TikTok - 35 minutes / 260 videos to become addicted

Internally at TikTok, they calculated that it takes 260 videos to become addicted. It is unfortunate that authors with a certain level of popularity and trust, like Fanny Nusbaum, who, regardless of her other ideas, published a post on LinkedIn (and no, I’m not going to create a backlink for this post; that would be crazy) advising her readers to embrace new trends and not to shy away from TikTok, to see what’s happening there.

I then posted a comment on this post, expressing my surprise at such advice, given the author's popularity on the platform, particularly mentioning the problem: the platform seems to be well aware of the addiction risks posed by its algorithm, to the point that it quantified the number of views needed to become addicted: 260 videos. “Thus, in less than thirty-five minutes, an average user is likely to become addicted to the platform,” concluded investigators from the state of Kentucky who had access to an internal report (source: Slate).

Finally, TikTok has been the subject of much controversy; this is nothing new.

There are some research studies that date back... which each person should delve into as they go, as links may no longer exist.

References:

• Akhtar, N., & Islam, A. (2023). Unveiling the predictors and outcomes of TikTok addiction: the moderating role of parasocial relationships. Journal of Knowledge Management, 27(5), 1245-1263. Available here: https://doi.org/10.1108/K-04-2022-0551.

• (2024). Algorithms, addiction, and adolescent mental health: An interdisciplinary study. American Journal of Law and Medicine. Available here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-law-and-medicine.