A Quick Skinnytok Survey 

I asked my girl Instagram followers who use Tiktok about their personal experiences with "skinnytok" and the results were super interesting but, honestly not shocking. 

On average how long do you spend on Tiktok daily? 

6.3% said less than 30 minutes a day.

18.8% said 30 minutes to an hour a day.

50% said 1 to 3 hours a day.

12.5% said 3+ hours a day.

6.3% said they don't use Tiktok. 

6.3% said almost all day and all night. 

How often do you interact with fitness, health, "what I eat in a day" content?

18.8% said always (it's all over my feed)

31.3% said frequently. 

31.3% said sometimes. 

25% said rarely/never. 

Are you familiar with the term "SkinnyTok" or the subculture of weight-loss/diet content on the app? 

75% said yes I know exactly what it is.

12.5% said I've heard/seen it but I didn't know it had a name.

12.5% said no, I've never heard of it. 

Have you ever noticed users using "coded language" (like swapping letters for numbers, e.g., "ED" or "sh3" or "thinsp0") to bypass TikTok's content filters?

50% said yes, frequently 

37.5% said yes, occasionally.

12.5% said no, never. 

How do you generally feel about your own body after spending time scrolling through TikTok?

50% said slightly insecure.

25% said significantly more insecure. 

25% said no change/neutral. 

0% said much more confident. 

Have you ever felt pressured to alter your eating habits, try a restrictive diet, or try a specific workout trend because of a short video on your FYP?

68.8% said yes, and I acted on it.

25% said yes, I felt the pressure but didn't change anything. 

6.3% said no never. 

Do you think TikTok does enough to protect users from content that promotes disordered eating? Why or why not?

Here are just a few of the responses:

  • No absolutely not. Tik tok pushes creators who are clearly underweight and promotes undereating
  • ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!! They want to keep us ill
  • No definitely not, fitness influencers are not even “fitness” it’s just ED glamourized as “health”
  • Mm no not really. I think Tiktok is doing what they are supposed to with censoring the actual wording/phrases but as a a fast-growing app, They can do better at keeping up to date when it comes to the coded language… After all, they are good at keeping up with trends to make money soo I know it’s not impossible
  • No. There are pro-ana accounts promoting unhealthy habits as well as dangerous ideas about eating being spread in comment sections.
  • no, in fact i often get ads for calorie counting and diet apps as well, and i get these videos despite saying not interested on similar videos
  • I don’t think it does as there are so many videos that pop up about fast fat loss and how to get the perfect body
  • No, there’s not enough real people actually looking for body checking habits or using code words that have evolved over the years but mean similar things. So instead of having algorithms finding the problem and having a lower success rate, real people should be working to report and reduce the spread of ED promotion. It’s difficult for computers to understand what’s actually triggering and harmful mentally and physically.

Create Your Own Website With Webador