How is LC4MP Accurately Portrayed in TikTok Usage?

According to an online survey that took place in 2019, TikTok was recorded as the most downloaded app with over 1.5 billion downloads, and since then it has increased exponentially. Now short videos have gained popularity, and other platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook have created “shorts” that mimic TikTok videos, making this type of content easier to access.

In 2021, a study was conducted of 208 young adults from China, aged 17-31, with varying TikTok usage from none, minimal, moderate, and excessive. They were required to partake in a two separate questionnaires titled as Problematic TikTok use and Brief self-control scale. At the time of the experiment, all participants were users of the app, and the goal was to determine why it’s so easy to overconsume short videos that cater to a person’s interests.

The Problematic TikTok use (PTU) questionnaire measures internet addiction to rank each participant’s excessive use and lack of control while using the app, as well as how it affects daily life outside of usage including neglecting work and their social lives. In short, the PTU scores had questions about these topics and the participants ranked their answers on a scale of 1-5, with 1 one being the of their concerns, and 5 being the highest. Overall, the higher one’s score was, the lower their self-control was when consuming short videos.

The conclusion of the study showed that there was a positive correlation between the amount of time spent on TikTok and PTU score, meaning that the more one uses TikTok, the less self-control they had when it came to putting their phone.

74 of the participants who scored below 39 were self-controlled using the app, 70 who scored between 40-69 had mild self-control issues, and the 9 that scored above 69 had the smallest amount of self-restraint when viewing TikTok videos (Su et al., 2021).

Comparing this back to the theory of LC4MP and how the app impairs memory processing, the appetitive motivation system is constantly being fired. Also, the slow encoding of rigid association has made it so the participants try to prolong the positive association for as long as possible, turning the short videos into an addiction.