From funny lip-sync videos to dancing videos, TikTok has recently become the center hub of it all. In the past year, TikTok has become the most-used social media app, while breaking Instagram and Snapchat download records. For those who don’t know, TikTok is the remake of another once-popular video creation app, Musical.ly. Both apps have been for similar uses, and if you had Musical.ly back when it was an app, chances are that those same videos will appear when logging back in on TikTok. 

After TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, rebranded Musical.ly to TikTok, it wasn’t long before the app’s downloads skyrocketed off the charts! By August 2018, which was 3 months prior to its release, TikTok had already gained over 30 million users. In short, TikTok was destined for fame. It started with more of a reach toward younger kids, then later reaching out to teenagers. Even pets started getting their own TikTok profiles! Recently, adults and families have been known to also have group TikTok accounts. While the app requires you to be 13+ to use it, it hasn’t stopped younger children from creating accounts and posting to the app.

The use of this app from children younger than 13 is said to be controversial, due to its root to Musical.ly. Back during the Musical.ly era, children were quite often said to have been messaged by pedophiles. For example, a 7-year old girl from Indiana was asked to share naked pictures through the app and around the same time, a 25-year old man had been arrested for forcing minors to send the same type of explicit photos to them. Even in Hong Kong, children as young as 9 years old had reported receiving messages from pedophiles, who’d ask to marry the children. TikTok has recently been banned in India for a lot of the posts consisting of culturally degrading content. ByteDance hasn’t argued against this, in fact, acknowledging that users post racist content on there and that they are constantly working hard to block these posts from releasing. These arguments however, have been shut down by TikTok themselves… 

While acknowledging the fact that Musical.ly had a history of pedophilic uses, TikTok has since revamped its technology used to secure user information, as well as, keeping children safe overall. As reported by the Harvard Business Review, TikTok uses an AI, artificial intelligence, which is practically a virtual robot, to display user-specific content. This means that they use a built-in robot that tracks and displays what the user sees, likes and is interested in, what they are potentially interested in, and can even track what you might not want to see. This AI also displays certain content varying by age group. So chances are, if you are a 9-year-old on TikTok nowadays, you might just be seeing cute pet videos, dancing to mainstream music, or lip-sync challenges. 

The older you are, and the more mature content you view on TikTok is tracked, and TikTok will direct you to specific genres of videos you are interested in. While it may seem a little weird to think that a robot is tracking your data within an app, this AI has proved to be one of TikTok’s successes. Most apps, like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, just have AI to help direct you to posts that you are interested in. For these apps, it provides a large variety to what you view, but TikTok helps you see what your friends could also see, helping you stay updated on funny videos going viral. TikTok’s success also comes from straight-up user creativity. TikTok allows users to bond over their insecurities, existential curiosities, fears, goals, achievements, etc. 

Well, what does this mean for all of us? At the end of the day, we’re just high school students looking for a Vine-like escape from life’s abnormalities. Actually, it’s really evident that most teenagers found TikTok as weird, especially because of it’s Phoenix-like rebirth from Musical.ly. I surveyed a couple of OHS students from the Class of 2020 and Class of 2022, and they helped make it very clear that while TikTok seemed weird to teenagers at first, the app has done well to fight off the horrible stigma surrounding the app. 

In fact, these students seemed to have a lot to say about the use of the app.

Students Opinion:

• What was your initial reaction to the release of TikTok, prior to the revamp from Musical.ly?

Senior A: “At first, I thought TikTok was ugly and cringey to be on. But, once I downloaded it, I couldn’t stop using it.”

Senior B: “When TikTok was first released, I really didn’t care about it. I didn’t care to download it and I didn’t want any part of it just because I had never been a big fan of Musical.ly. As it grew in popularity, I continued seeing videos of TikToks, from other platforms like Instagram, so I finally decided to break and just download it, and I ended up really liking the app.” 

Senior C: “I was surprised when they released TikTok! TikTok is way better than Musical.ly. And funnier!” 

Sophomore A: “At first, I didn’t want to install it… It was kind of weird in my opinion, but one day, I saw people using the app. I decided to install it after.” 

• TikTok is said to be a new-age Vine (2012-2017). Do you agree or disagree?

Senior A: “I disagree! Vine will be on the ONLY Vine.”

Senior B: “Honestly yes, because similarly to Vine, people post funny little snippets of videos on the daily and they gain followers and support in the same way those did with Vine.”

Senior C: “I agree and disagree. I’m in the middle because some people try to be funny, like Vine. But most of the people using TikTok use the same sounds as everyone else. They aren’t as original and funny, as Vine was.” 

Sophomore A: “I agree because many people are creating new, and funny content. The videos they create are very similar to Vine.”

• How do you feel when you hear that TikTok has been misused to sexually exploit kids?

Senior A: “I’m not too sure what that means..” (Sexual exploitation is non-consensual abuse of one’s sexuality for the purpose of sexual pleasure.)

Senior B: “To me personally that’s actually quite disappointing since Tiktok is a popular app and is heavily targeted towards kids, so to find out that there are people now standing as predators on the app really worries me.”

Senior C: “I’m not really surprised because it happens on a ton of online apps. Children are targeted everywhere by grown men.”

Sophomore A: “I feel like it’s easy on this app because kids don’t know where to stop, and then something fun turns into something bad to a large extent.”

• Do you think TikTok’s rapid growth in popularity is scary?

Senior A: “Not really. It happens with a lot of apps! It’ll probably die down soon.”

Senior B: “No, I don’t think that Tiktoks rapid growth in popularity is scary or an issue because honestly I feel that in our day and age, any new social media platform is going to gain popularity at a very high rate because we live in a society that is primarily based on electronics and contacting through online sources, so this doesn’t come as a shock.”

