By: Jordan Baney, Natalie Brown, and Abby True
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year or so, you’ve most likely heard of the app TikTok. TikTok (previously known as Musical.ly) is a video-sharing social networking platform owned by a Beijing-based company, ByteDance. TikTok has taken the world by storm with its 15-60 second videos. Several influencers have risen to fame through this app by creating these videos, such as Charli D’Amelio (51.8 million followers), Addison Rae (36.7 million followers), Lilhuddy (Chase Hudson) (19 million followers), and many more. TikTok is often seen as a social media platform where anyone can go viral. This happens by getting on the For You Page. The For You Page is TikTok’s recommendation feed, which is personalized to each user based on how they interact with certain videos. If your video ends up on a lot of users’ For You Pages, it is more likely to go “viral” and thus show up on more and more For You Pages.
There is no one type of video on TikTok. There are so many different kinds of videos that users create. For example, there are dancing videos, comedy skits, point-of-view/narrative videos, and so much more. On TikTok, there is something for everyone.
According to research done by Microsoft Corp., the average human attention span decreased from twelve seconds to eight seconds between the years of 2000 and 2015. It’s no surprise, then, that an app based around content that lasts 60 seconds or less has become such a hit. Today’s teens want to see new content in a split second. According to GlobalWebIndex, around 41% of users on TikTok are between the ages of 16 and 24. It appears that young adults are drawn to TikTok because there is a constant influx of new content that can be viewed with the swipe of a single finger. In an age of social media and streaming services, TikTok’s appeal is in its combination of low-effort viewing with instant gratification.
Happy TikToking!
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