CAPTURE THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMAGE OF

YOUTH USING TIKTOK APPLICATIONS

Rizqatun Nufus1, Winda Maharani2, Elmi Bonafita Zahro3
{rizqatunnufus13@gmail.com, winda@unusia.ac.id, elmy.bonafita@unusia.ac.id}

Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Indonesia, Jl. Amir Hamzah Park, No. 5, Central Jakarta

Abstract. A new phenomenon of social media that has emerged recently is the rise of Tik Tok
users in various parts of the world. The Tik Tok app has become one of the most popular pop
culture and social media platforms for people of all ages. Various features and content attract
the interest of various groups, one of which is the youth group. With immature psychological
conditions, excessive use of Tik Tok social media can cause various psychological effects for
them. Therefore, this encourages researchers to find out more about the psychological profile
of adolescent Tik Tok users, especially in Indonesia. The research method uses a systematic
literature review of several research articles relevant to the topic. The results of this study
indicate that teenagers who use Tik Tok have a low level of self-confidence. Teens who use Tik
Tok tend to compare themselves to others and feel inferior easily. Teens who use Tik Tok also
get addicted and forget about their routines. Based on the results of the study, it is hoped that it
can be a reference material to find out the psychological picture of teenagers who use the tik to
application. Thus, it is hoped that further specific research can be carried out to explore
problems and appropriate interventions to reduce the negative impact on the psychological
image of teenagers using the Tik Tok application.

Keywords: psychological picture, teenagers, Tik Tok, social media, pop culture.

INTRODUCTION

Social media is an inseparable part of human life. The emergence of various applications has
increasingly made social media interesting. One of the platforms that are currently very interesting
and widely downloaded is TikTok. Tiktok is one of the social media based on short video content
that is currently viral in the world, including in Indonesia. Until now, the number of TikTok users
worldwide has reached 689.17 million active users and continues to grow to date. Application
research firm Sensor Tower has released its August issue of the most downloaded non-gaming apps
report. This edition named TikTok the best-selling application with a total of more than 63.3 million
downloads on iOS and Android devices. The number is up 1.6 per cent from the same period last
year. According to Sensor Tower, the country with the most downloads of this application is
Indonesia, which accounts for 11 per cent of the total TikTok downloads (Kompas: 2020).
It was revealed that 42 per cent of TikTok users came from teenagers who are commonly called
(Generation Z) with an age range of 18-24 years (Kompas: 2021). The factor of TikTok being the
most downloaded application for the last two years by teenagers is because the pandemic period
requires teenagers to carry out various activities from home; this makes teenagers look for
entertainment through smartphones. The TikTok video feature, which is 15-3 minutes in duration,
is an attraction and entertainment for teenagers. However, the wide coverage of Tiktok users has
given rise to various types of content, which has a big impact and problems for the psychological
condition of teenagers, because teenagers do not yet have mature psychological conditions.
Therefore, the excessive use of the TikTok application has an impact on teenagers as most TikTok
users. In this research the aim of this research is to see how the psychological picture of teenagers
who use the TikTok application.

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Capture The Psychological Image Of Youth Using Tiktok Applications

