Short videos are becoming an increasingly important part of the daily lives of young people today. Fragmented and personalized short video platforms are also becoming increasingly intelligent, and their impact on the socialization of young people is becoming more prominent. This paper conducts empirical research based on 150 teen users of the TikTok platform, and integrates three methods of participatory observation, personal interview and questionnaire survey. In this way, we can further investigate the actual impact of TikTok’s using on the socialization process. This three research methods can learn from each other, which can make up for the shortcomings of a single research method and improve the credibility of empirical research.
According to this study, the following conclusions are drawn: the use of TikTok accelerates the process of socialization of adolescent groups; the use of TikTok helps to regulate the social behavior of teenagers; the use of TikTok does not reduce the willingness of young people to make friends in real life; The use of social media has a certain impact on the over-socialization of adolescents; it cannot be determined that younger adolescents are more affected by socialization than older adolescents. In addition, based on the results of the three stages of research, it was found that the use of TikTok will affect the socialization of adolescents. However, the use of TikTok has a more prominent impact on the life skills, social participation and value judgment of the youth group, while it has a lower impact on social interaction and role playing.
At present, there are many researches on socialization from the macro and abstract perspectives, but there are few researches on micro and concrete levels. This article focuses on the short video as a media platform and actually examines its impact on the socialization of young people. This study would help to clarify the actual impact of the development of the short video industry on young people, and is of great significance in regulating and guiding the development of short videos in the future.