The Tick of the Clock. TikTok, Mass Distraction and Responsibility

Vojin Saša Vukadinovic, University of Paderborn

Among the Newer Social Media, the Chinese app TikTok has achieved an unprecedented global triumph. By 2020, it had already been downloaded more than two billion times, with 150 million active users in Europe and almost 170 million in the USA in 2023, furthermore enjoying a disproportionately high level of popularity among Generation Z users. The announcement of a ban due to national security concerns in the USA was followed by a debate about the sense and purpose of such state intervention in early 2025. However, the social, psychological and political implications of the AI-supported app are still perceived as far less pressing concerns. In particular, TikTok has popularized so-called “reels,” short clips that subsequently found their way onto Instagram, YouTube, etc., shortening the attention span of adolescents while allegedly advancing patterns of addiction. Scientists are by now referring to the “TikTok brain,” a devolving mind that loses its capacity for complexity and continuity due to the app’s video format, which often features clips that are merely 15 seconds long, seconded by the AI-based algorithm that distorts thinking. This phenomenon is not only a medical, but also as a sociological problem: It is evident that the technical innovation of this app is shaking up some anthropological constants, the consequences of which cannot yet be assessed due to the young age of many of its users. The presentation will ask what responsibility possibly could be in the face of such a global, mobile and digital mass sensation with a contingent outcome.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 40. "For You": Ethics, Literacy, and Responsibility in AI and Newer Social Media