TikTok is the Next Big Thing in social media. It’s different from Facebook and Instagram, in that it is not a platform for sharing photos and text and other media, it’s for sharing vertically-shot videos.
At its best, TikTok can allow people to connect and be creative. One of most popular uses for it is to dance or lip synch along to a trendy song or sound bite. There are filters, video effects, sound effects, and some editing tools, like “duets” in which you can film yourself singing along with or responding to someone else’s pre-recorded video, side-by-side. Like the early days of many social media platforms, it can be useful for connecting with like-minded (or like-bodied) people. There are lots of users who provide tips or support or share inside jokes within a community, or resources for those wanting to learn more about that community. And, though this probably won’t last, it currently has no ads.
At its worst it is a relatively unregulated forum for anyone to say anything about anything. Because lots of people have terrible taste and a stupid sense of humor, often really stupid or offensive stuff gets popular. And then you need to rely on the moderators/admin, but as we’ve seen with every other platform, they are very slow to respond to offenses that target smaller, more disadvantaged groups, whereas they can be very quick to censor a post that threatens to kill the president or something. Black people and people of color have complained about TikTok targeting their posts for offensive material when they are making political commentary.
It’s not really better or worse than anything else that came before it. It’s popular because it’s new and appealing because it isn’t outrageously corporatized like Facebook and such. It’s also very popular with The Youth, so politicians are desperately trying understand and co-opt the platform to reach out and touch young minds or something like that. It’s all advertising.
29 May 2020, 2:51 pm
?