Senior C: “I don’t think it’s scary at all! It’s surprisingly good, actually! Especially for the company [ByteDance].”

Sophomore A: “Not really because it’s such a popular app that people use. It’s rapid growth is really not surprising.”

• Do you think TikTok does it’s best to protect all groups of people from harassment/harm on the app? Do you think TikTok does too much to protect it’s content?

Senior A: “Yeah, I see a lot of people who aren’t afraid to be themselves and often, others don’t judge them on the app. Except for when they say the n-word. They also choose to delete some content, and not others. Sometimes it’s not fair, to be honest.”

Senior B: “I do think that Tiktok does its best to protect people from different groups, but I don’t think that it’s best is necessarily enough. Personally I have seen a number of hate and bullying in the comments of videos, and though people do have the option to turn off their comments not everybody is aware of that so they often have to endure and accept the hate. As for the extra protection, I really feel that it depends on the situation and what the content is. There are times where I feel as if there maybe should have been a warning with the video or it should have been taken down. Then, there are other times where I question why there is a warning with it or why it was taken down.”

Senior C: “I think it does it’s best to protect people. When videos show or talk about something wrong, TikTok puts it as “under review”, or they just delete the video from the account. I don’t think they do too much, but sometimes, they put videos “under review” when nothing inappropriate shows.”

Sophomore A: “Yeah, TikTok protects people. TikTok rarely makes mistakes in deciding what content to remove, but it does happen here-and-there.”

• Sexist memes are popular on TikTok. Have you ever witnessed any sexist, racist, or problematic content on the app?

Senior A: “Yes, but it’s funny to me, and I have a dark sense of humor so I tend to not really get offended.”
Senior B: “I really haven’t seen too many pieces of content that go against certain groups that raise problems, but the few I have seen often involve the warning of “dark humor”.”

Senior C: “I have seen people talk about inappropriate stuff, but TikTok doesn’t take it down… People don’t really see it as a serious thing. Mostly everyone understand its a joke.”

Sophomore A: “I have seen some controversial things on the app, but people reported it or have commented asking the person to stop, or take it down.”

• Do you ever feel judged, or bad about yourself, from certain content on the app?

Senior A: “Only when I see really pretty skinny girls, and I start to wish I looked like them.” 

Senior B: “I typically don’t feel judged or bad about myself from the content on the app, other than just like personal reasons or pure jealousy, but I feel that’s how it is with any other solo social media platforms nowadays, so that’s not a direct issue with Tiktok.”

Senior C: “I don’t because I know that everything’s a joke when you know the person is trying to be funny. Although people, especially women may, because men talk about their “ideal” girl and it’s mostly girls with blonde hair, and light-colored eyes.”

Sophomore A: “There are really pretty people on the app, but I don’t feel bad about myself because of it..”

• What do you like to see when you use TikTok? What are your benefits from using the app?

Senior A: “I like to see attractive guys and funny videos. [Laughs.] TikTok helps to pass time and often distracts you from anything that you have going on.”

Senior B: “I like to see funny and relatable content. Tiktok does a good job on placing what you like to see on your For You page and allowing you to see more of the content you like and less of the content you don’t. There are definitely a bunch of benefits! First of all, you get to express yourself in ways that you might not be able to..  You can also promote brands, or products, and most importantly, you have the opportunity to meet and contact other people who are like you, or may be going through the same issues or experiences you are.”

Senior C: “I don’t really look for specific content. I usually just look at anything that’s on my For You page, or what the people I follow posted. I benefit from using this app because I get to meet new people, and I get to put myself out there. The only benefit is that it helps pass time… or waste it.”

Sophomore A: “I like to see funny content. TikTok allows me to communicate with people from all over, and allows me to express myself.”

• Do you believe becoming “TikTok famous” is attainable for everyone? If no, why not? If so, how does one achieve this?

Senior B: “I do believe that being TikTok famous is achievable for anybody, but I feel that it depends on the type of content you make (relatable, humorous content does the best) and how actively you produce it. The type of followers you gain through the content you make also play a key role. Most importantly it does have to do with chance and whether you get on the for you page or not. But I think that if it’s something you really really wanted to do, you definitely could do it.”

Senior C: “I think it’s attainable for anyone. You just have to think of something funny, or it has to be kind of relatable. It doesn’t have to be funny, though! People get “TikTok famous” from dancing and singing, too.”

Sophomore A: “I think it’s possible because there is one person in our school that is famous. I personally have gotten to the point of going viral, so I think it is possible. You should put out trendy content, or original content that will make someone smile, or happy, or laugh.”

• And finally, any last comments? Are you looking forward to the future of TikTok?

Senior A: “I want to be TikTok famous so that’s all I want!”

Senior B: “With the future of Tiktok, I’m definitely looking forward to more funny and relatable content, but also seeing how it is used beneficially, whether that’s through promoting brands and products, or even spreading awareness.”

Senior C: “I’m looking forward to more funny videos.”

Sophomore A: “Not really, I want it to stay the same. I like how it is right now.”

Honestly, it’s not hard to understand why TikTok has grown so popular. I used TikTok before and after, researching and interviewing people for this article. The app is so genuine with the content. No one really mentioned this, but the app allows people with birth defects to show themselves to the world, too. Many people haven’t seen people suffering with birth defects, disabilities, or are just physically different from mainstream society. I just wanted to highlight that the app has been really good at promoting them, especially through the use of the “For You” page. 

No matter what, though, after owning the app for a day, you will definitely not regret downloading the app! TikTok is a very fun app to use, and it’s free on the App Store, and Google Play Store. Check it out! But not before doing your homework. I promise you, you will get distracted and be left wondering where the time went!