Delete TikTok if You Want to Be Successful

There’s no reason for a grown adult to have it installed on their phone.

Successful people don’t watch TikTok, just like athletes don’t eat fast food.

They’ll both give you a cheap hit of dopamine, but at a huge long-term cost.

Consumption of rapid short-form content will ruin your attention span. It reprograms your brain to expect new stimulation every few seconds, making it almost impossible to engage in deep work.

You’ll find it tougher to read a book if you’re too used to being entertained by TikTok. In fact, you’ll struggle to consume or produce anything meaningful, because you’re so used to constant stimulus.

You might find it more difficult to be happy too.

Studies show that overconsumption of hyper-stimulating online content can damage your dopamine receptors, meaning it’ll take more to bring joy to your everyday life.

This data was published in a fascinating book called The Shallows: What The Internet Does To Our Brain by Nicholas Carr.

Other Social Media Companies Are Just As Bad

TikTok is the worst culprit for dumbing down its users, but other social networks are leaning into this frightening trend.

Any serious Instagram user will have noticed that its algorithm is pushing ‘Reels’ to the moon.

Meanwhile, my YouTube Shorts are attracting up to 50 times more views than my longer YouTube videos. I’m surely not the only one.

All three apps utilize the ‘death scroll’ design that sucks users into a rabbit hole of addictive (but ultimately useless) content.

Let’s hope Medium remains a platform that rewards high-quality articles and the people who create them.

Should Creators Focus On Short-Form Or High-Quality Content?

This trend might present a moral dilemma for some content creators.

Should they take the shortcut and create low-effort content that attracts a ton of views? Or focus on adding value to their audience’s lives, knowing they’ll reach less people by doing so?

The simple answer is: do both.

Attract new eyeballs using ‘fast food’ content, then nurture them with useful high-quality videos.

That’s where the real money is, after all.

Your 30-second videos might attract viewers and subscribers, but they’re unlikely to persuade anyone to buy from you (unless you’re an OnlyFans ‘creator’ fishing for simps).

As of now, TikTok remains the toughest platform to monetize, so there really is no reason for a grown adult to have it installed on their phone.

If you’re hoping to send TikTokers to follow your other social channels, hire a virtual assistant to upload content for you.

This way, you’ll avoid getting sucked into ruining your brain with other people’s garbage.

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