Who’s Using Who? Emily Baker-White Breaks Down TikTok’s Grip on Us in ‘The Intersect with Cory Corrine’

Have you ever closed out of TikTok and thought, “Wait, where did the last two hours go?” That endless scroll isn’t an accident. With more than 170 million Americans logging on regularly, the platform is shaping culture itself.

On The Intersect with Cory Corrine, host Cory Corrine sat down with Emily Baker-White, Forbes tech reporter and author of Every Screen on the Planet: The War Over TikTok. They chat about TikTok really works, what it’s doing to our attention spans, and the simple but surprisingly complex question we all need to ask ourselves—at the end of your scroll, did you use the app, or did the app use you?

The algorithm knows you better than you do

Part of TikTok’s addictive pull comes down to how the app learns about us. Instead of relying on what we say we like, TikTok optimizes for what Baker-White calls “revealed preferences”—the tiny, almost invisible behaviors we do on the app.

Think about the videos you linger on for just a few extra seconds. It could be travel inspiration, maybe it’s someone’s chaotic apartment makeover. TikTok remembers, and it keeps feeding you more. “There are all kinds of subtle things we wouldn’t announce to the world or even tell an app we want to see more of, but TikTok knows it will bring us back,” Baker-White explains. That’s why the algorithm feels eerily accurate. It’s not asking you what you like. It’s watching you long enough to know.

And it doesn’t take much. Even the very first time you log in, TikTok already has a head start. Based on your location, device, and whether your friends have uploaded their contacts, the app can make surprisingly strong guesses about your interests. “If 25 of your friends are on TikTok and have shared their contact list, then TikTok knows a lot about you before you’ve even uploaded your first video,” Baker-White notes.

The allure of a frictionless experience

TikTok has also perfected the art of removing friction—those little steps that give us a chance to stop and think before we click. As Corrine points out, Silicon Valley has long believed that making things seamless will prompt people to do them more often. TikTok takes that logic and runs with it. No typing in search terms, no extra buttons, no choices to slow you down. You open the app, and the videos start rolling.

It sounds convenient, but Baker-White sees the downside. “People are realizing they want friction, actually—that friction is helpful,” she explains. Screen-time limits, apps that lock your phone, even putting the device in another room—all of these are attempts to claw back the control we’ve given away. In other words, if TikTok is designed to be irresistible, the only way to resist is by deliberately adding back the speed bumps.

Who’s really in control?

The bigger question is whether we’re even aware of the trade we’re making when we open the app. Every platform has its own social contract. On Instagram, you get photos of your friends in exchange for seeing ads. On YouTube, you get how-to videos or entertainment with some commercials thrown in. But TikTok feels different because you’re not actively searching for anything—it’s deciding what to serve you.

Corrine reflects on this during the interview, asking whether, at the end of the day, we used the app or the app used us. “At the end of your session, did you use the app more, or did the app use you more?” Baker-White asks.

A little more agency

None of this means you have to delete TikTok immediately. Baker-White herself says don’t toss your phone in the ocean, but just be honest with yourself. If you leave the app feeling inspired, entertained, or connected, then that’s a good trade-off. But if you’re closing it in a fog of irritation or regret, it might be time to rethink how much space it takes up in your day.

“Take a hard look at whether you regret the time you’re spending on any given app or whether you legitimately think you’re getting something out of it,” she advises. If it’s the latter, great. If not, you deserve to find better ways to spend that time—online or offline.

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