TikTok’s algorithm gathers information about a viewer’s preference with every view and every swipe.

In a very short amount of time, a person can move from being a causal user of the app to a heavy user.

The TikTok algorithm is the technological equivalent of the sirens from ancient Greek mythology.

The myth has much to teach us about how to resist the call of the algorithm.

In late January 2026, TikTok settled a social media addiction lawsuit with a plaintiff who argued that TikTok is designed to hook young users. That same plaintiff continued her suit against Meta and YouTube, where she recently prevailed. Those two companies were just found negligent for designing platforms that harmed the mental health of the plaintiff.

Who becomes a TikTok power user?

An article in The Washington Post offers an enlightening account of how TikTok turns casual users into heavy or “power” users of the app. A casual user is someone who opens the app only occasionally, while power users already spend several hours a day over the course of multiple sessions. More than 800 TikTok casual and power users voluntarily shared their data for the story.

Analysts focused on three metrics to understand the viewing habits of users:

How much time a person spends on the app viewing videos

How many times users opened the app during a day

How much time was spent watching a video before swiping for a different one

Based on these metrics, they found:

After one week, the time casual users spent on the app jumped from 32 minutes a day to 45 minutes. These viewers also started to open the app more........

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