Analysis of the mechanism of TikTok addiction

Nowadays, Tik Tok has become an indispensable form of entertainment for many people, and the short videos of just over ten seconds are so addictive. Just like the magic wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia, we can peek into the vast world of the Internet by simply touching the screen.

Here, interesting contents come one after another, like traps, capturing us tightly. Unknowingly, several hours have passed... On the subway, on the bus, on the street... You can hear the exclusive melody of Tik Tok everywhere.

So the question is, why are we addicted to TikTok, and how is TikTok so addictive?

1. Cognitive neuroscience

1. Feedback mechanism of dopamine circuit

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that helps cells transmit impulses. This brain secretion is related to human desire and feelings, and it conveys messages of excitement and happiness. In addition, dopamine is also involved in various addictive behaviors.

When we are watching Tik Tok, the emotions such as pleasure, excitement and satisfaction we feel are actually caused by the secretion of adrenaline, oxytocin and endorphins.

But for the brain, these emotions are only temporary signals. The feedback mechanism formed by dopamine is the key to determining whether you will continue to scroll and whether you will open Douyin again in the future.

Dopamine is the anticipation of pleasure. You will feel that this video will talk about something interesting, and the next video may be even better and you can’t miss it.

Therefore, watching Tik Tok is a patterned behavior constructed by the dopamine circuit in the brain. While receiving dopamine feedback, what we are actually doing is continuously stimulating the brain nerves and enjoying the pleasure, satisfaction and excitement brought by hormones in the body.

Like games, it is an accomplice in our addiction.

The more stressful work and study are, the more the body craves dopamine. Short videos can provide excessive stimulation to the brain in a very short time.

So we suck on our pacifiers (Tik Tok) and immerse ourselves in the utopian world constructed by the actors, a world where the boys are handsome, the girls are cute, there are funny and bizarre things, beautiful songs, cool dances, everything is available, and we can also enjoy the beautiful mountains and rivers of our motherland without leaving home.

It has never been so convenient for us to get happiness so easily with just a tap of our hands.

2. User Psychology

1. Unknown surprises keep you coming back

When we open TikTok, there are usually two situations: purposeful browsing and non-purposeful browsing.

For the former, TikTok is nothing more than a search engine that is used to index the content they want to find, and such behavior often does not trigger the addiction mechanism.

The latter is the opposite. Users browse the site aimlessly and have no idea what they are getting. Humans are full of curiosity about unknown things, and this expectation of the unknown will stimulate people's curiosity and desire to explore.

When you watch Tik Tok, you never know what surprise the next short video will bring you, and this sense of unknown surprise is exactly what your brain wants most.

As Forrest Gump said: Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.

When we anticipate getting a reward for doing something, the dopamine level in the brain increases, and swiping up with our thumbs over and over again to get pleasure again and again becomes addictive. This is what psychology calls "variable rate reinforcement."

That is to say, the "rewards" that people get to satisfy them occur at unpredictable intervals and in unpredictable forms, which makes it extremely difficult to stop this behavior. Just like gambling, gamblers never know when they will win money next time, so they will keep playing.

In the famous "Skinner Box" experiment, it has been confirmed that the uncertainty of rewards will constantly stimulate the brain to secrete dopamine and lead to addiction.

I always hope that the next video will be as interesting as this one, so I can't stop watching it.

When users are surrounded by this high stimulation threshold for a long time, they become accustomed to easily obtaining a lot of pleasure and satisfaction.

Having written this, I finally understood why those girls are so obsessed with shopping. Shopping itself is a purposeless behavior and can be addictive.

Boys usually go shopping with a strong purpose. They enter a store, choose a piece of clothing, pay the bill and leave.

2. Extremely short feedback cycle (melon seed theory)

There is a famous "melon seed theory" in management science:

• Whether people like it or not, it's easy to pick up the first melon seed.
• Once you eat the first one, you will eat the second, the third... you can’t stop.
• While eating melon seeds, people may do other things, such as going to the bathroom. But after returning to his seat, he will continue to eat melon seeds without the need for others to remind or urge him.
• Most of the time, people will keep eating until they are all gone.

Investigating the reasons, we will find that:

• The act of eating melon seeds is simple. Because it is simple, people can easily start this behavior; because it is simple, people can easily master the skills, gradually become proficient, and constantly improve the method of cracking melon seeds; this process enhances self-confidence, and subconsciously, people expect to enjoy this process.
• Every time you crack a melon seed, you can immediately enjoy the kernel. For those who eat melon seeds, this is a reward with instant feedback. It was this instant feedback that motivated him to keep taking it.
• If you crack a plate of melon seeds one by one, after a while there will be a pile of melon seed shells, which gives the person cracking the melon seeds a sense of accomplishment.

Eating melon seeds is so addictive, and the experience of watching TikTok is similar to that of eating melon seeds.

Short videos are relatively short, and you can watch one in a dozen seconds. Secondly, short videos are easy to operate. As long as you keep swiping your fingers, the content you are interested in will be continuously pushed to your eyes, providing instant feedback and instant satisfaction.

