TikTok Usage on Body Image and Satisfaction

Abstract

Given the significant influence of social media on mental health and the rise of TikTok world-wide, it is important to study its effects, especially on college students. Since a variety of content on TikTok is being consumed at a high rate, how this has affected the self-esteem and mood of teenagers has become a point of concern. In this experiment the author instructed two groups of participants to report their daily TikTok usage in hours and watch either a selection of body positive TikTok videos or body neutral TikTok videos. Using a Positive and Negative Affect schedule self-report questionnaire for mood and The Robson Self-Concept questionnaire for self-esteem, the author assessed if there was a significant relationship between gender, daily usage, and the genre of videos consumed. Results indicated that the effect of gender is marginal; however, positive, and neutral video exposure had an effect on mood as participants, in which watching positive body-image related videos was associated with better mood. Moreover, those that used TikTok more frequently than their counterparts who used the application moderately or not at all scored significantly lower on mood. According to these findings, the author concludes that as the population undergoes frequent social media exposure there is a larger scale influence on the general population’s mental well-being.