Uses and Gratifications-1
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Uses and Gratifications of TikTok
Jace Kelley
College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky
CIS 110: Composition and Communication I
Ms. Blanca Muñoz
10/14/22
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Uses and Gratifications of TikTok
In 2022, TikTok is one of the world’s largest apps, with over one billion users on its platform. Originally named “Douyin,” TikTok is an app developed by Chinese tech company ByteDance in 2016. However, Douyin is not the app many know today. In 2017, ByteDance bought out “Musical.ly,” an app that gained major popularity in 2015 for its short form videos where users would lip-sync and dance to the app’s large music library, similarly to how TikTok started out. When ByteDance bought Musical.ly, they merged many of the features of both Musical.ly and Douyin, creating what we know today as TikTok. However, in 2022, TikTok is much more than an app for children to dance and lip-sync on. Today, it is a platform for the news, tutorials, ASMR, sports, fashion and even more. Even with the apps broad selection of content, many people still wonder why TikTok is so popular. However, there is a psychological explanation for the popularity of the app. TikTok is widely believed by experts to satisfy the five psychological needs that the uses and gratifications theory outlines. This paper will define these psychological needs and explain thoroughly how TikTok satisfies all of them.
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Uses and Gratifications Theory
The Uses and Gratifications theory is a theory created by communication experts that states that people will choose the type of media that they use to satisfy their five psychological needs of the uses and gratification theory. These five psychological needs are cognitive, affective, social integrative, personal integrative, and tension release.
Cognitive Needs
Cognitive needs refer to acquiring information to aid the thinking and understanding process (
Uses and gratifications theory
2012). When consuming media, people watch information videos, such as the news, tutorial videos, and documentaries to satisfy their cognitive
needs. In the scope of TikTok, obviously full documentaries are not on the platform, however tutorial videos and news videos are some of the most popular on the platform. According to a study by Ofcom, a government office responsible for the regulation of telecommunications in the
United Kingdom, the percent of people who receive their news from TikTok increased from 1% to 7% in just one year. This shows tremendous growth in the amount of people using TikTok for news, and also shows that TikTok satisfies the cognitive needs.
Affective Needs
Affective needs refer to users using media to arouse emotions, such as fear, happiness, sadness, etc. When using TikTok, users typically log onto the app in order to find videos that entertain them, such as comedy, sports, or gaming videos. As compared to other social media
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platforms, TikTok better satisfies the affective needs of the uses and gratifications theory. During
a study on TikTok users and the uses and gratifications associated with it, “Gratification of entertainment/affect was the key driver behind passive consumption” when watching TikTok (Bossen & Kottasz, 2020). More specifically, almost 75% of the participants verified that affective needs were the primary reason they used the app. It is important to note that the primary participants in this study were adolescents between the ages of 11 and 16 years old. However, this demographic is one of TikTok’s largest user bases, so this data proves that TikTok satisfies affective needs.
Social Integrative Needs
Social integrative needs are the need to stay in touch with family and friends through media. One of the primary uses of social media is to interact with people you know, even over great distances. While TikTok is more suited towards entertainment, it is also used as a mean to socialize with the people you know, although much less commonly as other platforms. In a study
on the uses and gratifications of TikTok, over 40% of the participants stated that they used TikTok for the “surveillance of others” (Bossen & Kottasz, 2020). In other words, they used the platform to stay connected with people they know, and to see what they are doing, proving that TikTok satisfies social integrative needs.
Personal Integrative Needs
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Personal integrative need in the scope of the uses and gratifications theory is the need to promote one’s image, reputation, or status (
Uses and gratifications theory
2012). When someone
posts on a social media platform, they typically do it to boost their self-esteem, or feel like they belong in a community. One crucial factor that a platform must have in order for this to happen is a certain degree of authenticity. According to a study by Nielson that was commissioned by TikTok, over 70% of users around the world believed that “they can be their true selves on TikTok” (
Nielsen study shows TikTok Ideal Place for "discovery," content more "authentic": TikTok for business blog,
2021). This means people are more willing to post on the platform, showing that TikTok satisfies personal integrative needs.
Tension Release
Tension release, when considered with the uses and gratifications theory, is when a user accesses media in order to relieve stress and to distract themselves from the woes of everyday life. Social media is obviously one of the best forms of media for this need, with TikTok most likely being one of the best platforms for it. According to a study on how TikTok meets the needs of users, the researchers concluded that TikTok satisfies this need by having easy media to
consume and binge worthy content, with one of the interviewees even stating that they enjoy TikTok because it is “so easy to watch” and “destressing and relaxing” (
(Mosenene, 2021). This shows that TikTok is a great platform to satisfy the tension release need.
Conclusion
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To conclude, TikTok has quickly become one of the most popular apps in the world, finding itself downloaded on most people’s devices in just a couple of years. In this paper, it was found that TikTok satisfies the five basic needs of the uses and gratifications theory, with data showing that TikTok is the front runner when compared to other social media platforms.
References
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Bossen, C. B., & Kottasz, R. (2020). Uses and gratifications sought by pre-adolescent and adolescent TikTok consumers
. Young Consumers. Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/YC-07-2020-1186/full/html?
fbclid=IwAR1uKkEQdGVIjWXncK9W3lCEySeF7WP1Nywe7SIYAKwqBJsukOBXJUN
lVTQ Mosenene, T. (2021, November). IIESpace Home. Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://iiespace.iie.ac.za/ News consumption in the UK: 2022 - ofcom
. Ofcom.org. (2022, July 21). Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/241827/News-
Consumption-in-the-UK-Overview-of-findings-2022.pdf TikTok For Business. (2021, October 20). Nielsen study shows Tiktok Ideal Place for "discovery," content more "authentic": Tiktok for business blog
. TikTok For Business. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.tiktok.com/business/en-US/blog/nielsen-
study-tiktok-discovery-content-authentic Uses and gratifications theory
. Communication Studies. (2012, October 17). Retrieved October 14, 2022, from http://www.communicationstudies.com/communication-theories/uses-and-
gratifications-theory