we created the Security and Human Behavior workshop. It was before 2001, when we created the Workshop on Economics and Information Security (okay, he created that one, I just helped). It was before 1998, when we first wrote about the insecurity of key escrow systems. In 1996, I was one of the people he brought to the Newton Institute at Cambridge University, for the six-month cryptography residency program he ran (I made a mistake not staying the whole time)—so it was before then as well.

I know I was at the first Fast Software Encryption workshop in December 1993, the first conference he created. There, I presented the Blowfish encryption algorithm. Pulling an old first edition of Applied Cryptography (the one with the blue cover) down from my shelf, I see his name in the acknowledgments. This means that at either the 1992 Crypto conference in Santa Barbara or the 1993 Eurocrypt in Lofthus, Norway, I, as an unpublished book author who had written a few cryptography articles for Dr. Dobb’s Journal , asked him to read and comment on my book manuscript. And he said yes. Which means I mailed him a paper copy. And he read it, and mailed his handwritten comments back to me. In an envelope with stamps. Because that’s how we did it back then.

This is back when "crypto" meant cryptography, and we would laugh when military types said "cyber" or "cybersecurity." We all called it "computer security" and then "Internet security."

I have known Ross for over 30 years, both as a colleague and a friend. He was enthusiastic, brilliant, opinionated, articulate, curmudgeonly, and kind. Pick up any of his academic papers and articles—there are 302 entries on his webpage —and odds are that you will find at least one unexpected insight that will change how you think about security. He was a security engineer, but also very much a generalist. He published on block cipher cryptanalysis in the 1990s, on the security of large-language models last year, and on pretty much everything else in between.

His masterwork book, Security Engineering —1,200 pages in its third edition—illustrates that breadth. It is as comprehensive a tome on computer security and related topics as you could imagine. Twenty-nine chapters cover everything from access control to tamper resistance, from banking security to nuclear command and control, and from psychology to security printing. Every page is infused with his knowledge, expertise, wisdom, and uncanny ability to cut through the nonsense that too often surrounds traditional security disciplines. (Also note his 15-lecture video series on that same webpage. If you have never heard Ross lecture, you’re in for a treat.)

Ross was a pragmatic visionary. His mastery of both the technologies and the underlying policy issues showed a deep command of multiple fields , and a rare capability to both work within them and synthesize around them. He was also able to weave this knowledge into narratives that were both compelling and comprehensible to the layperson. In his 1993 paper " Why Cryptosystems Fail ," he pointed out that both cryptography and computer security got threat modeling all wrong, and that we were solving the wrong problems. It’s not the math, he wrote; it’s the implementation and the people and the procedures. In 2001, he was the first person to recognize that security problems are often actually economic problems , kick-starting the academic discipline of security economics.

He didn’t suffer fools in either government or the corporate world, giving them no quarter by disproving their security claims. As a graduate student, he defended people accused of stealing from ATM machines by banks who maintained that their security was foolproof. It was a pattern that repeated itself throughout his career: analyze a real-world security system from all angles, understand how it fails, and then publish the results—angering the powers in charge of that security system.

Here’s one example of many. In 2014, he was hired as an expert witness to defend people accused of tampering with the curfew tags used for offender monitoring. He studied the physical tags and their security, and also the economic, policy, and security implications of the tagging system. He even went as far as to wear an ankle bracelet himself. It promptly broke, proving his point. You can read the whole story in Chapter 14 of the third edition of his book.

That sense of justice and confronting power infused much of his work. He fought against surveillance and backdoors. He and I were part of the second and third academic take-downs of government attempts to break encryption. His 2022 rebuttal of child protection as a pretense to break encryption is particularly scathing.

Ross also fought for academic freedom, repeatedly publishing his findings in the face of corporate threats. Many things we all use are more secure today because of Ross’s work.

He was a blistering letter writer to those he believed deserved it. Verbally, he could be a hurricane in your face if he disagreed with you, but he would also engage with your points and was always willing to change his mind. And he enthused about, argued with, and listened to everybody: students, colleagues, partners of students and colleagues, random people he crossed paths with. Everyone was a sounding board for whatever ideas he had in is head.

And his head was constantly filled with ideas—mostly good, some not so good—and seemingly inexhaustible energy to implement them. He founded five different conferences, including the Information Hiding Workshop and Decepticon. He co-founded the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre . He founded the U.K.’s Foundation for Information Policy Research , and wrote most of the papers that the organization submitted to Parliamentary Inquiries on dumb legislative ideas. When the legislative center of power moved to Brussels, he helped form the European Digital Rights organization to provide advice there.

All this was part of his gift of fostering community. And it’s nowhere more evident than his legacy of graduate students at Cambridge University. His CV lists thirty-two of them, and seven more that he was currently advising. Many have carried his legacy of pragmatic security analysis of real-world systems.

