Factors Contributing to Youth’s Exposure to Mental Health Misinformation on TikTok During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

There is an increasing number of youth having access to smartphones and technology, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic (McClain, 2022). Social media, such as TikTok, grew exponentially during the pandemic alongside increased postings of mental health content. As the majority of TikTok users are young people, this paper examines the question: “what factors have contributed most to the increase in the use of potentially misleading online mental health information among youth during the COVID-19 pandemic?”. Reviewing previous research, this paper mainly applies descriptive and evaluation analysis to study the factors that prompted youth to seek mental health information on TikTok. This paper argues that barriers to mental health care and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic have led young people to turn to TikTok for mental health information, in turn leading to youth to be more exposed to misinformation. This paper calls for improvements in mental health care accessibility for youth and identifies the root causes of increased misinformation exposure on TikTok. The increased mental health discussions that took place through TikTok should continue but it is imperative to explore ways to prevent information from overflowing and being unreliable for the users.