Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling … 

Two, three, four hours have passed since I opened TikTok. Four hours? How did that happen? 

The possibility of a productive Saturday was stripped away in the blink of an eye as I wasted away in bed on TikTok. Merely only getting up to pee and still scrolling as I do so. 

It’s all too easy for us to fall into a Percy-Jackson-in-the-casino-for-five-days kind of brain fog, where it feels like 20 minutes, but sure enough, my screen time shows otherwise. 

With over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, experts estimate the average daily screen time per user is 95 minutes. I can’t help but assume there are some outliers that drastically bring this number down. 

While that doesn’t seem like a long time in retrospect, imagine everything you can accomplish in 95 minutes: a nice walk, lunch with a friend, reading at least 50 pages of a book or even going to the gym if that floats your boat. 

I love TikTok as much as the next person, but we all must set some boundaries. 

I brought these concerns up to some of my friends, and they all admitted to spending more than two hours a day on the app, multiple days a week. 

Mindlessly scrolling through TikTok has been embedded into our morning and night routines and there is no end in sight. 

I’m not proposing we all mass-delete the app. I’m not Arkansas Legislature, after all. On the contrary, I think we should use it more responsibly.

I challenge you to set a time limit for TikTok on your screen time in your settings. My limit is two hours, but I’m trying to narrow it down to one hour and not to consume any videos before bed. 

The app does have some good attributes. TikTok is equipped with an impressive algorithm that puts relevant topics and current events on peoples’ For You Page — a page tailored to each user depending on what videos they like, watch, and search for. 

My FYP currently consists of The Hunger Games, books, Selena Gomez versus Hailey Bieber and politics/news. 

Yes, I said news. It’s not uncommon for people to learn about world happenings from the app. In fact, experts say nearly 33% of users regularly get their news from the app.

I enjoy politics and knowing what’s happening in the world around me, so I love this aspect of the app and how easy it is to share important information, especially since most Gen Z’s do not watch the news. 

My feed hasn’t always been like this, though. 

It used to be people doing “a day in my life” videos, which always made them seem to be these perfect beings with unattainable lifestyles that I would endlessly compare myself to. 

Women with lavish lives and daddy’s money run the app, showing themselves going to expensive Pilates classes, drinking nasty green supplements while trying not to grimace, and “running errands,” which usually translates to buying Lululemon and getting coffee. 

I have to remind myself that the Internet is fake, and social media is essentially one big lie. 

Many creators on the app make it their mission to be genuine and authentic, like Drew Afualo, Leo Skepi, and Remi Bader, who use their platform to inspire and motivate people to love and be confident in themselves. 

I recommend filling your feed with more people like that and fewer people who don’t make you feel your best or make you feel as if you’re not doing as much as you could be. 

If you know me personally, then you know that I’ve become more comfortable and self-assured in the last few weeks. I can tell you that altering my feed to stray from my normal toxic content and watching more wholesome creators is 100% a major factor in that. 

Give it a try. Limit your consumption and try keeping up with more realistic content creators, and maybe it will help you as much as it helped me, whatever that may look like.