How TikTok Changed the Way We Watch TV and Movies
By Movieguide® Contributor
Whether or not TikTok ends up staying or going, its long-term influence on the entertainment industry cannot be denied.
TikTok’s fate has been up in the air for the last few months, with the US government demanding that the app divest from Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance. TikTok refused, and the Supreme Court ruled that a ban on the app would go into place on Jan. 19.
The app briefly went dark for Americans, but just a few hours later, was restored. It remains to be seen whether or not TikTok is here to stay for good, or if this is just a short reprieve.
READ MORE: DO AMERICANS SUPPORT THE TIKTOK BAN?
When it comes to TikTok’s influence on Hollywood, the app has changed the ways many want to consume content.
The Hollywood Reporter explained that, as opposed to the “long, and polished, and centralized” storytelling of years past, TikTok ushered in an era of “short, and shaggy, and mostly decentralized” content.
The short videos offered by TikTok became so popular that they’ve even changed our brain chemistry.
A study published by ScienceDirect found that viewing TikToks created “higher brain activations” in certain areas of the brain associated with attention span, lowering it over time. These lowered attention spans have left many in Hollywood scrambling to come up with content that will keep viewers hooked — and off of their phones.
READ MORE: HOW TIKTOK HOOKS USERS WITH SHORT SHOW AND MOVIE CLIPS
While the ban has been lifted for now, some in Hollywood might hope for a permanent banishment.
Apptopia CEO Jonathan Kay broke down the data, finding that the average TikTok user spends about 98 minutes a day on the app. If TikTok was banned, that means those 98 minutes are up for grabs for other platforms.
Kay hypothesized that users would probably shift their scrolling to “25 minutes on YouTube, 15 minutes on Instagram, 5 minutes on Snapchat, and 53 minutes on other platforms” — 53 minutes that streaming services will want to add to their viewership numbers.
READ MORE: COULD A TIKTOK BAN DRIVE VIEWERS BACK TO STREAMING AND TV?
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