What do adults do on TikTok? Here's what a recent study found
A third of US adults use TikTok, but how exactly? A recent survey revealed a behind-the-scenes look at their behavior on the popular social network.
It is believed that every TikTok users comes to this platform to show the world their short videos. This is exactly what this social network is designed for, you will say. For many, getting a lot of views is quite a difficult task, and they try all sorts of ways and tips to increase views. But recently released statistics paint a completely startling picture of user behavior on TikTok.
The authors of the study conducted by the Pew Research Center, surveyed several thousand adult TikTok users in the United States. The results are stunning. Almost half of respondents, namely 48%, admitted that they have never posted a single video on TikTok and use the social network only to watch videos of others. Moreover, among the younger part of TikTok's adult audience (those under 34 years old), the rate of people who do not post anything is approximately the same as that of the group of users aged 35 years and older.
It can be assumed that in other countries the ratio of active and inactive TikTok users may differ from the American situation, but still the survey results are quite relevant, since the largest audience of this application is located in the United States. The survey also found that the majority of videos posted on the platform are created by a very small portion of users who have an account on the platform - the top 25% of TikTok users create 98% of video content.
However, the same trend existed on other popular video platforms, such as YouTube, where many more people simply viewed the content of others. Another case is Instagram, where the overwhelming majority of users publish at least something. This makes sense, because creating a video requires more effort and exposure than text posts or photos. In comparison, another Pew study found that nearly half of adults on X (former Twitter) tweet 5 times or less per month.
Experts studying Internet trends have also noticed that TikTok is no longer only perceived as an entertainment application, but is increasingly becoming a source of news for users. Over the past few years, the percentage of American adults who report getting their news from TikTok has increased to 14%, a quadruple from three years ago.