Apps and Explanations
March 9, 2023
1. TikTok
TikTok is a free, downloadable, online app that focuses on video sharing, creating short-form videos, and creating communities for all various types of interests. TikTok’s purpose is to allow users to express themselves through short videos of dancing, singing, story-telling, and more. TikTok was formerly a popular app called Musical.ly, which was focused on lip-synching and dancing trends. It is a social media platform for creating, sharing and discovering short videos, and is primarily used by a younger audience.
TikTok is directly related to the Cognitive Dissonance Theory through many different ways. First, users of this social media app can experience cognitive dissonance while scrolling endlessly. Like any social media app, TikTok becomes addictive the more you use it, as your brain gets rushed with dopamine chemicals. Dopamine is nicknamed the “feel-good” or “happy hormone” for a reason. With these short, 15-second videos, it is easy to be hooked and experience that happiness, with dopamine flooding in your brain each time. The more you keep swiping and watching videos, the more addictive that feeling of dopamine can be. And the harder it is to stop. Many people now know and understand the effects of dopamine when using social media, and yet millions still scroll for hours. This action is an example of this cognitive dissonance theory- where one knows that using an addictive app like TikTok is harmful the more they use it, but they do nothing to change their actions. They just remain feeling guilty and conflicted that they washed away hours of time watching dozens of short videos. As such, these people will change their beliefs to fit their behavior to rid themselves of that dissonance. Another way that cognitive dissonance is involved with TikTok is when TikTok interrupts your entertaining scroll of videos with one of their own messages- urging you to take a break from scrolling since they can tell you’ve been on for a while. Many people, including myself, normally just ignore these videos, scrolling past to keep watching. This is a reminder of that guilty conscience, one where we are fully aware of scrolling for an extended period of time, were reminded to stop, and chose to ignore that suggestion. Hours later, when you say “Man, I wish I didn’t spend all that time today on TikTok- I have so many other things to get done,” just know that it was your choice to keep scrolling, and this cognitive dissonance theory was directly displayed in you.
Through the knowledge of cognitive dissonance, looking at addicting social media apps like TikTok can give a sense of perspective. Instead of focusing on exploring hours of content and videos, with the knowledge of this theory, you can directly spend your time how you want to use it. For example, this could mean knowing about the addictive properties of TikTok, and deciding a time limit for yourself of only 30 minutes daily on the app. This way, you will learn to value the time you spend on the app more, focus on watching more meaningful videos and swiping away from boring ones, and you will be in control of the amount of time and energy you put into TikTok versus other things. Knowing about the Cognitive Dissonance Theory, it becomes easier to not fall into the common trap of addictive apps, like TikTok.
2. Candy Crush Saga
Candy Crush Saga is a mobile game that is free to play and download, but there are optional in-game items that require further payments. Players are allowed to buy more lives, power-ups, and more with purchasing more in the app, but many people just play the game without buying any of the extra add-ons. Candy Crush Saga is a puzzle and matching game that focuses on matching three or more of one color of candy in order to advance to the next round of puzzles. In this app, there is also a way to connect and compete with friends. There are daily tasks to accomplish and earn, like a spinning wheel, for players to continue playing this game daily. There are over a trillion puzzles and matching levels in Candy Crush Saga, with new ones being added often, so players always have more to do.
Through the lens of the Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Candy Crush Saga is shown to be related to the theory in a similar way to any addictive app. Candy Crush Saga is a never-ending game, one where each time you complete a puzzle, you get to level up. This action of leveling up causes a sense of accomplishment and rewarding happiness- flooding the brain with dopamine like any addictive app or game would do. Each time you level up, the urge to continue and feel that sense of accomplishment again becomes stronger. This leads to people wanting to play this game for hours. However, there are only so many lives you get per day in this game. Once you use your five lives, you can no longer play until the next day, or you can choose to spend real-world money to earn more lives. Eventually, everyone runs out of their five lives, and each person wishes they could continue playing. This continued sense of disappointment and urge to play is what causes the cognitive dissonance theory to prove to be accurate, as you are essentially gambling away your time and even money when you choose to play more. No matter how much time and money you spend playing, you will always end dissatisfied with not winning enough. So, you continue to come back everyday, playing again and again, until you feel that sense of accomplishment and rewarding happiness when you level up once again. Like a slot machine, Candy Crush Saga can be hard to play, but super rewarding once you do win.
When you play Candy Crush Saga, you are fully aware that you will be giving up your time and money to try to level up and win the game. However, there are more times where you lose or don’t complete a puzzle correctly, than when you do win. This knowledge of freely giving up your resources to a game where you are unlikely to win is when you experience Cognitive Dissonance. However, equipped with the knowledge of this theory, you and any other players of Candy Crush Saga are able to look at the game more objectively, and understand the app’s addictive set up and behaviors. Knowing this, you can be more mindful and aware of when you play never-ending rewarding games like Candy Crush Saga.
3. Tinder
Tinder is one of the most well-known free, online dating apps, with over 70 billion matches having been made on the app. The purpose of Tinder is to make friends, find long term or short term partners, and more. Each user fills out their account with a bio, photos, and interests. After this, users can either swipe right or left (like or not) on others accounts. There are more in-app purchases you can make, including subscriptions like Tinder Plus, Tinder Gold, or Tinder Platinum where you can see everyone who likes you, have unlimited likes, and even boost your account for more people to see it.
Tinder has a strong link to the Cognitive Dissonance theory, especially when it involves creating relationships with others. When looking at a person’s profile, you only get so much information about that person, and you have to judge based on only that. Everything else you know about the person is assumed, like whether they are friendly, kind, or stubborn. This is where expectations can be let down, such as when you’re talking with a person who you thought was really nice, but they are actually the complete opposite. These two opposites cause confusion, since the information you read and the information you learned afterwards is inconsistent. Another example of Tinder directly tying with the Cognitive Dissonance Theory is shown when examining Tinder’s statistics of long lasting relationships. Every relationship requires a certain time of getting to know each other, which dating apps like Tinder are unable to use. According to Daily Mail, the amount of long-lasting relationships that are sought after on Tinder is less than 25%. Then, when looking at the success rate of those 25% of long term relationships, it can be shown that creating and maintaining long term relationships is not really Tinder’s speciality. Many users experience cognitive dissonance when using Tinder, as they are looking for long-term relationships, but they can only find others that are interested in short-term relationships. Sometimes, even users lie about their intentions on relationships, which can lead to more deceit and disappointment for a user of a dating app. After one of these failed attempts at a relationship, a lot of users think “I should have known.” They knew that dating apps are not very successful, and yet they convinced themselves to believe it was going to work out for them. So, when it does fail, these users experience cognitive dissonance even stronger.
Having a strong knowledge of the Cognitive Dissonance theory is vitally important to understanding and being more mindful about how you, as a user of dating apps, approach Tinder. Going in with little to no expectations for the other person is key, as to not get your hopes up, only to ultimately experience the uncomfortableness of cognitive dissonance when they are not what you thought they were going to be. Knowing this theory, you are able to protect yourself when using Tinder, in order to avoid any disappointments, heartbreaks, or scary situations because someone lied to you. With the cognitive dissonance theory, you can just explore finding connections with others with a worry-free mind, not assuming anything is deeper than it actually is.
