The TikTok algorithm is designed to capture attention with every view and swipe, creating a highly personalized experience that encourages continued use. While engaging, this personalization can lead to increased usage and reported distress among users.

From Casual to Power User: The Algorithm's Grip

A recent account details how TikTok transforms casual users into “power” users. Casual users open the app occasionally, while power users spend several hours a day across multiple sessions. Data from over 800 TikTok users – both casual and power – was voluntarily shared for this analysis.

Tracking Usage: A Rapid Shift in Habits

Researchers tracked how much time users spent viewing videos and how long they watched each video before swiping. Within one week, casual users increased their daily app time from 32 to 45 minutes and opened the app more frequently. After one month, 75% of those starting at 30 minutes a day were spending more than twice that amount on the app.

Over several months, daily scrolling time increased to 70 minutes, with some users tripling or quadrupling their usage. After five months, casual users opened the app 8 times daily, while power users opened it 20 times. Both groups also increased their swiping speed.

How the Algorithm Works

TikTok’s algorithm learns from user behavior – viewing habits and swiping patterns. Internal documents from a lawsuit suggest it can take as little as 260 videos (around 35 minutes) to establish a habit. This rapid learning allows the algorithm to deliver hyper-personalized content.

Users may believe they control their content, but this is largely an illusion. Every swipe, view, and duration feeds the algorithm, shaping content based on interests, preferences, beliefs, and even grievances. The algorithm may, in some ways, know users better than they know themselves.

The Impact on Users

Users transitioning to power use described a range of experiences. Some feel a lack of control over their usage once they open the app. Others report feeling disconnected from reality, with time seeming to disappear. Some describe feeling hollowed out and detached from themselves, finding that the app expands rather than fills emptiness.

Many feel untethered from their lives and reality, lost in a highly engineered cyberspace. The algorithm doesn’t just lose users within it; it actively shapes new versions of the self.

TikTok as the Modern Siren

TikTok is likened to the sirens of Greek mythology, who lured sailors to their deaths with enchanting songs. Like the sirens who knew the captain’s desires, TikTok’s algorithm delivers hyper-personalized content. Odysseus famously had his crew tie him to the mast to resist the sirens’ call.

Resisting the Algorithm's Pull

For casual users, limiting time through external constraints – timers, phone placement, viewing logs, and social support – is crucial. Power users face a greater challenge, requiring recognition of harmful patterns and a willingness to change.

Strategies include quitting “cold turkey” or adopting a harm-reduction approach with time limits and usage rules. Crucially, both groups benefit from support in building new habits and finding fulfilling activities. Users can reclaim lost aspects of themselves and redefine themselves outside the algorithm’s influence.