On a recent Thursday morning, she opened the ‘For You' page on the app and lingered over the first video that popped up: a clip of a young woman joking about wanting to cut herself.

Dykes (pictured) swiped her thumb and watched another similarly gloomy post, and then another.

She kept scrolling, and the videos kept coming — a seemingly endless stream of depressed and distressed young women venting about how lonely and worthless they felt.

Dykes, a 20-year-old university student in Wellington, has watched so much of this kind of negative mental illness-related content on social media in the past decade that she is to some extent desensitised to its emotional impact.

But as she scrolled, she couldn't help despairing.

"I just feel angry," she says.

"A whole generation of kids is being raised on this content."

Dykes has a complicated history with social media.

A decade ago, as an adolescent in Auckland, she began experiencing what she describes as a mild case of depression.

In her recollection, Dykes was a slightly awkward child who didn't have a lot of friends and struggled to fit in at school.

She went online and found some "very intense" material relating to depression.

Dykes says her parents put few restrictions on her internet use and didn't realise what she was looking at.

Some of the material she found was very explicit, but she was drawn to it.

On Google Plus (an early competitor to Facebook that is now defunct), she first came across references to self-harm.

Within a year, Dykes says she was regularly self-harming and having suicidal thoughts.

It took Dykes years to get over these experiences; in some ways, she is still dealing with them.

Looking back now, she says her depression would not have become as bad or lasted as long as it did, or she may not have started self-harming, had she not fallen into those dark corners of the web.

"It was so much harder to get out of it after becoming stuck in that space," she says.

Rising rates of distress

In the past dozen or so years, rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and other mental health conditions have increased sharply among adolescents in New Zealand and other high-income countries.

At the same time, the amount of material dedicated to these problems on social media has exploded.

A generation of youngsters who have never known the world without smartphones or the internet turned to social platforms for information and advice about mental health conditions and treatments, to seek validation and support from others with similar experiences and to express their anguish.

In many ways this has been beneficial, raising awareness of the importance of mental wellbeing, encouraging people to seek help and inspiring recovery.

But there is also an astonishing amount of material on social platforms that users, researchers and clinicians say is potentially harmful to vulnerable adolescents — spreading misinformation about mental health conditions, encouraging self-destructive behaviour and trapping users in a spiral of hopelessness.

As part of a major investigation into the state of mental health in New Zealand, the Herald has spent months interviewing young people who have been immersed in this content, parents, clinicians, researchers, health officials, regulators, and others; reviewed dozens of academic studies on the subject; and examined thousands of posts on several platforms.

Last month, NZ Herald reported on a network of young women with severe mental illnesses who used private accounts on Instagram to share intimate details about self-harm episodes, hospital admissions and suicide attempts.

Three of those young women died by suspected suicide in 2019, prompting an ongoing inquiry by the Coroner's office.

But while concerns remain about Instagram, serious questions have also been raised about the impact of TikTok, its Chinese-owned competitor (TikTok is controlled by a company called ByteDance).

It commands a growing share of young people's attention and has become, for many teens, the primary platform for viewing and sharing information about mental health.

"I think TikTok has completely changed the game," Dykes says.

An internet juggernaut

It is hard to overstate the influence that TikTok, in just a few years, has had on how teens communicate and entertain themselves.

Based on a lively, easy-to-use app that showcases short, looping, often humorous videos made with catchy audio clips and visual effects, TikTok makes it possible for users to reach vast audiences with minimal effort.

Billions of homemade videos have been uploaded to the platform on a dizzying range of topics, spawning countless memes and a new generation of influencers.

Its most compelling feature is a powerful, algorithm-driven recommendation engine that quickly discerns a user's interests and uses this to populate a personalised stream of videos.

Without even looking for something to watch, a user can stay glued to the app for hours and see dozens, if not hundreds, of clips in that time. Continue reading

Where to find help and support:

• Anxiety New Zealand 0800 ANXIETY (0800 269 4389)
• Depression Helpline - 0800 111 757
• Lifeline - 0800 543 354 or (09) 5222 999 within Auckland
• Mental Health Foundation 09 623 4812
• Need to Talk? - Call or text 1737
• Rural Support Trust 0800 787 254
• Samaritans - 0800 726 666
• Shakti Community Council - 0800 742 584
• Shine (domestic violence) - 0508 744 633
• Suicide Crisis Helpline - 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)
• thelowdown.co.nz Web chat, email chat or free text 5626
• What's Up - 0800 WHATS UP (0800 942 8787)
• Women's Refuge - 0800 733 843 (0800 REFUGE)
• Yellow Brick Road 0800 732 825
• Youthline - 0800 376 633, text 234, email talk@youthline.co.nz or online chat

Young Catholics are left with the two-edged sword of an exciting increase in the exploration of faith amongst peers, mixed with the risks of social media dominating their faith formation.

Despite the growing dissociation of young people from the Church, Gen Z are open to spirituality, with 46 per cent seeking weekly guidance on TikTok, according to data from a recent McCrindle Research report (Changing Faith Landscape in Australia).

Confusion rises, with some users knowing how to utilise TikTok for quality Catholic content, while others are unaware of how to sift through the vast range of opinions about Faith.

The pressing question is how the beauty of Christ is being shone into the ugliness of contradiction as we navigate the new landscape of mission.

Despite the growing dissociation of young people from the Church, Gen Z are open to spirituality, with 46 per cent seeking weekly guidance on TikTok, according to data from a recent McCrindle Research report (Changing Faith Landscape in Australia).

Good news

In a social media-dependent world, Catholic videos are helping to ground the Church's identity within apps and broader culture. Some Catholics currently use TikTok and Instagram as personal sources for faith formation, claiming helpful effects.