Ross was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2009. In 2016, he was awarded the British Computer Society’s Lovelace Medal, the U.K.’s top prize in computing. From 2021, he split his time as a professor between the University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2023. He was absolutely rageful against Cambridge University for making him retire at 67—and he was right.

He also play ed the bagpipes throughout his life. I dedicated a 1998 cryptography paper, " The Street Performer Protocol ," to him because he "spent some of his youth busking on the streets of Germany with his bagpipes." Those were good stories.

He is listed in the acknowledgments as a reader of every one of my books from Beyond Fear on. Recently, we’d see each other a couple of times a year, at this or that workshop or event. He hosted me at Security and Human Behavor at Cambridge’s Churchill College in 2022. The last time I saw him was last June at SHB in Pittsburgh. We were having dinner on Alessandro Acquisti ‘s rooftop patio to celebrate another successful workshop. He was going to attend my Workshop on Reimagining Democracy in December 2023, but had to cancel at the last minute. The day before he died, we were discussing how to accommodate everyone who registered for this year’s SHB workshop in December. I learned something from him every single time we talked. And I am not the only one.

My heart goes out to his wife Shireen, their daughter Bavani, and the rest of their family. We lost him much too soon.

Categories: Computer and Information Security

Tags: Communications of the ACM

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Harvard announces return to required testing

Leading researchers cite strong evidence that testing expands opportunity

Students applying to Harvard College for fall 2025 admission will be required to submit standardized test scores, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced on Thursday. This new policy will be applied to the Class of 2029 admissions cycle and will be formally assessed at regular intervals.

For the Class of 2029 admissions cycle, Harvard will require submission of scores for the SAT or ACT. In exceptional cases in which applicants are unable to access SAT or ACT testing, other eligible tests will be accepted.

In a message to the FAS community on Thursday, Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Hopi Hoekstra foregrounded “a number of factors” that underscored the decision.

“Standardized tests are a means for all students, regardless of their background and life experience, to provide information that is predictive of success in college and beyond,” she said. “Indeed, when students have the option of not submitting their test scores, they may choose to withhold information that, when interpreted by the admissions committee in the context of the local norms of their school, could have potentially helped their application. In short, more information, especially such strongly predictive information, is valuable for identifying talent from across the socioeconomic range.”

In research published last year, Harvard Professors Raj Chetty and David J. Deming and co-author John N. Friedman used data from more than 400 institutions and about 3.5 million undergrads per year to better understand socioeconomic diversity and admissions. Standardized tests emerged as an important tool to identify promising students at less-well-resourced high schools, particularly when paired with other academic credentials.

“Critics correctly note that standardized tests are not an unbiased measure of students’ qualifications, as students from higher-income families often have greater access to test prep and other resources,” said Chetty, the William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics and director of Opportunity Insights . “But the data reveal that other measures — recommendation letters, extracurriculars, essays — are even more prone to such biases. Considering standardized test scores is likely to make the admissions process at Harvard more meritocratic while increasing socioeconomic diversity.”

Deming, the Kennedy School’s Isabelle and Scott Black Professor of Political Economy and a professor of education and economics at the Ed School, pointed to access as a key issue.

“The virtue of standardized tests is their universality,” he said. “Not everyone can hire an expensive college coach to help them craft a personal essay. But everyone has the chance to ace the SAT or the ACT. While some barriers do exist, the widespread availability of the test provides, in my view, the fairest admissions policy for disadvantaged applicants.”

In June 2020, as the pandemic severely limited access to standardized testing, Harvard began a test-optional policy under which students could apply to the College without submitting scores. The admissions cycle for the Class of 2028 was the fourth for which students were able to apply without submitting test scores. However, admissions has welcomed applicants to submit test scores, and the majority of those who matriculated during the past four years did so.

“Test scores can provide important information about a student’s application,” said William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid. “However, they representonly one factor among many as our admissions committee considers the whole person in making its decisions. Admissions officers understand that not all students attend well-resourced schools, and those who come from modest economic backgrounds or first-generation college families may have had fewer opportunities to prepare for standardized tests.”

In recent years, nonprofits such as Khan Academy have offered robust test-prep tools at no charge. In her message, Hoekstra said that access to testing should never prevent a student from applying to Harvard, and included information for those who may not be able to access the SAT or ACT, as well as tools such as Schoolhouse.world and other sources for no-cost tutoring and no-cost test preparation.

“We recognize that in parts of the United States there may be fewer students than in the past taking SAT or ACT for their state universities — and international applicants can also face barriers to testing,” said Joy St. John, director of admissions. “We hope that promising students faced with such challenges will still apply, using alternative forms of testing.”

Said Hoekstra: “Fundamentally, we know that talent is universal, but opportunity is not. With this change, we hope to strengthen our ability to identify these promising students, and to give Harvard the opportunity to support their development as thinkers and leaders who will contribute to shaping our world.”

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