What makes TikTok so addictive?

This is a Wiser! Essay: TikTok is the most addictive platform on Social Media. Leaked documents reveal the how and why.

“We’re the product. Our attention is the product being sold to advertisers.” Justin Rosenstein (The Social Dilemma)

The science and purpose behind TikTok’s algorithms have been revealed in a leaked document shown to the New York Times.

TikTok now has a billion active users every month and is, IMHO, the most addictive of all the social media platforms. If you’ve never been on TikTok, it serves up an endless stream of very short videos ( max length is 3 mins, but the majority are less than 1 min). The algorithms figure out your preferences within a very short period of time because of the intensity of signals they capture in a concentrated period.

Think of it like this…when you listen to Spotify or watch Netflix, it takes hours of attention before the platform figures out that you like soul or Succession. But with TikTok, it takes 15 to 20 minutes before the app knows your musical, political and sexual tastes, even your state of mind.

The leaked document shown to the NY Times explains how the pursuit of the company’s “ ultimate goal” of adding daily active users, it has chosen to optimize for two closely related metrics in the stream of videos it serves: “ retention” ( whether a user comes back) and “ time spent.” The app wants to keep you there as long as…