TikTok Too Much? A Qualitative Investigation of Adolescent TikTok Use,Motivation,and Consequences

Abstract

TikTok use has grown rapidly since the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among adolescents. The goal of this study is to understand how and why teenagers use TikTok and how teenagers perceive these behaviors and motivations as contributing to their mental well-being. This qualitative, descriptive study involved interviewing teenagers one-on-one via Zoom regarding their TikTok use and how they perceived TikTok as influencing their well-being (N = 31; M_age = 15.83). Thematic results revealed that teenagers mostly used TikTok to scroll, watch videos, create and send content, and meet friends. Participants primarily used TikTok for interpersonal reasons (such as entertainment) and for relational reasons (such as to communicate with others). When TikTok was used as a distraction or if they scrolled through depressing or adverse content, their mood declined, but if viewing entertaining content or connecting with others, participants perceived benefits for their well-being.

Keywords

TikTok adolescents wellbeing

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adiele

Olatokun

. (2014). Prevalence and determinants of Internet addiction among adolescents. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 100–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.028

Alfasi

. (2019). The grass is always greener on my Friends’ profiles: The effect of Facebook social comparison on state self-esteem and depression. Personality and Individual Differences, 147, 111–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.04.032

Anderson

Jiang

. (2018, May). Teens, social media and technology 2018. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/

Auhuber

Vogel

Grafe

Kiess

Poulain

. (2019). Leisure activities of healthy children and adolescents. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(12), 2078–2094. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16122078

Awad

M. N.

Connors

E. H

. (2023). Active bystandership by youth in the digital era: Microintervention strategies for responding to social media-based microaggressions and cyberbullying. Psychological Services, 20(3), 423–434. https://doi.org/10.1037/ser0000749

Ballard

. (2019, October). Teens use these social media platforms the most. YouGov. https://today.yougov.com/society/articles/25973-teens-social-media-use-online-survey-poll-youth

Brandtzæg

P. B.

Lüders

Skjetne

J. H

. (2010). Too many Facebook “friends”? Content sharing and sociability versus the need for privacy in social network sites. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 26(11–12), 1006–1030. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2010.516719

Braun

Clarke

. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328–352. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2020.1769238

Braun

Clarke

. (2022). Conceptual and design thinking for thematic analysis. Qualitative Psychology, 9(1), 3–26. https://doi.org/10.1037/qup0000196

10.

Bravender

. (2015). Adolescents and the importance of parental supervision. Pediatrics, 136(4), 761–762. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2015-2658

11.

Bucknell Bossen

Kottasz

(2020). Uses and gratifications sought by pre-adolescent and adolescent TikTok consumers. Young Consumers, 21(4), 463–478. https://doi.org/10.1108/yc-07-2020-1186

12.

Caner

Efe

Y. S.

Başdaş

. (2022). The contribution of social media addiction to adolescent LIFE: Social appearance anxiety. Current Psychology, 41(12), 8424–8433. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03280-y

13.

Ceci

. (2023, November). TikTok: Video duration 2023, by video views. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1372569/tiktok-video-duration-by-number-of-views/

14.

Deyo

. (2023, April). TikTok remains top social app for teens despite drop in favorability, study finds. Marketing Dive. https://www.marketingdive.com/news/tiktok-social-marketing-teens-snap-instagram-piper-sandler/646930/

15.

Dixon

S. J

. (2022, April). U.S. teens: Most frequently accessed social networks 2019. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/420112/us-teens-most-used-social-networks/

16.

Doyle

. (2023, January). Tiktok statistics – everything you need to know [Jan 2023 update]. Wallaroo Media. https://wallaroomedia.com/blog/social-media/tiktok-statistics/

17.

Ehrenreich

S. E.

Beron

K. J.

Burnell

Meter

D. J.

Underwood

M. K

. (2020). How adolescents use text messaging through their high school years. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 30(2), 521–540. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12541

18.

Elhajjar

Yacoub

. (2023). Towards a better understanding of the social media effects on young users. Inderscience Online, 17(3), 296–315. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJTMKT.2023.132175

19.

Fletcher

Nielsen

R. K

. (2018). Are people incidentally exposed to news on social media? A comparative analysis. New Media & Society, 20(7), 2450–2468. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817724170

20.

Irmer

Schmiedek

. (2023). Associations between youth’s daily social media use and well-being are mediated by upward comparisons. Communications Psychology, 1(1), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-023-00013-0

21.

Kamenetz

. (2019, October). Report: More than half of U.S. children now own a smartphone by age 11. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2019/10/29/774306250/report-more-than-half-of-u-s-children-now-own-a-smartphone-by-age-11

22.

