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TikTok is one of the world's most powerful apps. It's become a determining factor in the music and entertainment industry, and has launched the careers of thousands of people who create content for their digital audiences. It's also a place where people can turn to for support and community, showing an unvarnished look at life that's missing from apps like Instagram and X. TikTok's influence can't be overstated, especially when it comes to young people, who are spending more and more time on the app.
SkinnyTok is one of TikTok's most concerning trends, especially when it comes to the health of young people and women at a higher risk of developing eating disorders. Here's what you should know:
What is SkinnyTok?
SkinnyTok is a hashtag that different people use to discuss all manner of issues related to thinness. While some provide helpful fitness advice and positivity when starting a weight loss journey, a lot of the content available is based on calorie restriction and providing extreme rhetoric to women.
Upon scrolling through the hashtag on TikTok, it's obvious that the clips target young women, a population that's already at a greater risk for developing eating disorders.
What's the difference between SkinnyTok and other online communities promoting weight loss?
While weight loss and calorie restriction content has been on social media and the internet since its inception, TikTok's algorithm makes this issue much more complicated. In the past, people had to find these types of blogs and websites online; nowadays, any person scrolling through TikTok looking for better workouts or recipe suggestions can easily stumble upon SkinnyTok.
“The algorithms are designed in such a way that if you begin to kind of flirt with some of this content, you’re going to start seeing it more and more in your feed," said Mallary Tenore Tarpley, assistant professor of practice at the University of Texas, to CNN.
“It becomes very hard then to escape that. And that can lead people down these rabbit holes that can be really dark and really hard to get out of.”