The phenomenon that is happening in Indonesia now is that many teenagers are experiencing a
crisis of self-confidence due to a lack of emotional support. The development of the digital world
with the presence of social media, new trends and expectations from the surrounding environment
has created new pressures and standards for Indonesian youth. This is a phenomenon that is able to
influence the behaviour and attitudes of Indonesian youth in seeing themselves (Tempo: 2021).
Based on the results of the study (Putri: 2021),, there is a significant relationship between narcissistic
behaviour and self-esteem toward Tiktok social media users. (Sandy: 2021) his research explains
that there is a positive attachment between the nature of liking to do social comparisons and
behaviour comparing themselves on TikTok.
Another phenomenon that appears is that teenagers are addicted to the TikTok application.
Research results say that the average user spends 89 minutes every day accessing the TikTok
application (Kompas: 2021). Based on the results of research by Mela Rahmayani, et al. (2021), the
results of their research show that what has a significant effect on student addiction behaviour is the
intensity and attractiveness, not the content on TikTok.
Adolescence is a period of transition from children to adults. At this time, there is a development
both physically and mentally. The age limit generally used by experts is between 12 to 21 years.
Adolescence is a period of development that will always be passed by individuals. The period of
adolescent development is when a person reaches mental, emotional, social, and physical maturity,
which is the period of individual development during the transition from childhood to adulthood.
This results in characteristics that are different from one another. Changes both physically and
psychologically as well as in social life bring various problems and challenges (Hurlock, 2011).
In adolescence, individuals have more developmental tasks than in the past. Adolescents will
experience a period of cognitive development, language development, emotional development, and
social development. One of the characteristics of emotional development in adolescence is starting
to reduce the value of appearance and emphasize more personality values (Zeman: 2001) than on
emotional development, according to Erikson, and adolescents must resolve the crisis that occurs in
adolescence. The term crisis is used by Erikson to describe a series of internal conflicts related to a
future stage of development. In adolescence, the crisis that occurs is referred to as the crisis between
identity versus self-obscurity.
In adolescence, cognitive development is characterized by the characteristics of the cognitive
development process of adolescents that a teenager thinks abstractly, ideally and logically.
Adolescence is a time when there is an increase in decision making. In this stage, a teenager will
begin to be able to make decisions about his future. The maturation of the nervous system is
important because it allows children to get the maximum benefit from physical experiences.
Maturity opens up possibilities for development, whereas a lack of it will broadly limit cognitive
achievement. Development takes place at different rates depending on the nature of the contact with
the environment and the learning activity itself.
Furthermore, during adolescence, physical development also occurs marked by physical
growth, including the growth of the reproductive organs (sexual organs) towards maturity. These
changes can be seen in the signs of primary sex and secondary sex. Primary sex signs are directly
related to the sex organs, such as menstruation and wet dreams. While the signs of secondary sex,
in boys, there is a change in voice and the growth of Adam's apple. Meanwhile, in young women, it
is characterized by enlarged breasts and wide hips. This physical development makes teenagers pay
more attention to appearance because they have started to be interested in the opposite sex, one of
which is by providing the best content about themselves.
In addition to attraction to the opposite sex, adolescence has a social need, namely the need for
friends. In adolescence, there will be a sense of awareness about the silence that begins to develop,
which then encourages teens to get along; in adolescence, social interaction will be seen. Many
teenagers then follow how their social environment behaves and dresses
. When developments are not perfect, then this will have an impact on the character of teenagers,
namely how the inner nature affects all thoughts and behaviours possessed by teenagers. The
presence of TikTok originating from western culture is feared to have an impact on local character
and culture. Elisa Kusumawardhani (2021), in her research, explains that the value that is spread
through TikTok content, for interesting content, is easily absorbed by other users and even tends to
be talkative (just follow it). Because it is based on entertainment (entertainment), the values that are

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Capture The Psychological Image Of Youth Using Tiktok Applications

spread tend to be easy to digest and follow. The creative values are implemented in the form of a
15-second video. This value is conveyed to users, indicated by the large population of the world
who download and use the application.

RESEARCH METHOD

This study uses a literature study, or literature study is a technique of collecting data by utilizing
library sources, recording and processing previous research (Zed, 2004). This paper comes from a
collection of various previous researches searched on google scholars with selected keywords:
psychological picture, youth, Tik Tok, social media, pop culture. Articles or journals that meet the
criteria are taken for further analysis. The criteria for the journals reviewed are research journal
articles in Indonesian and English on the subject of Teenagers. The following journal criteria are
analyzed in this study. The method used is Research and Development (R&D), with the research
subjects being early teens, which is divided into two parts.In a small scope of 5 respondents and into
a large scope of 25 people in a small scope, quite a lot of them feel insecure about themselves with
different problems and backgrounds, then also the results in a large scope show that, on average,
participants feel that This Love Imperfections campaign is very useful, interesting, good and also
informative.

