Toxic TikTok: TikTok can be toxic for your mental health and body image

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve scrolled through my TikTok For You page and wound up on a video of a pencil-thin model. I stumble across the comment section that’s full of comments like, “I’ll take this as a sign to not eat today” and, “I would do anything to have your body” and I quickly start thinking the same thoughts. 

With influencers posting “What I Eat in a Day” videos with tiny portions not fit to sustain a healthy adult and haters commenting on young girls’ fun videos about how they need to lose weight or they don’t look like the “pretty girls,” Tik Tok became a toxic app. These types of videos are so easy to get across to young impressionable girls who want to look like their favorite influencer and romanticize not eating enough. As I scroll down my For You page, I’m appalled by the amount of harsh criticism I see from others onto young girls. The criticism on body types similar to mine makes me wonder if I need to lose weight and change myself to fit these standards.

The “What I Eat in a Day” videos are one of the worst trends on the app. Creators with a large following show small portions of food claiming that it’s all they eat in 24 hours. After constantly seeing these videos I go to the kitchen for dinner and question whether I should have that second serving of pasta or not.  

Another toxic part of TikTok is the body-shaming videos. The amount of times I’ve seen people duet a video of someone just to make fun of their body or body shame someone in the comments is sickening. Most of the time the video is of a teenager doing a harmless dance that ends up with thousands of hateful comments.

Unfortunately these mentally destructive videos are extremely hard to escape from. I’ve clicked the “not interested” button more times than I can count, but they still keep showing up on my For You page. Whether the people watching struggle with body image or not, the destructive beauty standards are hard to watch on an everyday basis. The ideal body that so many of these creators are looked up for makes me feel like I’m not good enough, and sparks conversation between my friends and I describing our “dream” body. 

The most heart-wrenching comments are when people make fat jokes and tell 13-year-old girls they should eat less or work out more. There’s no reason why someone that age should be seeing themselves that way. The comments tend to come sarcastically, saying things like, “bold of you for keeping the comments on” or “guys I found out who ate all the leftovers.” They constantly bring people down, and I find myself burdened after I read them all day.

For a while, there was a trend going around where girls made videos asking their viewers what they could do to make themselves prettier. This basically told girls they aren’t pretty enough. After coming across these every day for a week, I found myself thinking of what I could do to be prettier — all because of a TikTok.

Famous influencers or creators get paid for promoting these horrible habits. From weight loss teas to ab simulators, they are profiting on convincing people that their bodies need to look a certain way.

Influencers need to do a better job of promoting healthy habits, practicing better self-talk and not participating in toxic trends that lead into body shaming and bullying.

If these same influencers used their platform for good, such as promoting healthy relationships with food and working out, the entire app would be a much more stable environment.