Why TikTok's FYP is the Smartest Concept (and ruined my life)
Weekly Opinion Piece
The average person spends over 1.5 hours a day on TikTok.
In that time, you could have watched films such as ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, ‘Borat’ or ‘Toy Story’.
The For You Page (FYP) vs the Homepage:
To understand the genius of the FYP, we must first look to Instagram.
First and foremost, lets not diminish the power Instagram holds as a social media platform, but with its average user only spending 29 minutes per day on the photo-sharing app, it is dwarfed by the addictiveness of TikTok.
So, this raises the leading question: does the FYP really carry TikTok’s screen time average?
The Power of the Algorithim
When you open Instagram, you are greeted by the (arguably) latest posts from the accounts you follow. Your friends European holiday photo dumps, a bunch of memes, and some morbid news probably. Fun! But also…kinda boring after a while. If you’re a chroncic scroller, you might even make it all the way too:
When you open TikTok, you are greated by (arguably, often) the most random video based on your like pattern and what’s trending. A few scrolls in and the odds of you finding a video from someone you follow is still low. Everything is new, unending, content. With our devolving attention spans, the ability to scroll endlessly and never run out of content, that ALSO fits your favourite brand of consumable content without running out, is like what Bella was to Edward:
RIP the iPad Kid Era
“People crave micro-entertainment and short bursts of video distraction”
Eating dinner? Waiting for you train? Bored on the toilet? It’s practically instict to watch a few dozen TikToks.
Back in the day, it used to be YouTube. Then Netflix. But they both pose the same problem.
Picking what to watch.
There’s 6000+ series on Netflix + 800 million videos on YouTube AND the annual problem of our generation is deciding which one to watch with dinner.
[I hope you read this to the tune of Phineas and Ferb, just remix it to fit]
So, when the indecision hits, it is common practice to ditch the long-form videos and get your quick fix on TikTok.
Let’s. Get. Personal.
What prompted me to write about this?
Just over a week ago, I abandoned my studying for a ‘quick’ study break and slouched uncomfortably on my bed. A quick tiktok break was in order. I scrolled for a bit, laughed a lot, spammed my friends with a beautifly curated assortment of videos they’d like, and wondered why my neck was cramping so bad. And why my back hurt a bit. And why my room was darker.
3 hours had passed.
3 hours I could have spent studying, eating dinner, playing with my dog, taking a shower, and still have leftover time.
It. Freaked. Me. Out.
I checked my screentime and was reasonably horrified by the regualar 8hr time stamps. I spent a minimum of 8 hours asleep, add that to my 8 hour screen time and that’s 16 hours of my day gone, leaving me with 8 hours.
[888??? Angel Numbers are you real??? Please don’t take me seriously people]
My daily routine:
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner = 1hr total? (cereal, sandwich, noodles, the holy trinity of college meals)
Daily commuting = 2hrs roughly (maybe if I actually knew the train schedule, it could be shorter)
Classes = +-4 hours
Walk my dog = 45min (min)
Total = 7 hours
That means that I was left with 15 minutes to do, well anything really. I also didn’t factor for showering, brushing my teeth, thinking about what I’m going to wear, changing my mind, trying to put of high-top converse on (that’s at least a 5min battle).
So yeah, me freaking out was pretty reasonable.
I turned to the wisest sages at my disposal for help with reclaiming all this time back: The Girlies Group Chat.
Thanks to the HabitShare App and friends who were just as eager to kick some bad habits to the curb, I am on a mission to keep my screen time below 4 hours. And I’ve been doing pretty good so far.
[I’ve almost finished reading an entire book for the first time in almost a year, this is huge guys, I have so much time to be a normal 22 year old teenage girl]
Addressing the Clickbait in my title:
On a more serious note, for once, it was truly jarring to see how much of time I was wasting on TikTok, and how that was negatively effecting my routine, mood, productivity, and ability to meet deadlines before 23h59, AKA the last minute. I truly could not see how much my absentminded addiction to ‘quick’ TikTok breaks was setting me back everyday. Maybe I’m still in that sweet spot honey moon period, maybe HabitShare has benefited my Type A tendancies, but I’ve genuinely seen an improvement in my ability to get things done now that I’ve reduced my time on TikTok so severely. It’s almost like…I have reduced mental fatigue…or something…
All this self-reflecting on my time spent on my phone had me thinking about why I was spending so much time on TikTok when I’m notoriously known for loving YouTube and being up-to-date with everyone’s Instagram posts.
It was my FYP. Simple.
I follow 498 people on TikTok (okay, insane), and do I ever go to the Following tab? Nope.
The only time I free myself from the clutches of the FYP is to see what my barely active friends posted. And then I’m back on the FYP, sucked into the algorithm’s curated void.
The FYP proved a worthy adversary of being my go to place for entertainment, distraction, and doom scrolling but now, thanks to the power of friendship and self-control, I use my knowledge of the addictivity of TikTok to try free myself from its clutches.
And so, I am of the genius opinion that TikTok's FYP is the Smartest Concept. Even if it did ruin my life for a minute there (not to be dramatic).
___
Thank you for reading this far.
This is Ray, signing out.
“Distracted from distraction by distraction”
TS Elliot
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