A significant proportion of young people are increasingly relying on tiktok for political news. The videos which are shared and interacted with include a great deal of accurate, unbiased content, but it is becoming clear that a number of these videos are sharing fake, inaccurate news, or news which is evidently far more biased than traditional sources of information. With 60% of users being between the ages of 16 and 24, data taken directly from tiktok, more and more young people are digesting content which does not allow for critical thinking and analysis. Put simply, tikok is killing nuance, creating a stark divide between the far left and the far right, and allowing little space for respectful conversation and disagreement. Upon interviewing numerous teenagers, I was able to draw conclusions about the real impact of tiktok in their lives.

 

It is without a doubt that tiktok possesses the ability to influence and change the viewpoints of young people. Upon talking to numerous young people about the ways in which tiktok has altered their perspectives, I found that some of their viewpoints may in fact provide assistance in creating a broader, more open minded perspective on the world. For example, one person suggested that it has helped them to understand the intricacies of race in a more thoughtful way, in understanding the ‘interconnectedness of people’s identities and cultures.’ In this sense, tiktok may be helping people to learn respect for other people's cultures, through the diversity of cuisine and general content available to view. Furthermore, another person remarked that first hand accounts of experiences have helped them to empathise better with people, and understand social issues in a more detailed way. I have certainly stumbled across many accounts of women recounting experiences of gender inequality, including the gender based harassment that is experienced in everyday life. This most definitely cultivates empathy and an understanding of ongoing issues within society, providing people with platforms to speak out against injustice and make a real change. 

 

However, another person explained to me how they believe that tiktok has created a generation of ‘far more radical left leaning’ individuals. In creating these platforms, people are able to speak freely and broadly about what affects them personally. Therefore, it is important that political nuance is retained. In consuming content that aligns only with personal political perspectives, this may perhaps be removing the drive to check and evaluate the reliability of sources- one young person noted that ‘If I want to believe it, I will.’

 

The issue of reliability brings forth the dilemma of whether tiktok is a positive platform in itself. Whether or not content on tiktok is accurate appears to have less meaning if tiktok is not actually a positive platform, where content is fairly shared and of an appropriate nature, considering tiktok requires its users to be 13 years of age. The great majority of the people I spoke to had decided that tiktok was a negative platform- despite this, they still found it addictive and continued to use the app. For example, one young person remarked on the graphic nature of some of the content; the ‘dark side of tiktok’. She explained that a video of a beheading had been circulating tiktok, with the company taking a considerable time frame to remove it. This is very disturbing when so many young teenagers use tiktok. Unlike other social media platforms, there is very little control over what you see, although the unexpected nature of the app (despite the ingenious algorithm designed to provide tailor made content) is what appeals to many people. She also told me that tiktok tends to place People of Colour lower on the tiktok feed, further limiting their voices and creating a larger space for binary, less diverse opinions. Another person explained to me about how they believe that tiktok is negatively affecting the publishing industry. There appears to be an increasing need to go ‘viral’ on tiktok in order to publish or allow a book to be viewed and read by people. This is not only reducing the genre of books advertised, but is also removing traditional forms of book publishing and recommendations. 

 

Despite this vast influence which extends even to the publishing industry, it cannot only be tiktok which is shaping young people’s political perspectives. It is most certainly true that social media and the internet play a large role in forming political opinions, but many young people also suggested that the influence of their parents is what has helped them to develop their perspectives. Common responses to the question of where viewpoints form from primarily included this, with one person telling me that the strictly conservative viewpoint of their parents has come into conflict with their friends views, further suggesting that young people are tending to shift towards liberalism, discarding their parents viewpoints. Interestingly, she also told me that this desire to be different from the older generation has meant that ‘we are not so different at all.’ She also suggested that there may be a ‘silent majority of conservatives’ within the younger generation, despite the overarching liberal perspective held- as another person told me, ‘society doesn’t like conservatives.’ 

 

It may be true, however, that young people are not in truth that impressionable, and that the shift in political opinion is not the result of tiktok and social media but instead a reaction to societal dilemmas and the issues found within a far right ideology. Therefore, I decided to ask whether or not teenagers think they are impressionable. Surprisingly, most people decided that they were impressionable, suggesting that since they are still young, outside influences are able to sway them very easily, with someone also remarking that titkok most likely ‘unconsciously influences’ him. However, one person said that they were not impressionable, interestingly being the only person who said they formed their opinions via research. It seems clear that, as was suggested to me, there is a desire ‘to be like everybody else’ which is perhaps reducing the ability to think critically and apply nuance to different situations. Considering tiktok tailors content to you, there are also more biased and less nuanced opinions that you are exposed to. This in turn reduces the drive to fact check sources, and does not allow for discussion or evaluation.

 

As tiktok is becoming more polarised, there is becoming less of a space for nuance and variation. It is important to create open discussions, and allow for less biased sources of political information, considering so many young people derive their viewpoints from tiktok. A variation in the content that is consumed should in turn create a drive to evaluate and fact check sources, keeping a space that cultivates the mutual respect of different viewpoints that can be translated into political discussion in real life.