Alarming Study Proves 50% Of Adolescent Girls Feel Addicted To TikTok, Particularly Those With Depression

A new study is shedding light on the harmful effects of the popular social media app TikTok and how nearly 50% of adolescent females feel an addiction to the platform.

This study was conducted to see what effects various social media apps of today have on the minds of young girls and the addictive potential of TikTok on them was alarming, including for those struggling with depression.

While so many young females claim they adore what they found online through the platform, they were also exposed to both bigotry as well as the urge to keep on going back for more.

Similarly, most girls know that they keep returning for more, even though their duration is longer than what they may have intended as per the report taking into consideration the effects of social media trends on American girlhood.

TikTok has been at the forefront in terms of the greatest amount of time that young females spend on social media apps and there are days when girls tune in for nearly 2 and a half hours. Moreover, the researchers at Brown University as well as the nonprofit organization Common Sense Media revealed how YouTube is just a tad bit behind and equally takes over the minds of young female audiences.

But then we’ve got Snapchat and Messenger taking the third position with 2 hours of logging into the app while Instagram was the fourth highest with 90 minutes. In the same way, the study proved that most females that were surveyed were between the ages of 11 to 15 and make use of not one but several apps daily.

Most females claim the impact of social media on individuals their age has been positive. Nearly one in four people that use this app, Snapchat and Instagram were said to go through some negative comparisons in society while undergoing pressure to appear as the best version of themselves in real life.

Among those individuals that were the most vulnerable to the disadvantages of social media included females that had moderate to serious depression symptoms. They felt that life would be so much more meaningful if they didn’t let social media enter their lives. And it’s interesting because most of them are using the apps daily and in a constant fashion without fail.

When it came down specifically to the TikTok app, 68% felt a sense of urgency to use the app like an addiction while 33% of those included had no symptoms of depression.

Another top researcher at Brown University was quick to point out that those females with depression that used Instagram felt like taking their own lives. While 69% felt the same with TikTok and 64% with YouTube and Snapchat.

As pointed out by the authors of this study, there is a huge number of females that are really finding it hard to lead a life of normalcy. They’re seeing such content online and getting influenced and that’s not helping them mentally.

H/T: WP

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World