“Y’all are getting too comfy on this app” – Is Tiktok the app of oversharing?
Alaina Salas
POV: you open Tiktok first thing in the morning after snoozing your alarm. You get four scrolls into the for-you-page and you hear a girl on the screen say, “Guys I have a confession. I’ve never told anyone this.” The first thing that comes to mind is “then why on earth are you telling all of Tiktok?” We talked in the last blog about how social media users tend to be more conservative and cautious with the information they share on Linkedin in order to create a positive image of themselves; well, Tiktok is just the opposite. You can expect to close out of TikTok knowing a lot more about a lot of people than you did when you opened the app, but why?
You wouldn’t go on Instagram and share your deepest darkest secrets with your followers, so why is TIktok so different? The amount of people that would become co-owners of your personal information, especially if you have a video go unexpectedly viral, has the potential to exponentially surpass the amount of potential co-owners on your Facebook page. So, what makes Tiktok the app that doesn’t violate users’ privacy boundary rules? What if I told you that it was exactly this potential for a wide audience of co-owners that encourages people to overshare? Let’s discuss why Tiktok is the app of oversharing and what about the app makes it that way.
First, the large audience on TikTok is a green light for disclosure. Social media users sometimes share more personal things on the popular short-form-video platform specifically because of the possibility of a larger audience and going viral. The idea of being seen is precisely what spurs many small creators into posting regularly. Despite the potential large audience, “[users] still feel comfortable [self disclosing] on TikTok social media. This is because according to them other TikTok users are not judgmental like other social media and people in here tend to be open-minded” (Claresta et al., 2021, pg.804). Because of the way that the Tiktok algorithm works, videos show up on the for-you-pages of those with similar interests. As a result, creators and their audiences often have a lot in common, allowing the users to feel confident that they will receive comments from at least some like-minded people. This assurance encourages creators to disclose their information with less risk of judgment. In the same way that people living with eating disorders (PLWED) turned to pro-ana websites to discuss their eating disorder identities with people who share the same mindset, (Herrman and Tenzek, 2017) creators on Tiktok often feel comfortable sharing on Tiktok with the confidence that they will receive praise from similar people. By this knowledge, we can see that our privacy boundary rules are not threatened by the potential for a large amount of co-owners of our information if we are sharing that information with a group of people who hold the same interests and values.
Another reason for the mass sharing of personal information on Tiktok is the dyadic effect. According to Claresta et al. (2021), the self-disclosure of others on Tiktok encourages users to share as well. In other words, we are comfortable sharing our personal information because everyone else is doing it. Because other users are comfortable allowing the TIktok public to be co-owners of their personal information, we feel that our Tiktok audience must be trustworthy enough for our information as well. This sharing expands across all aspects of the platform from video sharing, likes, and commenting. Imagine scrolling through your for you page and thinking something negative about the video you just watched. You hesitate to comment your negative thoughts because your privacy boundaries lead you to avoid disclosing information that could paint you as a negative person. However, when you open the comments, you see 10 other people have said the same thing you were thinking. Suddenly, you no longer feel bad for your negative thoughts and proceed to agree with the other users in the comment section. This phenomenon encourages users to share their information, but the outcomes of oversharing on TIktok can be both positive and negative.
For example,Tiktok and the sharing of personal information has allowed for many people struggling with different mental or physical conditions, traumas, and bad situations to connect with one another and feel a sense of community where they otherwise might feel alone and separated from the general population. That being said, abruptly oversharing traumatic experiences without consent of the receiver of that message is called “trauma dumping,” and can have negative repercussions (Ruiz, 2021). Trauma dumping on Tiktok is -dare I say- common practice, you can find at least one person sharing a deep regret, trauma, or confession at least a few times every time you scroll through that for you page, but we hardly ever stop to think about our audience’s responses before we post. In CPM, disclosing to people who are not necessarily ready to receive and handle traumatic disclosures or secrets makes that person a reluctant confidant, and can actually feel traumatized by the disclosure. For this reason, it is extremely important to utilize our privacy boundary rules when considering what we post on Tiktok.
Whether it be a crazy sex story, a revenge-on-your-ex confession, or traumatic experience, videos that include oversharing are definitely not few and far between on TIktok. These types of disclosures are really only found on Tiktok apart from very exclusive fake accounts such as a Finsta (as discussed in blog 2), and can be both interesting and uncomfortable. While most would assume to save huge confessions for the Finsta or the private story, it seems fitting that users would also turn to Tiktok for public disclosures on the only social media platform so large that their confession can get lost in the noise. “Do it for the clout” claims a whole new meaning on TIktok.
Work Cited
Claresta, H., & Tamburian, D. (2021). Self-disclosure of adolescent girls on TikTok Social Media. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210805.126
Herrman, A. R., & Tenzek, K. E. (2017). Communication Privacy Management: A Thematic Analysis of Revealing and Concealing Eating Disorders in an Online Community. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 18(1), 54–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/17459435.2017.1294617
Ruiz, R. (2021, December 1). What we can all learn from ‘trauma dumping’ online. mashable.com. Retrieved May 9, 2022, from https://mashable.com/article/what-is-trauma-dumping
