So I made a TikTok last week. On Friday, someone on Twitter referred to TikTok as "the only social media platform that makes me happier after going on it" or something to that effect. And, like, who doesn't want that? And then, on Saturday, I realized that TikTok was set to be banned on Sunday, so I said why not and downloaded it.
At first, I wasn't thrilled with it. The autoplaying videos and huge focus on fads and video trends was sort of annoying. But then I saved a few creators I already knew about from videos shared on Twitter or Facebook, and things started to change pretty immediately.
So, if you don't have a TikTok, the majority of the UX is the feed of creators you are already following, and the For You Page (in TikTok lingo, the FYP). There is also an "explore" page where you can search tags or see trending topics, but honestly they don't seem especially popular unless there is a really specific thing you want to see. For the casual scroller, the FYP and Following pages are what you interact with. And, unsurprisingly, when you first join TikTok has no idea what you want, so your FYP is sort of a garbled mess of stuff that is currently popular. Big names and trending tags and stuff like that. But after I had liked a few videos and followed just a few creators, the ~algorithm~ immediately started curating my FYP and TikTok began to evolve. It turns out, there are nearly infinite realms of TikTok. And the users know this. People will often refer to their niche topic as "_____ TikTok." Like D&D TikTok. Or KinkTok. Or, as my FYP apparently thinks I love, Bisexual Pirate TikTok. It's not totally wrong. And this is incredible. My feed, at the moment, is voice actors, theater dweebs, dancers, and (weirdly) domestic witches. I am following more POC creators than I ever have, consuming more small-scale comedy and art than I ever have, and I feel like this app is this magical place where anyone can make anything, and everyone there wants to support everyone else.
Sure, there are trolls and bullies and just shitty people on TikTok. There is no utopian social media where everyone is nice and cool and queer. But I don't see any of them because TikTok has learned that I don't want to. So instead I get to see another bisexual pirate or whatever.
So, this is half of it: the diversity of TikTok. ANY interest you have, any demographic you want to see represented, it's there. There are grannies doing knitting tutorials and comedians doing monologues and musicians doing jazz reharmonization of pop music and politics and gaming and ASMR and painting and pottery and dance and sketch comedy and crazy make-up and cosplay and farming and gardening and gymnastics and scuba diving and and and and and. It's infinite, o at least it feels that way. There's no barrier for age or interest. It's really genuinely fascinating to suddenly see someone like Buford, who is a very large mid-50's redneck in overalls doing up-close magic and telling me about the etymology of why we inventory things in dozens. That's real. That's a tiktok I found this morning. And because the algorithm tends to create pockets of interest, there are these simultaneously tight-knit and diffuse communities. It's really unique, and despite being so community driven, it's not insular. These communities commingle and coexist because of the FYP. Which is why I watch lots of music and theater tiktoks, but because of convergent interests I'll see D&D stuff and kink stuff randomly pop up.
But, like, there's a flip side: the homogeneity of TikTok. No matter which realm of TikTok I'm in, there will be approximately 10,000 people who run into a bathroom, turn on the light, look right into the mirror, and deliver a 1-minute monologue while snap-zooming their phone camera. It's everywhere, and everybody does it. Or those trends that I found so annoying at first (and still, occasionally, I do). Stupid audio trends or "challenge" videos or TikTok games. And these things pervade every single corner of TikTok, with the details adjusted to match each unique TikTok-er. These aren't bad things, per se. But it means that I will see the same basic video 100 times from different people with wildly different interests. And that is the other deeply interesting thing about TikTok. It has put together the full scope of humanity into a 1-minute video sharing platform, and all it has shown me is that we're all the same. We want to perform, we want to engage, and we want people to say "oh man me too" and be excited about our passions together.
I guess what I'm saying is you should get TikTok. And if you ever stumble into cottagecore-coffee-witch-ASMR TikTok, say hi. I will probably be watching my 200th video of someone making turkish coffee while a muzac cover of Wii Sports Resort plays in the background.
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