Social Media User Empowerment (SMUE) for TikTok Algorithms

Youth deserve to control what they see on social media. As social media has a detrimental impact on youth mental health and well-being, I am proposing the following interface changes for social media algorithms. The following User Interface design change has been created for TikTok. However, this design change could be implemented for any social media platform.

The design suggestion is as follows. A pop-up would be shown on TikTok as soon as users open the app. Users may also change this in their settings.

The text in the pop-up would be as follows:

You deserve to choose what you see on TikTok.

Customize your algorithm for you.

• Entertainment

• Community and Connection

• Education and Personal Development

A wireframe mockup of this design is shown below.

Implementing this social media design change to platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram would allow users to have greater agency and control over what they see.

Given that passive social media use has been linked to decreased levels of well-being in adolescents and young adults, it is critical in this time period that we implement design changes in social media to prevent negative health outcomes that result from prolonged and problematic social media use.¹⁻²

Furthermore, conceptualizations of social media use from the lens of social media user empowerment (SMUE) allow for us to move forward in the conversation about the deletorious impact of active and passive social media use by naming the aspect of design that may be responsible for an underlying process for the link between passive social media use and decreased well-being.

Adrian Meier and Hannes-Vincent Krause have referred to the active/passive dichotomy for social media use as "too simplistic and conceptually fuzzy".⁵ Thus, active/passive social media use is a conceptulization that is far too coarse. An understanding of the impact of social media user empowerment (SMUE) with regard to this dichotomy allow us to further untangle this process.

SMUE is inherently present in active social media use, which has been repeatedly observed to either not impact well-being, or to improve it. On the other hand, passive social media use has repeatedly been linked to reduced levels of well-being and mental health problems.¹⁻⁴ Passive social media use has repeatedly been linked to greater amounts of spent time on social media and problematic use. Given that passive social media use is dominated by the presence of an infinite scroll and social media algorithm, one may observe that passive social media use has lower levels of SMUE.

One may quantify levels of SMUE through a user-facing or interface-based measure. Such conceptualizations have been described by me and can be found here (user-facing measure) and here (interface-based measure).

Further cyberpsychology research should examine specific aspects of user interface design and how they impact human psychology. Some examples include user empowerment, the infinite scroll, and further examinations of the content users are exposd to on social media.

References:

1. Active and passive social media use and symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood among Icelandic adolescents. In Journal of Cyberpsychology, Behaviour, and Social Networking. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2019.0079

2. Passive Facebook usage undermines affective well-being: Experimental and longitudinal evidence. In Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000057

3. Do social network sites enhance or undermine subjective well‐being? A critical review. In Social Issues and Policy Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12033

4. The impact of social media use types and social media addiction on subjective well-being of college students: A comparative analysis of addicted and non-addicted students. In Computers in Human Behavior Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100122

5. Does passive social media use harm well-being? An adversarial review. In Journal of Media Psychology Theories Methods and Applications. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000358