Sylvie Goldner, ‘21

April 2020

Tik Tok is a phenomenon. With almost a billion users and millions of videos, there is no content you cannot find. The trending videos page consists of synchronized dances, dogs in sunglasses, gymnastics routines, people staring at their looks in a camera, and some videos where I cannot explain what is happening. The average 15 second framework, though videos can be as long as one minute, gives the app a junk-food like quality -- once you have one bite it is difficult to not take another. I fell into this hypnotizing loop of binging on Tik Tok videos when I first opened the app for the purpose of writing this article. Each video I watched appeared to be the perfect balance of creativity and pointlessness, which drew me into spending an afternoon on the app. While it is important to relax and detach, it is a little worrisome the extent to which Tik Tok can make you do this. 

The history of Tik Tok is an interesting one and as the app has seemed to consume the world, it is worth exploring. Music.ly, which was created in Shanghai in 2014, was a video platform where individuals, mostly teenagers, could lip sync to videos and do fun dances with friends. The app grew in popularity and expanded to countries all over the world, which led to ByteDance Ltd., a technology company, in 2016 to create a rival app called Douyin that had the same functions as Music.ly. In 2017, ByteDance Ltd. ended the competition between the two apps through buying Music.ly which they merged with Douyin. During this merge they decided to change the name of the app to Tik Tok, due to the short duration of the videos that act like a ticking clock. Users around the world who were already familiar with Music.ly were easily introduced to Tik Tok, which resulted in the app taking off. Group dances and parodies were soon embraced by millions all over the world, leading Tik Tok .

While Tik Tok can be mocked for not having a “true purpose”, the platform does have a huge audience around the world that is allowing individuals of all ages and nationalities to become what is coined as “Tik Tok famous.” A few examples of Tik Toker’s who have created a name for themselves on the app are Charli D’Amelio, Jojo Siwa, Zach King, and Loren Gray. These individuals, along with other celebrities, are making a profit off of Tik Tok allowing them to gain an online fan base. The app has now been downloaded in 155 countries and during COVID-19 it is being used by some organizations like the World Health Organization to promote information on the current crisis.  

 In this moment of isolation, we are all experiencing moments when we are giving our brain junk food. Whether this is in the form of eating a box of oreos, making whipped coffee each morning, or non-stop watching Love Island, our bodies want this surface level enjoyment where we don’t need to think about anything but what is right in front of us. Tik Tok is one of these junk foods for the brain that allows the sadness and loss outside of our homes to be forgotten for a moment, as our phones display videos of laughter, lightness, and parody. While Tik Tok holds the potential for hours lost in the day, in small doses it holds the potential to make this time a little better for everyone.