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'Cocaine for your brain': How is TikTok affecting Gen Z's IQ?

Why is TikTok so addictive? Users return day after day, making it called as addictive as cocaine

There are more than a billion users on TikTok today, including nearly 25% of the United States. With its high levels of education, digital nativism, social and cultural awareness, and predisposition to be more vocal, Generation Z is one of the most diverse generations to date.

What was once an app for lip-syncing and 10-second dance routines has evolved into a global hype or platform that won’t be going away any time soon. 60% of TikTok users belong to GenZ. They are truly trendsetters. Next year, 74 million people in the US will be part of “Gen Z,” which will make it the largest generation of all.

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TikTok: 'Cocaine for your brain'

TikTok is affecting GenZ intellectually and mentally. TikTok is causing negative long-term effects on the brain, especially in younger users, whose minds won’t reach full development until age 25. Like no other form of media, binge-watching an uninterrupted stream of 15 to 30-second videos drastically reduces our attention span. Also, the fact that regular users spend hours more on average on TikTok compared to more traditional social media platforms only adds up to the problem. The screen time is huge! A user on Twitter wrote, "and tiktok taught me how to add 5 hours of screen time to my day"

TikTok users may misdiagnose their mental health conditions. Young individuals who self-diagnose with ADHD, OCD, and autism are becoming more common, according to doctors. And while spreading knowledge about these problems can be very beneficial, it also carries the risk of harm when users self-diagnose with illnesses like Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Understanding TikTok’s algorithm

Why is TikTok so addictive? Users return day after day, making it called as addictive as cocaine. It’s all about the TikTok algorithm! With each video you watch, TikTok learns something about you. Within a few hours, it can detect your sexual orientation, mental health, music sense, and sense of humor. So if you watch a video of a cute cat, TikTok will show you another pet video. A user wrote, "is it just me or is the tiktok algorithm so weird now - you like one video of a niche topic and then minutes later your fyp is just flooded with that topic"

TikTok purposefully shows users videos that are close to what they want to see. This way, users continue to watch and gain exposure to other videos that they may be interested in along the way.