Peeking Into Other Life: TikTok Motives of Malang's University Students

Uses and gratification theory is the most appropriate theory to understand the motivations of social media users. The aim of this research is to identify the main motive that drive university students aged between 18 - 24 years for using TikTok. A survey was conducted on 383 TikTok users in Malang, selected through a disproportionate stratified random sampling method. Data was collected using an online questionnaire with five motives for using TikTok: social interaction, self-expression, peeking, escapism, and archiving. The results show peeking is the main motivation for using TikTok. Peeking is a form of voyeurism in the new media era, which is a desire to see other people's private lives. TikTok itself contains content that strongly supports this motive, specifically the 'day in my life' content.