Habit-Forming Analysis of TikTok and Instagram

Habit-Forming Analysis of TikTok and Instagram
Name
Institution
Habit-Forming Analysis of TikTok and Instagram
The success and sustainability of products in many industries depend on how addictive they are to users. Thus, companies have focused on designing products that not only capture the attention of users but also create habits that the user adopts effortlessly (Eyal, 2014). This paper analyzes the habit-forming nature of TikTok and Instagram by focusing on the triggers, action, reward, and investment aspects.
TikTok
TikTok is an online short-form mobile video app that allows users to create short creative videos and share them with the world (TikTok, n.d.). It has gained much popularity since it was first launched and has become one of the top free apps downloaded on the App Store. The analysis of its habit-forming nature is as follows:
Internal Trigger
TikTok allows people to share silly and funny short videos with the world. The internal trigger for users is thus the deep need to sing and act as a way of enjoying their favorite music. Through TikTok short videos, users can participate in lip-sync battles which is a fun way of enjoying music with their friends. Also, when users are feeling frustrated or sad, they go on TikTok to look at the funniest videos so that they can lighten up their mood. Thus, the internal triggers are their feelings.
External Triggers
TikTok has utilized both paid and earned external triggers. The app used YouTube ad Campaign to capture the attention of users. Eyal (2014) refers to this as paid triggers which are used by companies to acquire first-time product users. When TikTok was first launched in the U.S, it received some favorable press mention, more so from Jimmy Fallon who requested his viewers of The Tonight Show to participate in some challenge and then share the videos on TikTok. The triggers associated with the use of media to campaign for a product are referred to as earned triggers (Eyal, 2014). As a result of Jimmy Fallon’s request, more people became aware of TikTok and were triggered to explore the app.
Action
The ability to use the TikTok app is high because unlike many apps, once the app is installed on the smartphone, the user does not need to create an account. The ease of accessing the shared videos gives a user high motivation to continue with the action of clicking on to the next video.
Reward
Once the user is on TikTok, they can view all videos and can even classify them based on the trending hashtag. Further, the use is also provided with a variety of other short videos that are referred to as “for you.” This ensures that the user will always come back to the app to see what more videos have been suggested for them. What the user is looking for in TikTok is the promised funny and entertaining videos. Given that there is new music being released every day, users will always have something to look forward to in TikTok.
Investment
The videos shared by TikTok users are an investment because users are enhancing their skills in content creation. In addition, each video created and posted on TikTok is an investment because the user is trying to increase their follower by sharing interesting content. In return, the user ends up increasing the ratings of their account and can, therefore, be recommended to other users. This is especially important for those users who are interested in increasing their audience and become popular.
Instagram
Instagram is a social networking site that allows users to share videos and photos. The following is the analysis of the habit-forming nature of the social site.
Internal Trigger
The internal trigger for Instagram users is the need for social connection. Instagram users normally check the lifestyles of the people they follow, most of whom are popular public figures, and by emulating their style and way of life, they feel connected to them. Further, people sometimes feel the need to update their followers on how their day was and to do so; users post stories, videos, and photos on Instagram. In other times, people are looking for validation. Thus, they post a photo, and the number of likes and positive comments they receive gives them much-needed validation.
External Triggers
Instagram currently uses relationship triggers to encourage habit-forming patterns. It involves referrals made by product users to people in their circle (Eyal, 2014). The use of invitation has been used for a long time where users click an invite button to invite contacts on their phonebook who are currently using Instagram. A majority of the users are motivated to “invite friends” to join Instagram so that they can increase their number of followers. Thus, once a person receives an e-mail from a friend inviting them to join Instagram, they ...