China’s famous giant social media platform TikTok with more than 1 Billion downloads worldwide has released a statement regarding the welfare of its users. TikTok has admitted that a lot of its users are more fascinated by the short story videos on the platform and forget to take a break from the app. The prominent platform has decided to heed to the call and reduce the time spent by users.
In a blog article by TikTok, the platform says that it will incorporate a set of well-being features that allow users to customize the time they expect to spend on the app before getting a notification to take a break.
“These prompts will remind people to take a break after a certain amount of uninterrupted screen time, which they can set as they choose,” wrote the product manager of digital well-being at TikTok, Jordan Furlong. “Break reminders help you feel more mindful and balanced on TikTok.
The customization feature will further give access to summaries on daily-weekly time spent on TikTok, the number of times the app has been opened along with daytime and night-time usage. The feature mainly targets the young teenagers aged 13 – 17 years old, saying that it will be issuing them with prompts after spending 100 minutes on the platform.
“We hope these new digital well-being tools continue to support our community in fostering a positive relationship with TikTok.”
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On other matters, there have been a lot of controversial debates on the effects that it has more so on the youth, particularly influencers. TikTok’s algorithm in China was originally modeled to pay content producers who create short story videos relating to Engineering, Technology and Learning; provided that brainpower is utilized for a better cause. In China, the algorithm only pays content producers that foster knowledge expansion.
It, therefore, has come to a debate on how the algorithm pays other content producers in other countries that are not China, with some stating that TikTok is getting popular daily with tons of subscriptions to content that does not promote knowledge and requires little proficiency. They argue out that the reality of achieving life goals is by panning them and finding a strategic way to accomplish each one of them one by one and not sitting down all day watching content.
On the other hand, the majority of Tiktok users claim it has empowered people to express creativity and make meaningful connections whilst enjoying culture-defining entertainment. All in all, people need to protect their mental health and well-being, that is what matters in this digital technology era that dawned upon us all.