COM0015 – Blog #1 – Tik Tok, goes the social media clock

I’ve always really enjoyed Tweetdeck as a social media-monitoring tool, because it lays the news out there like a platter waiting for you to consume. It aggregates information effectively and efficiently, and I find it caters information to you based on what you like to see.

This concept is quite revolutionary and becoming more and more interesting to me – how social media platforms completely polish their algorithm so that content appears on your screen that you didn’t even ask for. How do they know this is what we want to see? How do these algorithms work exactly? This is partly why social media fascinates me so much. There’s so much that goes into it – so many types of intelligent minds congregate to create the most cutting edge tools; literary geniuses who excel at compiling marketing messages, math fanatics good at developing the perfect algorithm, and so on. It never ceases to impress me. 

I love to get my news from Apple News because I think they’re always really on the pulse of what headlines will stand out for people. In terms of trends, I’ve become pretty indulgent in Tik Tok. 

Tik Tok is fairly new in the social media world, and I feel like there are two types of people: those who have just completely surrendered to the addictive wonder that is Tik Tok, and those who are still stubbornly resisting it, scared to spend those extra hours scrolling away and banishing themselves strictly to the world of Instagram (which, in my opinion, is a graveyard in construction). 

This is what I tell my friends who are resisting downloading Tik Tok: it’s honestly worth it. Especially in a pandemic. Realistically, we’re spending about 12 hours on screen time each day anyways – why not spend some of those hours browsing videos that are creative, honest, hilarious, heartfelt, relatable and best of all – catered to SPECIFICALLY YOU.

The Tik Tok algorithm is simply a work of art. I could literally be in the shower thinking about how I might have ADHD, then I open up Tik Tok an hour later and there it is: a video from an online therapist sharing her advice for people with ADHD. Yes, some people might find this frightening. Of course I did at first. But honestly who really cares? In a world that feels increasingly isolating and COVID-ridden, I need videos like these to remind me that there are people out there feeling what I’m feeling. Tik Tok is capitalizing on a social phenomenon – an increasingly socially distanced society, full of people craving human connection but lacking the means and the guts to go get it. 

I think businesses are still green, in terms of using Tik Tok to promote their brand. They’ll get there though. Right now it’s an app for the people (the modern you and I) and it feels like high-level celebs and anyone with a capitalist intention is being shunned. I’m sure that’ll change.

Embrace it! Plus the trends are hilarious. There are a million funny dances and quirky challenges people pose that brings everyone together in laughter. To me, Tik Tok is the great equalizer – the great escape – and I hope it sticks around for a long time.