TikTok is a social media platform consisting of short user-generated videos. The popularity and addictiveness of this app calls for understanding whether and how TikTok usage affects the academic experience of our youth. The present study seeks to confirm that prolonged TikTok use is associated with self-reported inattentive experience. Additionally, the study collected both behavioral and electroencephalogram (EEG) data during a selective attention task, to evaluate if the self-reported attention deficit experience can be confirmed by their behavioral and neurological experience. By looking at these factors, this study explores the underlying relationship between observed academic struggles and active TikTok use.

Student participants signed up from the CCNY SONA pool. Four surveys, including the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale, the adult ADHD self-report scale, a TikTok modified version of the Social Media Use Questionnaire, and demographics survey were used. Participants were divided into either the low TikTok or high TikTok group based on their TikTok usage. Participants then performed a modified Flanker Task while an electroencephalogram (EEG) with 160 electrodes evenly distributed recorded.

Our study plans to run a correlation analysis between the amount of TikTok use and self-reported ADHD experience. We also plan to analyze the EEG data collected, and compare event-related potentials (ERPs) among participants who were high and low TikTok users. Specific ERP P1 and N170 in response to the target will be used to evaluate if more brain activities would be seen among the high TikTok user group during the attention task. Both ERPs have been commonly used to indicate neural reactivity in the process of attention processing. By looking at these two ERPs, our study hopes to explore if there’s potential evidence that the brain may be working more than usual to achieve a similar attention function due to cognitive impairment from prolonged TikTok use.