TikTok: The Good, The Bad and The Trending

TikTok has supporters and haters, high and low quality content, and some extremely confusing dance trends, but it’s sole purpose is not to please every corner of the internet. TikTok’s mission is to “inspire creativity and bring joy.” I I Graphic created by Draven Haefs

“I will sift through hours and hours and hours of cringey, not good tik toks to find one tik tok that makes me cry laughing. Like, then it’s all worth it to me.” 

In her most recent video, Jenna Marbles defends her hours on end of aimless scrolling through the new short-form video app, TikTok. The rest of her twenty minute video features some of the gems she feels she’s found.

“TikTok makes me feel the way that Vine made me feel,” she confesses to the camera. 

Recently, everyone has been talking about the latest app that has broken the internet, TikTok. The app’s one minute maximum time for each video a user creates proves that it’s not just for a new generation of social media users, but for the old as well. 

In 2017, the death of another popular app, Vine left a massive void on cell phone users everywhere when it shut down. On the app, users could create and share six second clips that could get millions of loops and go viral in just a few hours. After the app disappeared, former users desperately tried to keep the six second memories alive. 

Then TikTok started climbing the charts in the App Store. 

“It has the same energy as Vine,” said Hannah Gillihan, a sophomore at King’s and an avid TikTok user. “At first it was not funny. It wasn’t like Vine at all. But, I think now that it’s gaining traction, people are doing, like, the skits that they did on Vine.” 

The beginning of TikTok’s rise began back in 2018 when the company merged with Musical.ly, a lip-syncing app where users would record videos mouthing the words to popular songs and other recordings. 

While TikTok was quickly gaining users from all around the world, there was still a large majority of people who viewed TikTok as “cringey” due to its merge with Musical.ly which carried an even greater mark of shame. Even today, TikTok is still struggling to shake its stigma. 

“Everyone hates on TikTok,” Gillihan said. “None of my friends except for Beth will watch the tik toks I send them because it’s TikTok.” 

Although Jenna Marbles is recognizing some of her favorite content on TikTok, other popular YouTubers, such as Cody Ko, are highlighting the more “questionable” videos they scroll past on their feed. More specifically, they’re interested in the types of people and trends that are filling up the “For You” page.

Cody Ko’s video that was released on October 8, pointed fingers at a popular stereotype taking over the TikTok Platform: the “eboy”. An eboy resembles Johnny Depp in the classic horror film, Nightmare on Elm Street, but they’re known for showing off their thrifted clothing and abs while an Indie song plays in the background.

“It’s kind of just like a bunch of, like, kids that jacked K-Pop style and, now, like use it as a thirst trap,” Ko says as he tries to explain the eboy stereotype to his girlfriend. 

The YouTuber might have a lot to say about certains aspects of the app, but he happens to be a user himself. In fact, more and more influential are joining the app everyday. 

“TikTok makes me feel the way that Vine made me feel.”

Will Smith launched his YouTube channel back in December of 2017, and now he’s creating TikTok content as well. Other celebrities such as Post Malone and Miley Cyrus are gaining millions of likes on the platform as well. 

“I hate it,” Gillihan said when asked how she felt about celebrities joining the app. “Except for Howie Mandel. His are okay because they’re so funny.” 

Despite its reputation, TikTok is proving to be an asset for multiple reasons. The app itself helps social media influencers and celebrities to grow their audience, but is also being utilized by companies and news organizations to target younger audiences. The Washington Post currently has over 250,000 fans on TikTok.

The app has supporters and haters, high and low quality content, and some extremely confusing dance trends, but it’s sole purpose is not to please every corner of the internet or build a business’s following. TikTok’s mission is to “inspire creativity and bring joy.”

“Give it a shot,” Gillihan urged. “Literally, give in and watch it and you will love it.”