ANANYA JAIN NEVER PLANNED ON BECOMING ADDICTED TO TIKTOK. Jain, who is 24 years old, downloaded the app at the peak of the Covid pandemic. She had heard about TikTok's data privacy issues, so she promised herself that she wouldn't post or comment on anything - just watch a few videos and call it a day. That lasted less than a month.
"It just pulled me in because I was so lonely," Jain said.
"I was looking for friends." And TikTok delivered. A huge Harry Potter fan, Jain was roped into the BookTalk community. She was struggling with acne, but dancing dermatologists told her about over-the-counter skincare products. Later, #polo and #horsesoftiktok became enthralling since she could live vicariously through the players from underneath her covers. Whenever Jain felt the loneliness creep in, the platform gave her a quick dopamine hit.
Innocuous 15-second videos would lead to two hours of scrolling. Soon, Jain would watch TikToks during work breaks to de-stress, or in her bedroom as she was trying to go to sleep. The app became the source of all her social and entertainment needs. Yet she also felt lonelier than ever.
"I was addicted to my phone, I had the worst mental health possible that you can imagine," Jain said. Her online friends were anonymous strangers, after all, not the kind of people you'd ask to pick you up from the airport or call up in the middle of the night. It was a vicious cycle: TikTok fed her loneliness but was also what she used to try to alleviate it.
Jain is the founder of mental health startup FullCircle.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 05, 2024-Ausgabe von The Guardian Weekly.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 05, 2024-Ausgabe von The Guardian Weekly.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Out of touch How president sealed his own fate in martial law gambit
For Yoon Suk Yeol, this month's short-lived martial law declaration wasn't just a catastrophic miscalculation - it was the culmination of a presidency that had been troubled from the start.
Son of the soil Who is François Bayrou, the farmer turned prime minister?
François Bayrou, the new French prime minister, calls himself a country man. A tractor-driving \"son of the soil\" and breeder of thoroughbreds, he has run for president three times, saying his rural roots and centrist politics led him to try to find common ground between left and right.
Power plant workers keeping the lights on
The Guardian Weekly visits a Soviet-era coal-fired thermal installation to learn how it has held up to Russian attacks
Prince charmed Alleged spy scandal may have exposed China threat
Prince Andrew should be commended for doing Britain a great service, according to longstanding China watcher Charles Parton. The now marginalised royal has, the analyst observed, \"almost single handedly\" succeeded \"in highlighting the threat to free and open countries\" posed by the contemporary Chinese state.
In Moscow, a new life of secluded irrelevance awaits Assad
He was whisked away without a last message to his people, the aircraft's transponder deliberately switched off to avoid detection as it departed from an airbase in Syria.
'We fear new oppression' Alawites worry over rebel rule
To prepare khubeiza, the leaves of the kale-like plant must be roughly chopped and sauteed with onions, garlic and a dash of salt. According to folklore, the recipe originated among the Alawite communities who lived in Syria's mountainous coastline where the fibrous, wild-growing plant can be found in abundance. So poor were the Alawites in Ottoman times, the story goes, that the only food they could find to eat was khubeiza, which sprouts like a stubborn weed every spring.
'Gisèle is waiting for explanations'
The Pelicot rape trial has horrified the world. But as it comes to an end, the questions it has raised about French society and rape culture have still not been answered.
FROM DOCTOR TO BRUTAL DICTATOR THE RISE AND FALL OF ASSAD
0N THE FACE OF IT AT LEAST, the Bashar al-Assad of 2002 presented a starkly different figure from the brutal autocrat he would become, presiding over a fragile state founded on torture, imprisonment and industrial murder.
What fresh alternatives can be used to placate coriander haters?
Everyone knows a hater of coriander - also known as cilantro - who won't go near the stuff. Itamar Srulovich, however, is not one: \"I adore fresh coriander, and always have,\" says the chef/co-owner of the Honey & Co group in London.
Farage is lying in wait.Britain cannot afford to see Starmer fail Jonathan Freedland
This government must not fail. Let's get that clear from the start. If Keir Starmer does not succeed, too many British voters will conclude that both the traditional parties, Labour and Conservative, have proved useless and that it is time to try something else with that something else being nationalist populism.
