Evaluating the Effects of TikTok on User Satisfaction and Innovation

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Evaluating the Effects of TikTok on User Satisfaction and Innovation
TikTok is the leading application for video-sharing short video content on social media platforms (Shcwedel). In April 2020, TikTok has been downloaded for over 2 billion times where TikTok’s management reported about 800 million active monthly users that share their content worldwide where each user spends an average of 52 minutes daily in the app (“TikTok Statistics—Updated April 2020”). There are many short video sharing apps in the market even before TikTok was launched. Although TikTok was relatively new compared to other video sharing apps, TikTok occupied a huge market share at a quick rate (Shcwedel). TikTok was previously named Musical.ly but was rebranded when Musical.ly was purchased by the company ByteDance in August 2018. After Musical.ly’s rebranding, TikTok gained massive success that allows users to post from 15-seconds up to 1-minute long videos (Holland). Most of the popular content created by its users include lip-syncs and dancing. Capturing these activities in the app produces a sense of awe, inspiration and humor that keeps the users wanting more. As a result, TikTok users unleash a surge of creativity unique in the platform (Holland).
Understanding the effects of TikTok to a person can reveal many possibilities for improving user experience and integrating them in different fields other than entertainment. This project aims to study how using TikTok satisfies the user's psychological needs that led to their loyalty or addiction to the platform and the applications of TikTok to different fields other than entertainment.
TikTok’s Oddly Satisfying Videos
TikTok contributes to the rising genre of entertainment called "satisfying videos" where video creators and viewers find events of a video to be fulfilling (Bresnick 8). The effect of watching these oddly satisfying videos creates a light but hypnotizing appeal to the viewers that decreases stress (Matchar). In the study of Bresnick, he emphasized that TikTok videos alleviate feelings of anxiety and help the viewers stay focused in the moment (10). As a result, the users of TikTok are highly motivated to produce multiple videos per day which can lead to TikTok addiction and a decrease in productivity in other important activities such as studying (Ma et al. 5). Understanding the psychological satisfaction that TikTok gives to its users is important to know why people are highly engaged in the application. According to the study of Ma, Feng, Feng, and Wang, the revealed that loyalty of TikTok users is because of the application's way of gratifying the people’s needs. In general, TikTok users have high satisfaction in terms of entertainment value, perceived usefulness, ease of use, programmed algorithm, internet meme usage and social value that contributes to the addiction to the app.
User Satisfaction in Entertainment
Entertainment value is the perception of a person related to enjoyment, fun and leisure from a certain activity (Ma et al. 2). In TikTok, a person can spend hours watching short videos that grab their interest. A person can find these videos to have high entertainment value as people are more willing to spend more time creating and watching TikTok videos rather than enforcing other activities that are more productive (2).
TikTok users can 15-second to 1-minute long activities in every video. Because TikTok videos are short and entertaining, this short video feature appeals to the short attention span of people that averages from only 8 to 12 seconds (Khan). The videos are not boring to watch and people are creative in packing huge content in a short amount of time. Unlike other social media networks, TikTok forces its users to generate creative content that liberates the people, especially the younger generation, in doing visual styles, narratives, and activities (Bresnick). Overall, the entertainment value of TikTok is the main reason why many people worldwide are using the app in generating original content online (Ma et al. 5)
User Satisfaction in Perceived Usefulness
Perceived usefulness is the perception of a person about using a product or doing an activity or system to be beneficial in enhancing a person's performance (Ma et al. 2). Users perceive the activity to improve their skills. In most videos, people use TikTok to present their dance choreography, singing, theatrics and other activities. Because TikTok is satisfying to use, people are more likely to upload their activities where every upload means extra time for practice for their improvement. 
The people utilize the growth mindset that TikTok helps in polishing their skills (Ma et al. 2). The people can link TikTok with their craft as a form of motivation. The short video feature of TikTok also helps a user's improvement since fragmented uploading means more practice. The uploader of a TikTok video can gather feedback from the viewers to see which part of the choreography or activity needs to be improved or retained. 
Watching TikTok videos can also create an opportunity for viewers to learn from other people’s activities. The viewers can integrate their activity with another to create original content. The viewers can outsource which activities are trending to produce artistic audiovisual remixing of online content (Bresnick). Therefore, people feel satisfied just thinking about the perceived usefulness of creating TikTok videos.
 
User Satisfaction in Social Value
Social value is the perception of a person's level of importance in interpersonal communication and social promotion of an activity (Ma et al. 2). Because humans are social animals, improving social values create a sense of power over other people. People with high social value can attract, lead or even define trending activities where other people are willing to agree to their point of view (Hoffman). 
In TikTok, video creators have the chance of improving their social value and influence others. As the content is favored by the viewers, the video creator gains authority in a certain field (Hoffman). For example, a massive number of likes and reaction to TikTok users that posts dance choreography online justifies their ability as above than anyone else. Because the majority of the people are not experts in the field of dancing, their video is agreed upon by the majority as “good” because of the influence of positive reactions. 
However, acquiring a large number of likes and positive reactions is not limited to skill. There are other factors such as the perceived attractiveness of the person, who created the video, that overshadows skill (Talamas, Mavor, & Perrett 1). This is the attractiveness bias where people are blinded by the physical cues of a person. TikTok video creators often have attractive facial features and body attributes. Regardless of how they project themselves in the video, the viewers see their activity as “good.” The viewers are biased to misjudge beauty with performance as an accurate representation of their skill (Talamas, Mavor, & Perrett 1). As a result, the social value of users improves for every TikTok video.
User Satisfaction in TikTok Algorithm
TikTok users consume the application's content without noticing their watch time. After watching one video, TikTok users are presented with another recommended video that the user may be interested in watching. The average TikTok viewer unconsciously watches more videos than they planned. This is because TikTok is good at recommending which videos to watch next. TikTok technology uses artificial intelligence to analyze the content to recommend which viewers would be most interested in watching the videos (Keynejad). As an estimate, TikTok focuses on the type of video content that the viewers liked, commented, shared, re-watched and completed for the application to search for videos with similar content (Keynejad). This crowd filtering technology serves the viewers the most interesting content possible while the video creators are empowered by the fan base generated by the app.
           However, because the algorithm needs the user to grant permission to the application in accessing personal data and information, the TikTok platform has several security risks when it comes to cybersecurity (Bunker 3). The US Navy even prevented its personnel from using TikTok and delete the application if downloaded. The company that owns TikTok can access government technology networks which can threaten government defenses (4).
User Satisfaction in Ease of Use
Ease of Use is the perception of a person to navigate a particular system with minimal effort. (Ma et al. 2). Other video sharing applications such as YouTube and Vimeo need more preparation in uploading video content. Uploading videos on YouTube is harder for newcomers. YouTube content requires a higher level of production because the current video expectations in the app are high (Davie). Video creators have a hard time making the content of their videos as well as finding a fanbase that will watch it (Davie). Although YouTube creators can upload longer videos with promotional advertisements, the platform is not friendly to the video creators.
Unlike YouTube, TikTok’s user experience engages easily creating and uploading of videos. The algorithm makes it easy for creators to create a fan base or reach the target demographic than YouTube. Videos are considered high quality and require less budget than YouTube videos (Davie).
User Satisfaction on Meme Usage
According to Richard Dawkins, a meme is a communication component that transfers cultural ideas, symbols or practices from one mind to another (Graham 196). However, in this context, the particular meme that satisfies TikTok users is the internet meme that consists of shareable content with sarcastic humor, enjoyable concepts and trending ideas that spreads on the internet through social media. Internet memes are viral in the internet culture which continuously c...