‘I Can Spend Forever on It Without Getting Bored’: Analyzing What College Students Like and Dislike About TikTok

Abstract

TikTok is a top-rated social media app used by U.S. college students, so understanding what users like and dislike about the platform is an important endeavour for contemporary media and communication scholars. To investigate such perceptions, 468 college students completed an online survey about their likes and dislikes associated with TikTok. In total, 13 unique themes emerged for likes and dislikes, respectively. The like themes included humorous content, variety/diversity of content, being entertained, community educational content, algorithm/personalisation, user interface, TikTok culture/references, short video content, creative outlet, emotion/stress management, relatable content and trending content. The dislike themes were addictive nature, negative interactions, uninteresting content, influencers/attention-seeking, cancel culture/platform drama, privacy concerns/fake news, negative emotions/mental state, revealing content (nudity), political content, TikTok platform guidelines, app functionality, advertisements and trending content. Results revealed college students’ perceptions of TikTok’s most likeable and unlikeable characteristics and users’ satisfaction with TikTok compared to other social media platforms. Implications for these findings are discussed.