Ironically, TikTok may have found a cure for social media addiction

Most likely to deflect criticism — it’s still under the threat of a

US ban
, after all — TikTok recently began experimenting with a ”

Sleep Hours
” feature, now permanent. For users under 18, this means a guided

meditation
automatically kicks in after 10PM. You can choose to ignore it, but you’ll be prompted a second time, and that second prompt is harder to skip. The function is available to adults as well as an optional screen time measure.

I wouldn’t consider myself much of a

social media addict
outside of Reddit, but it occurs to me that Sleep Hours may be a harbinger of things to come, if we’re lucky. It’s also an unfortunate commentary on the priorities of social media companies so far, reinforcing the notion that they can solve the problems they’re causing — but often choose not to, for reasons that are plenty obvious.

Engineered addiction

Why Sleep Focus is a welcome move

TikTok

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, but for the sake of argument, it’s important to point out that most social media is intentionally addictive. Feeds tend to scroll indefinitely, and companies do everything they can to encourage engagement, by which they mean interaction. That’s why there’s such a focus on recommendation algorithms — if a company can serve up more of what you want, you’re more likely to stick around through all the advertising and generate profits.

It is possible to recognize this and better control yourself, but that’s sometimes a tall order for adults, let alone kids and teenagers still coming to grips with other realities. As Psychology Today points out, many social media actions trigger a dopamine reward in our brains, such as seeing people liking and sharing content we’ve made. Apps like TikTok, Facebook, and X may also trigger cortisol, a hormone that regulates stress. So deliberately or not, some people will turn to social media as a way of coping with issues like depression and trauma.

For those reasons, you’d think something like Sleep Focus would be pointless. But you’d be wrong. TikTok claims that in its early testing, 98% of teenagers chose to leave the feature on — despite the opportunity for streaming as usual. Teenagers are as aware as anyone that it’s terrible to be on social media all the time, maybe moreso, since they’re the ones most impacted by threats like bullying and body dysmorphia. They just don’t like parents and other authorities arbitrarily making these decisions for them.

Are “soft” limits an answer to breaking habits with other social media apps? Possibly. It’s not hard to imagine Meta bringing a similar feature to Instagram, or Snap doing the same with Snapchat, since both of them allow users as young as 13, and have already faced widespread criticism for their youth policies. On top of that, most adults are no doubt comfortable nudging teens to go to bed at a reasonable time, or at least doing something better at 11:30 at night than watching another prank video. My own son is only seven, but once he grows older, I’d still rather he stay up too late socializing, or watching a movie at a friend’s house.

Something like Sleep Focus isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, though. Addiction isn’t limited to nighttime hours, after all, and some communities are going to be more resistant to change. Indeed, many adults refuse to be told how they should use any app, even when it’s healthy for them and there aren’t any barriers set in stone.

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Corporate irresponsibility

The barriers to progress

Snapchat / Pocket-lint / Souvik Banerjee / Unsplash 

Ultimately, the real takeaway from Sleep Focus may be simple: that companies do, in fact, have options to tamp down negative trends in social media, but choose to leave users to their own devices most of the time if there’s a risk of losing ad revenue. TikTok could’ve implemented a similar feature years ago. Without the pressure of losing the US entirely, it’s unlikely they would’ve been willing to sacrifice the income from thousands of teenagers losing their sleep and perpetuating bad habits.

You can find similar stories at any other social media network. Reddit, for instance, used to be a Wild West, with some truly offensive political and sexual subreddits. Things might’ve stayed that way, except that the owners decided they wanted more commercial success, including a symbol on the New York Stock Exchange — so while you can still find controversial forums, the company now takes moderation a lot more seriously.

Outside these commercial and political influences, there may not be much that we can do, unfortunately. Consider Elon Musk’s X — despite many users (and some advertisers) fleeing to alternatives like Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, there’s been no sign that Musk will reinstate serious controls on hate speech. Musk has billions of dollars at his disposal and the US President on his side, so he’s doing whatever aligns with his own “free speech” ideology.

The closest thing to a way out of this mess may be to put pressure on social media executives where we can. It’s important to talk about the damage social media can do, using real-world examples, and draw media attention to it when possible. It’s also helpful to support political legislation when it’s rational and practical — even if it’s unlikely to succeed, companies like Meta have regularly shown a willingness to adapt their policies to avoid dealing with regulation. Lobbyists and corporate-friendly politicians can only do so much when the winds are blowing against them.

There’s also the obvious free market answer: taking our business elsewhere. It may hurt to leave a social network full of people you know or content you like, but it’s the most direct way of rewarding companies that actually care about the health of their users. Or are at least willing to pretend they do, in the name of keeping cash flowing.

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