It’s been about a month since my cousin tricked me into making a TikTok account, as she previously showed me TikToks on her phone, and convinced me this was a good idea. Initially, I thought it was a social media app that kids use and that it would feature non-quality content, which to some extent, is true – unless you know what to look for. But after a month of using this app on and off, I realized I had a completely wrong representation of TikTok. So here’s my in-depth study of a fast-growing, entertaining social media called TikTok.
Firstly, I have to applaud the developers for a clean, easy to use interface, which even an old guy like me (I am old for TikTok, convince me otherwise) can comprehend without major issues. Then, I have to talk about the community in general, which is at heart what makes for good social media. People that use TikTok are by far the least judging that I have witnessed on social media. By that, I mean that they are far less toxic than perhaps on Facebook or YouTube, etc. That allows for more flexible content, as people are simply less likely to view it as negative.
Much content on this social media app is nonsense because the app doesn’t have strict regulations about what you have to post. However, the For-you page, which is essentially the ‘Discover’ tab of TikTok will choose videos based on what’s popular and what you’ve liked in the past. What I see often pop-up is humor, singing, dancing videos, or just people being a*holes to one another.
I have to say that I was a big fan of Vine when it came out – I didn’t have the app as I was too young to have a decent smartphone back then but watched Vine compilations on YouTube all day long. So recently, I discovered videos on YouTube named ‘TikTok but it’s Vine’, which are basically TikToks that resemble similar humor or energy of Vines.
However, I have to applaud TikTok for having a longer video time-limit, which I think is better than Vine’s was. I think that it allows for users to be more expressive and creative, as I see people telling stories and genuinely grabbing your attention to watch the video to the end. I feel like social media in the past few years was diminishing the user’s attention span to the minimum, and TikTok is bringing that back.
One pitfall of TikTok which I don’t necessarily like is so-called trends, where people make a video with the same distinctive song or do something particular which somebody else had already done. Even though some are really creative, there are many people just copying the original which makes for a tone of unnecessary content. Don’t worry too much though, as algorithms take care of that pretty well.
Furthermore, I have to say that the TikTok community has grown quite a bit in our small country – there are more and more creators, which make entertaining content worth your time. Some of them make really good jokes to which our whole family has laughed, including our grandparents. The community is well aware of the culture they live in and makes good use of it – as only a person of the same exact culture can fully understand what a video encompasses.
To conclude, my representation of TikTok has changed a lot, and I would actually recommend you to check it out for yourself. If you previously used this app, I would love to hear your opinion about it! 