APA-Dakar (Senegal) The social media platform, which is very popular with young people can be an advantage or a disadvantage in the shaping of their identity.
Three-year-old Awa is a child of her time living in an apartment in Ouest Foire (Dakar) with her parents and surrounded by many toys – dolls, bicycles, gadgets.
However she often prefers the smartphone.
“At the beginning, she almost only watched nursery rhymes on YouTube. Now, she has taken a liking to surfing TikTok. That said, I make sure as much as possible that the content followed is appropriate for her age” her tech savvy dad explains.
“Addictive! Dangerous for the cognitive development of children! Harmful for young people…” In the West, there is no shortage of warnings highlighting the “danger” posed by TikTok for the young. But what makes this social media platform launched in China in September 2016 so special?
“TikTok allows users to create and share short videos. (…) It is an ever-changing platform that allows users to interact by commenting, liking or sharing videos. The social interactions that you can have are what makes TikTok so attractive,” Yann Leroux, a Doctor in Psychology points out.
“Unlike Facebook, which is an unlimited social network, but with several content formats (text, audio, images, videos), TikTok presents a quasi-unique format: short videos. Another advantage compared to
Facebook is that TikTok is like a supermarket where you put your videos and you can be sure that a large number of people will have access to them without you having to promote them. The TikTok format is almost disempowering, which attracts a lot of youth participation,” says Dr. Ibrahima Giroux, cognitive psychologist and parenting specialist.
In its annual study for 2022, the parental control software provider Qustodio revealed that worldwide, children spent an average of nearly two hours a day on TikTok (1 hour 47 minutes). This puts this social platform well ahead of historical giants such as Snapchat, Instagram or YouTube as the most used application by this section of the population.
TikTok continues to gain ground since between 2020 and 2022, according to the results of the research, children have increased their presence on the application by 30 minutes. Hence the interest in questioning its addictive power.
“I would rather call it involvement. The short format and multitude of videos promise a quick and varied viewing experience that can easily capture users’ attention. In addition, TikTok uses recommendation algorithms to suggest content similar to what users have liked before. This can encourage them to continue watching and interacting with the platform. (…) Finally, what has been viewed on TikTok sparks conversations outside the app,” Dr. Yann Leroux points out.
In fact, “TikTok is a social place. What a person gets out of it depends on what they bring to it and the profiles they meet. Bad company on TikTok as elsewhere potentially increases problematic behaviour in younger people,” he says.
In its study released in February of this year, Qustodio reported an 18 percent increase in time spent on video services between 2021 and 2022, much of which is spent on the Middle Kingdom platform. This increased use of TikTok may have serious consequences if Dr. Ibrahima Giroux’s assessment is anything to go by.
“A global consequence is the weakening and collapse of the personality in case of overexposure to entertainment,” he warns, adding that “on the social level, these platforms present a magnificent contradiction:
it increases the network and decreases the social network. The increased social network is the virtual one with millions of friends, +likers+ that we know only ephemerally. The diminished social media network is the real social network. It is disused, it is given little importance and we only get the minimum from it.”
This idea is however relativised by Yann Leroux who affirms that “it is not the +uncontrolled+ use of TikTok that causes developmental or health problems. Rather, it is significant stress that leads to difficulties or disorders manifested by heavy use of social media. In this situation, social media is a bubble in which the individual takes
refuge.
How about parental responsibility?
In their development process, children learn a lot by imitation. The parents with whom they spend time are their first source of inspiration. They therefore have a central role to play in helping their children learn how to use social media networks like TikTok.
“Parents have no choice but to be closer to their children, more attentive, more benevolent. To do this, they must understand that material gifts are not what attracts children to a parent, but psychological and moral qualities,” says the specialist in parenting education.
He is convinced that “parents who have confidence in themselves, who offer their children opportunities to learn from them or with them, the possibility of making mistakes and learning, who offer quality time, will have more possibilities to protect their children from harmful networks. In addition to these parenting qualities, the parent’s openness to know about TikTok, to be interested in it and to help their children make the most of it. There is extraordinary and educational content on TikTok.
Dr. Ibrahima Giroux is joined on this point by Dr. Leroux, according to whom “young people appropriate the technical tools of culture well or poorly depending on how adults transmit these tools to them. In concrete terms, this means that it is up to adults to set an example for children through their use of social networks and the content they post.
According to the psychologist, adults must have quality interactions with children and adolescents. “If a child enjoys interacting with his parents, these interactions contribute significantly to his growth, to transform him into a responsible adult in his community, why would he seek sources of growth from strangers on TikTok?” he adds.
In most countries of the world, the content in social media platforms often leaves much to be desired. Africa is no exception to this. Faced with the dangers incurred by young people, the two psychologists advocate for more parental responsibility and more state presence in terms of regulation and awareness-raising.
In fact, he is convinced that “parents who have confidence in themselves, who offer their children opportunities to learn from them or with them, the possibility of making mistakes and learning, who offer quality time, will have more possibilities to protect their children from harmful networks. In addition to these parenting qualities, the parent’s openness to know about TikTok, to be interested in it and to help their children make the most of it. There is extraordinary and educational content on TikTok.”
On this point, Dr. Ibrahima Giroux shares the same view as Dr. Leroux.
According to the psychologist, adults must have quality interactions with children and adolescents. “If a child enjoys interacting with his parents, these interactions contribute significantly to his growth, to transform him into a responsible adult in his community, why would he seek sources of growth from strangers on TikTok?” He wonders.
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