Ejercicio B · Inglés PAU Madrid Modelo 2024

TEXTO B

TikTok’s Rise

TikTok in 2022 became the most-downloaded app in the world, quietly surpassing forerunners Instagram and Twitter. By the end of 2023, it will overtake YouTube as the social media platform that users spend the most time watching. The video platform's meteoric rise has surprised investors and industry experts. As it grows at fast speed, the newspaper The Guardian investigates some of the many questions surrounding its operations: the opaqueness of its algorithm and its effect on our brains.

TikTok’s sprint towards world dominance began in 2018, when it first surpassed Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube in downloads. The following year, it became the fourth most-downloaded non-gaming app in the world. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic poured gasoline on the app's already-explosive growth. As billions of people struggled through repeated lockdowns, the app increased downloads, reporting a 45% rise in monthly active users. A recent report showed that nearly half of people between 18 and 30 in the US use the platform and 67% of users between the ages of 13 and 18 use the app daily.

TikTok’s algorithm, which serves intensely specific content to users, is a key element of its success. The platform, according to internal documents leaked in 2021, optimizes content for minutes and hours of view time – a departure from its competitors who historically prioritized clicks and engagement. That significant difference and its algorithm's impressive efficacy have raised alarm at the mental health impact of such intensive targeting.

Concerns about the consequences of extensive social media use have also been long standing, with studies suggesting excessive use can exacerbate mental health problems. Besides, TikTok comes with its own problems, including that its algorithm feed can make unhealthy trends go viral before they can be banned for safety.

Adapted from “From dance videos to global sensation: what you need to know about TikTok’s rise,” The Guardian, October 22, 2022. <https://bit.ly/3TSeiC0>

QUESTIONS

B.1.- Are the following statements TRUE or FALSE? Copy the evidence from the text. Use a complete sentence. No marks are given for only TRUE or FALSE. (Puntuación máxima: 2 puntos)

a)

TikTok will become the second most watched social media by the end of this year.

TRUE

FALSE

b)

TikTok’s algorithm is crucial for the app’s widespread popularity.

TRUE

FALSE

B.2.- In your own words and based on the ideas in the text, answer the following questions. Do not copy from the text. (Puntuación máxima: 2 puntos)

a)

How did Covid-19 affect the use of TikTok?

b)

What are the main worries about using TikTok and other social media excessively?