Katz

Blumler

J. G.

Gurevitch

. (1973). Uses and gratifications research. Public Opinion Quarterly, 37(4), 509–523. https://doi.org/10.1086/268109

23.

Lambert

V. A.

Lambert

C.E

. (2012). Qualitative descriptive research: An acceptable design. Pacific Rim International Journal of Nursing Research, 16(4), 255–256.

24.

Langlais

M. R.

Seidman

Bruxvoort

K. M

. (2020). Adolescent romantic relationship–oriented Facebook behaviors: Implications for self-esteem. Youth & Society, 52(4), 661–683. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X18760647

25.

Maciag

. (2023). Past to present: Social media’s affect on teens. The Cleveland Observer. https://cleobserver.com/past-to-present-social-medias-affect-on-teens-2/

26.

Naderer

Peter

Karsay

. (2022). This picture does not portray reality: Developing and testing a disclaimer for digitally enhanced pictures on social media appropriate for Austrian tweens and teens. Journal of Children and Media, 16(2), 149–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2021.1938619

27.

Nassaji

. (2015). Qualitative and descriptive research: Data type versus data analysis. Language Teaching Research, 19(2), 129–132. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168815572747.

28.

Perrault

E. K.

Hildenbrand

G. M.

McCullock

S. P.

Schmitz

K. J.

Dolick

K. N

. (2019). Hashtag health: College health on social media and students’ motivations to follow, interact, and share their social media content. Health Promotion Practice, 20(5), 721–729. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839919853820

29.

Schellewald

. (2023). Understanding the popularity and affordances of TikTok through user experiences. Media, Culture & Society, 45(8), 1568–1582. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221144562

30.

Schønning

Hjetland

G. J.

Aarø

L. E.

Skogen

J. C

. (2020). Social media use and mental health and well-being among adolescents – A scoping review. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Article 1949. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01949

31.

Scott

G. G.

Ravenscroft

. (2017). Bragging on Facebook: The interaction of content source and focus in online impression formation. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 20(1), 58–63. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2016.0311

32.

Scully

Swords

Nixon

. (2023). Social comparisons on social media: Online appearance-related activity and body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 40(1), 31–42. https://doi.org/10.1017/ipm.2020.93

33.

Seidman

Langlais

Havens

. (2019). Romantic relationship-oriented Facebook activities and the satisfaction of belonging needs. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(1), 52–62. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000165

34.

Smith

Leonis

Anandavalli

. (2021). Belonging and loneliness in cyberspace: Impacts of social media on adolescents’ well-being. Australian Journal of Psychology, 73(1), 12–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530.2021.1898914

35.

Stockdale

L. A.

Coyne

S. M

. (2020). Bored and online: Reasons for using social media, problematic social networking site use, and behavioral outcomes across the transition from adolescence to emerging adulthood. Journal of Adolescence, 79(1), 173–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2020.01.010

36.

Thompson

. (1996). Barriers to maintaining a sense of meaning and control in the face of loss. Journal of Personal and Interpersonal Loss, 1(4), 333–357. https://doi.org/10.1080/10811449608414393

37.

Valkenburg

Beyens

Pouwels

J. L.

van Driel

I. I.

Keijsers

. (2021). Social media use and adolescents’ self-esteem: Heading for a person-specific media effects paradigm. Journal of Communication, 71(1), 56–78. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaa039

38.

Verduyn

Gugushvili

Massar

Täht

Kross

. (2020). Social comparison on social networking sites. Current Opinion in Psychology, 36, 32–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.04.002

39.

Vogel

E. A.

Rose

J. P.

Okdie

B. M.

Eckles

Franz

. (2015). Who compares and despairs? The effect of social comparison orientation on social media use and its outcomes. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 249–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.06.026

40.

Vogels

E. A

. (2022, December). Teens and cyberbullying 2022. Pew Research Center. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep57317.pdf?acceptTC=true&coverpage=false&addFooter=false

41.

Vogels

E. A.

Gelles-Watnick

Massarat

. (2022, August). Teens, social media and technology 2022. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/

42.

von Fedak

Langlais

M. R.

(2024). TikTok too long? Examining time on TikTok, psychological distress, and the moderation of TikTok motivations among college students. Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, 29(2), 129–139. https://doi.org/10.24839/2325-7342.JN29.2.129

43.

Whiting

Williams

. (2013). Why people use social media: A uses and gratifications approach. Qualitative Market Research, 16(4), 362–369. https://doi.org/10.1108/QMR-06-2013-0041

44.

Yan

Zhu

Hussain

S. A.

Bresnahan

. (2022). Anti-Asian microaggressions in the time of COVID-19: Impact on coping, stress, and well-being. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 13(3), 248–258. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000281