Social media platform TikTok is paying more attention to digital wellbeing by launching tools that help users manage the time they spend on the platform.
TikTok’s new tools will let users limit the time they spend on the entertainment platform in a single sitting and enable regular screen time breaks.
“The new features are in line with TikTok’s goal to promote a safe and positive experience for all its users and ensure that the entertainment platform is equipped to offer the best possible viewing choices for the TikTok community,” a statement from the company said.
Research has linked long hours spent on social media with anxiety and depression, especially in teenagers. Some other social media platforms, like Instagram, have similar features that warn users when they’ve spent a certain amount of time on the platform.
“It’s already widely known what the negative mental and physical effects are of screen-time-overuse. So, in my eyes, the first step to helping your kids find the right balance is to get yourselves better disciplined with screen time as well, model it, and put in the initial and ongoing effort to engage physically with your kids. The quality of your relationship with them is key,” said Dr. Lamar Kanafani, MA LMFT licensed marriage and family therapist and supervisor.
According to Global Media Insight, the average daily time spent on the internet in the UAE is 7 hours and 24 minutes per person.
The new screen time dashboard will give TikTok’s creative community data about how much time they are spending on the platform, with summaries on the daily time they’re spending using the platform, the number of times they opened the app, and a breakdown of daytime and night-time usage available at all times. Users can also opt for weekly notifications to review their dashboard and monitor the time spent in a single sitting.
