TikTok is an app that has taken over pop culture, and you’d have to be living under a rock to not hear about it. Popular TikToks shown everywhere, even on other forms of social media such as Instagram or Snapchat. This app has shown up so much, it basically defines the current generation of teenagers. This has both positive and negative effects, but it seems that the children nowadays spend too much time either trying to make a living on TikTok, or simply watching too many videos on the app. 

The app is developed by China, which also has control over the content and information for many of the users that are on it. Due to this, China also has control over what content gets posted, meaning that censorship is a massive issue on the app. Any TikToks that were created to degrade China are removed quickly after. Clearly, this is seen as an issue because it prevents a form of freedom of speech. 

TikTok has a wide range of creators, and most of them seem to be female, although there are a lot of male creators as well. There are a lot of creators that make use of the app to “show off.” This could have, and already has, had a detrimental effect on the users of the app, who can have lowered self esteem, especially since nearly 50% of them are teenagers. This issue goes hand-in-hand with young creators trying to get views. Getting views and followers provides a sense of self-worth in young minds, and a lack of views or followers could lead to even more negative self esteem effects.