Corporations Are Not Your Friend
TikTok’s initiative to limit screen time is an illusion to outsiders looking in; written with my friend Ruby McMahon
18 hours a week. Teens at ELHS have blurted this number out, casually in conversation, about their TikTok screen time. 18 hours a week breaks down to about two and a half hours a day dedicated purely to the infinite scroll the app offers.
To counter the growing screen time of younger users on the app, TikTok recently announced one of the most extreme initiatives taken by a social media company. March 1, 2023, TikTok set forth their time limit feature introduced to teenagers and families.
For the foreseeable future, 18-year-old users and younger will be prompted with 60 minute limit screens, requiring users to enter their passcode in order to keep scrolling, whereas users 13 and under will need the passcode created by parents to continue watching past 60 minutes.
What does this mean for non-users who hear this?
To those who don’t own TikTok, the time limit appears as an important precaution for their users. To people who do not frequent the app, the time limit seems like it could only be seen as a beneficial feature.
But don’t be fooled too quickly.
What does the time limit actually mean for teen users?
Essentially, nothing.
TikTok, as the world has seen, with two thirds of American teenagers using the app according to the New York Times, has captured hundreds of millions of users' attention within the span of four years. TikTok has allowed for a space that fosters many positive outcomes, such as promoting small businesses, supporting painters, fashion designers, musicians, or giving perspective on people from all over the world. As far as social media goes, TikTok has been one of the most successful at providing entertainment as well as communities to share culture and interests, which can be beautiful to bear witness to.
People dedicate themselves to TikTok because the app adheres to users and their fascinations due to their algorithm. In downloading the app, TikTok prompts new users on their likes and dislikes, and immediately after scrolling, users’ personalized feed starts to know them.
The business contributors of TikTok are rather intelligent. They know very well that if true, strict time limits were incorporated into the app, immense business would be lost. The company knows that people would be frustrated and stop using the app, ultimately losing profit.
The time limit will be ultimately ineffective.
Those who are aware of their screen time have already set time limits before TikTok instated an app-wide limit. Those who contribute many hours a week to TikTok can simply keep doing so, just by typing in their password, which takes less than a few seconds of their time. Even if the company’s intentions are in what ConnectSafely President & CEO Larry Magid describes as helping users in “developing healthy online habits,” down to its core, the app is designed to be as addictive and endless as possible.