Originally from Dr. Nancy’s Interview with Voice of America
People tell me they enjoy using a social media app called Tik Tok. But recently they have been taken in by false personalities who don’t represent the actual person. And it’s not carefully marked as to which posters are real and which are fictional. You can get taken in by a false personality, engage with them and believe that you have a relationship with them, called a “parasocial” relationship. It happens when the character feels like a personal friend.
It’s very similar to the ways that TV influences you. The characters on reality shows such as The Bachelorette, the Real Housewives shows, or even TV soaps. become relevant to you. It can happen with any reality or fictional series. The issue is that when you invite the characters into your life and living rooms, you become attached. They become familiar and are like family so you want to know what will happen to them next. It’s even more true with Tik Toc because the characters are easily accessible and because Tik Tok can be interactive. The relationship becomes “parasocial”
There are risks of becoming overly attached occur with the following outcomes:
- The character leaves Tik Tok or you find out they are fake. Research shows that people grieve when their favorite character is removed from media.
- You spend too much time on fictional characters and not enough time on your own life. The characters and plots become like interactive soaps and can seem to be more interesting than real life.
- And there are contests and requests to send in your video to see whose is the best and that one gets to be on TV. Contests create content so it’s a great marketing strategy, but it further engages you.
Many of the same rules that apply to all social media apply to Tik Tok due to the problematic outcomes of too much use.
- Research shows that in cases where self-esteem in not strong, that it becomes worse on social media due to comparing and coming up short. Many teens report feeling worse after going on their social media.
- There is lack of sleep because the posts are always available on social media. FOMO or “fear of missing out” causes hypervigilance to media posts.
- When using social media for news, you can begin doom scrolling, that’s scrolling through news story after news story and either becoming depressed or being misinformed if the news is fake.
What to do to safely and happily use all social media:
- Be sure to note whether the character is real or fictional. It’s exploitative not to clearly identify whether characters are real.
- The more you engage, the more susceptible you are to over-involvement. And if the posts are not made in a predictable fashion, with posts on some days and not others, they become addictive. You don’t know when the post will be there, but you know that it will be there at some time and that it will be good, so you constantly scroll.
- For news, get it from just a few reliable sources – daily newspaper headlines or news channels direct feeds rather than on Facebook.
- Definitely restrict social media use and in an extreme case, if you find yourself addicted, cut media out completely so a while