Prayer prompts, inspirational testimony, and Catholic answers for contemporary topics are some of the benefits accessible throughout one's day.

Generation Z recognises TikTok as an appropriate place for discussing spirituality according to the McCrindle report.

TikTok's potential reach for evangelisation is great, with the ability to spread the kerygma instantly.

TikTok is an opportunity for our modern age, allowing Catholics to meet peers where they currently stand with faith, and share truth in a familiar space.

Videos promoting Jesus's love and compassion are popular among those searching for faith online.

Data shows an increase in identification with Jesus and a decline in alignment with the ‘Church', reaffirming an openness to Jesus and ‘spirituality' without comprehension of the role of the Church.

Not so good news

TikTok is an uncensored platform with the potential for addiction, confusion, disordered secularisation, and uncontrolled opinion.

The app exists for entertainment and engagement without justification - populating fake news.

For the average person seeking clarity about Catholicism, there is little-to-no distinction between personal grievance towards the Faith and genuine Catholic teaching.

Some of the mixed and negative Catholic representations on the app are even found under hashtags #catholic and #priests.

These range from complaints and mockery of a personal Catholic experience, to outright slander or heresy regarding Catholic teaching.

Frequently, Protestant creators discuss apologetics without reference to what the Catechism says as they promote anti-Catholic views to gain traction.

These trends are contrasted with the more positive content associated with the hashtag #jesus, reinforcing how people may be open to ‘spirituality' and connect with Jesus, but do not resonate with anything ‘Catholic'.

Generation Z recognises TikTok as an appropriate place for discussing spirituality according to the McCrindle report.

And downright ugly

Comical videos of Catholic ‘in jokes' circulate on the platform and, although humorous and unifying for the formed Catholics, do not provide answers for the unchurched.

Other Catholic content is increasingly cringe-worthy and lacking in tasteful execution, reinforcing the perception of the Church as outdated. More complexities arise in bridging the gap between spiritual content online and participation in the life of Christ.

Shifting the culture beyond the parameters of TikTok's 10-second content duration and towards an active Catholic life may become a point to consider in the longevity of this digital evangelisation.

In a world thriving on relativism, the ability to navigate truth, beauty, and goodness is already difficult. With conflicting content, TikTok offers few favours to assist the searching mind.

Without comprehension for discerning between hurt and teaching, truth and lies, misinterpretation and trusted wisdom, TikTok lacks a pastoral regulation in guidance about Catholicism.

The silver lining and hopeful fact among such complexities is that Gen Z is searching for truth, purpose and God.

How are we representing Christ and His Good News in the digital world, whilst encouraging people to move beyond dependency on social media for prayer?

Are we encouraged to become creators ourselves, avoid the app altogether, or spread awareness for the better videos that already exist?

The landscape of digital evangelisation comes with all sorts of new questions and concerns, as the uncensored space has the potential to cause personal damage.

Yet, the Church has an opportunity to capitalise on the current openness and offer searching souls a witness and invitation to the good, the true, and the beautiful Church of Christ.

• Anna Harrison is a Youth Officer for Sydney Catholic Youth and holds a Liberal Arts degree
• First published in Catholic Weekly. Republished with permission.

The video-centric app is credited with popularizing the runaway hit "Stunnin'" by Curtis Waters.

In another instance, it exposed to millions of viewers a dance sequence known as "The Renegade" created by a 14-year-old girl in a suburb of Atlanta, resulting in teens mimicking the moves in school hallways around the country.

That TikTok's 15- to 30-second clips are perfect for making new songs and dances go viral is obvious, less so is its potential to #MakeJesusViral.

But the hashtag garnered 362 million views, proving bite-sized chunks of theology just as edible.

Similarly, #Christian has gotten 10.5 billion views #Jewish 1.1 billion and #Islam a whopping 23.7 billion.

To say that religion is big on the platform is an understatement.

These lessons aren't lost on young people hoping to build faith communities.

Christian, Muslim and Jewish creators alike are utilizing TikTok to spread the word — with evangelicals, in particular, embracing the platform as they historically have with new technology.

Religion's outsize presence on the app also calls into question the widely held belief that Gen Z, those born after 1996, is following the decades-old American trend away from religion.

Maybe TikTok isn't exactly bringing them into the fold — but some religious leaders say the proliferation of faith-related clips suggests the young are searching for something.

In search of the flock

Many TikTok creators making religious content use the same methods as other TikTokers —they ride the waves of the trending content to bring religion to the masses — to maximize attention to their posts.

Father Matt Lowry (@catholic.jacks 73.8K followers) is a Catholic priest who leads a church at Northern Arizona University.

He's not a Gen Zer but "Father Matt," as he's affectionately called, has a team of college students who help him create social media content to reach local students.

When Father Matt and his Gen Z advisers combined two trends — the song "Stunnin'" with the "What I'd wear" concept — he went viral to the tune of 3.7 million views and over 350,000 likes.

Father Matt was shocked at the success of the clip, which simply shows him in different robes for various holy days.

He was also surprised by the popularity of a clip in which he and young members of the church did the "COVID Slide" — a humorous, socially distanced version of the song "Electric Slide" that starts with putting masks on, continues with elbow taps, and concludes with washing hands.

"It got over a million views," he says.

Out of curiosity, he searched the app to see who else was using the same track.

It seemed to be mostly people between 14 to 21 — "a demographic that the church struggles with right now," says Father Matt.

"They're in TikTok. And if this is where the people are, this is where we want to go."

Using TikTok to reach out to Catholics, Father Matt says, is an "attempt to emulate Jesus, who goes in search of the flock." Continue reading