RESULT AND ANALYSIS

Social media is a liaison in one's life; one of the popular media is the TikTok application. Since
TikTok has become a very popular application in Indonesia, many people have experienced the
impact of using the TikTok application because TikTok users who come from various circles give
various impressions and content, especially teenagers. Many things then emerge and have an impact
on adolescent development, one of which is psychological development. Psychological development
in adolescence is an important development, where adolescent cognitive development develops in a
complex manner during adolescence. Adolescents who do negative things do not show normal
development. The results of this study indicate that teenagers who use TikTok have several problems
that affect their psychology.
One of the characteristics of teenage TikTok users that appears is narcissism; unconsciously,
when uploading videos on TikTok will get indirect praise or insults. The praise they get will make
the teenagers feel satisfied, and the teenagers who feel praised will lead to narcissism.
A narcissistic is a personality who feels that he is great, and likes to be praised and admired;
someone who has a narcissistic personality will feel that he is a very important person (Putri: 2021).
One of the studies conducted by (Putri: 2021) shows that students in the Kudus City District have a
significant relationship between narcissistic behaviour and self-esteem toward TikTok social media
users. Then this is also supported by research conducted on four 2nd grade students of SMPN 1
Batusangkar, and it was revealed that the 2nd-grade students of SMP N Batusangkar that the
researchers studied had a description of narcissistic behaviour in the use of TikTok social media
(Watts: 2021).
Teens who are active in the TikTok application show addiction, where the amount of content
presented makes teenagers forget what they are doing; TikTok, which presents videos of 15 seconds
to 3 minutes in duration, has succeeded in making many teenagers spend their time scrolling TikTok.
The results showed that attractiveness had a significant effect on the addictive behaviour of students;
the study showed that the attractiveness in the TikTok application, whether it was music, camera
effects, videos, and actresses, had a large effect on the addicted behaviour of respondents and in this
variable, the questionnaire statement received a very good response. is that the music and effects in
the TikTok application are very interesting so that they impress respondents (Rahmayani et al: 2021)
Then there are differences in the tendency of individuals who actively play and upload content
on the TikTok application causing social comparisons, namely to compare themselves with other

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individuals in the world virtual. This social comparison then leads to a negative direction, namely
comparing oneself with others. Research conducted by Having a positive attachment between the
nature of liking to do social comparisons and self-comparing behavior on TikTok. Research
conducted by (Sandy: 2021) shows that there is a positive attachment between the nature of liking
to do social comparisons and self-comparing behavior on TikTok.
The large number of TikTok social media users is also inevitable that negative comments will
arise, this is in accordance with research conducted by (Hidayah, et al: 2021) which results in an
increase in cyber-harassment practices in the covid-19 pandemic era which is shown in the form of
hate comments to women. is a form of online gender-based violence in Indonesia. The hate comment
case is a form of hate speech which will indirectly lead to the practice of hate speech which results
in the victim experiencing mental health problems. One of the serious psychological problems for
teenagers using TikTok with negative comments is the emergence of a sense of insecurity in
teenagers.
Insecurity is a mental condition that causes a person to feel "insecure", and this can apply to
many things. This condition causes a person to feel anxious and afraid excessively so they tend to
do things with caution. in a small scope, quite a lot of people feel insecure about themselves with
different problems and backgrounds. If not treated immediately, this condition can lead to mental
health disorders, such as depression, borderline personality disorder, anxiety disorders, experiencing
paranoia, eating disorders, and problems with body image.

CONCLUSION
From the several studies taken, it can be concluded that TikTok users experience narcissism
and tend to compare themselves with others. Teenagers using TikTok also have an addiction to
TikTok, this addiction then results in some teenagers giving hate comments to other users which
then results in a person's mental health. Teenage TikTok users then experience a sense of insecurity
over what they consume from the TikTok application.

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