Some people quickly tend to become addicted to the social network TikTok. Here’s why.
- People with high levels of negative emotions and a lack of self-discipline are more likely to develop an unhealthy addiction to TikTok.
- This relationship is strongly accentuated by depressive symptoms.
- Women and young people have higher scores in TTUD (TikTok Use Disorder).
A new study published in BMC Psychology highlights the mental dynamics that underlie the excessive use of the social network TikTok (also called by the authors “TikTok Use Disorder”, Or “TTUD”).
TikTok: Negative Emotions Lead to Unhealthy Addiction
The study found that people with high levels of negative emotions and a lack of self-discipline were more likely to develop an unhealthy addiction to TikTok, with this relationship being strongly accentuated by depressive symptoms.
The study also demonstrated that, on average, women and younger people had higher TTUD (TikTok Use Disorder) scores, while older participants showed less pronounced TTUD tendencies.
Given TikTok’s unique design and mass appeal, researchers sought to better understand the platform’s specific impact on mental health.
“Social media overuse is currently not recognized as an official mental health problem,” write the authors of the essay Christian Montag and Sebastian Markett. “This area is an ongoing and controversial topic of discussion. they add.
For their study, the researchers first screened a large set of 7,111 people, then reduced the sample to 383 participants who claimed to use social networks and more specifically TikTok. All were at least 18 years old.
Addiction to TikTok: investigation methodology
Participants were given a series of questionnaires, the main one being the TikTok Use Disorder-Questionnaire (TTUD-Q), which the researchers adapted from Gaming Disorder.
This approach consisted of reformulating the questions to focus on the use of TikTok, capturing elements such as loss of control, priority given to TikTok over other daily activities or continued use of the social network despite the negative consequences. The scientists also used the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8) to assess participants’ depressive tendencies and the Big Five Inventory-10 (BFI-10) to assess personality traits.
The study, like all research, has limitations. For example, the unique demographic profile of participants, older than the average TikTok user, may bias the results.
Further research with younger cohorts is therefore needed to confirm these results.