Now more and more apps are trying their best to shorten the feedback cycle and extend your stay time.

3. Product Design

1. The power of extreme simplicity

I think WeChat is simple enough, but TikTok is an app that is even simpler than WeChat, so simple that even your grandma can use it.

If using WeChat requires a certain level of cultural support, using Douyin does not require any cultural knowledge and is even simpler than watching TV.

How do you define simplicity? This is not determined by expert users, but by novice users.

What is a novice user? For example, if your parents or grandmothers don’t encounter much trouble when using this product, then it means it is simple.

Taobao is a complex application. It may seem simple to you, as it is just online shopping, so eazy. But to our parents, it is complex and they don’t know how to use it.

Especially when it comes to filling out a series of complex forms or making payments, they will be very cautious, fearing that they will make a mistake and have money deducted accidentally.

How low is the threshold for using Douyin? I have observed that everyone from three-year-old children to eighty-year-old grandmothers have no pressure playing Tik Tok. Many children love to watch Douyin and have a lot of fun.

Three extreme user groups, the elderly, young children, and illiterate people, have all been harvested by Douyin, which is something that WeChat has never done.

This is the power of extreme simplicity.

2. Full-screen video to create an immersive experience

When you open TikTok, you will see a full-screen video. You don’t need to make any choices or think about it. If you encounter a video you don’t like, you can just swipe up to go to the next video, which gives users great satisfaction and timely feedback. This immersive experience makes it easy for users to enter a flow state.

There is only one video on a page. You can switch videos by simply swiping down, without having to click the back button or perform other operations. This simplest interaction method simplifies the interaction behavior to the extreme and minimizes the chance of funnel loss.

If users are required to make a choice, there will be a cost of choice each time, and they are likely to be lost, and the flow state will easily be broken.

3. Videos are far more appealing than text and images

Videos have a higher density of information carrying capacity than text and pictures, making them very suitable for fast food culture and also for pleasure.

For users, people naturally like to look at pictures, and videos are 100 times more attractive than pictures. The visual and auditory shock brought by video and music is far beyond the reach of pictures and texts.

Many of the music on Tik Tok uses the climax part of the chorus, and it is easy to be brainwashed after listening to it several times.

4. Recommendation Algorithm Level

1. Powerful algorithm recommendations make you addicted and unable to extricate yourself

Douyin is backed by Toutiao and uses Toutiao's algorithm as its technical support. It is impeccable in terms of personalized recommendations and tailor-made services for different individuals. Recommendation algorithms can easily adjust your unknown expectations, feedback cycles, and feedback reinforcement.

Relying on the recommendation algorithm, the system can even accurately predict your instantaneous interests.

For example, if you are currently watching a video, the system can evaluate your interest in the video based on your click operations such as likes, reposts, follows, and dwell time. Based on this big data model, similar videos will be recommended to you, and you will most likely like them. Then, based on your preferences for the next video, the next video will be recommended, and this will be repeated...

The algorithm system will also constantly adjust the push direction. For example, if a user likes to watch movie interpretations the most, then some of the most clicked content in the movie interpretation category will appear in the user's recommendation column.

By constantly providing users with these high-stimulation and high-intensity pleasures, users themselves will reinforce their behavior by constantly applying higher-intensity, more continuous, and deeper stimulation.

In this way, you will find that you are always browsing content that interests you, and gradually become addicted to it.

In other words, behind every seemingly simple operation you take, such as liking, forwarding, following, etc., there is a powerful algorithm system involved.

Tik Tok uses an algorithmic recommendation mechanism to endlessly supply this kind of satisfaction to users, prompting us to secrete dopamine, bringing us happiness while imprisoning our time.

5. Valuable content is the root of your addiction

Of course, the above are all objective reasons. A good cook cannot cook without rice. Ultimately, it all comes back to the content itself. What makes you addicted are valuable contents.

For users who are using TikTok for the first time, the official will push some highly-liked videos to you, and high likes mean high value.

Fun or interesting, it brings you joy and becomes a spice in your boring daily life.

High-quality content continues to attract users, and the influx of a large number of users attracts high-quality creators, forming a positive cycle in the content ecosystem.

6. How can I quit TikTok?

• “I watch TikTok before going to bed, but I only watch it for two minutes before turning it off.”
• "After lunch, take a break, relax, and watch some TikTok"
• …

Does the above scenario sound familiar?

It’s fun to scroll through Tik Tok, and it’s fun to scroll through it all the time. Even though you know that it’s definitely not good to keep watching TikTok, you just can’t quit it.

There is a saying that goes, even if you have heard a lot of truths, you still can’t live a good life. Knowing does not necessarily mean doing. There is a huge difference between knowing and doing.

Especially when you understand the addiction mechanism of Douyin, you will understand how easy it is to quit Douyin? For most people, the best way to quit TikTok is to uninstall it.

I would like to advise everyone here not to try to challenge human nature. At the beginning we all thought we could defeat human nature, but in the end we were all defeated by human nature.

Author: Product Wanger

Source: Product Wanger