TikTok on a phone (Jack Sicolo CMRU.ca)
TikTok appeared to have come out of nowhere; it quickly garnered mass media attention and started becoming a topic which is even discussed in the U.S Senate. Currently, the app has over 1.6 billion users. With the amount of news coverage and traffic which it is receiving, TikTok is a good place for emerging talent to showcase their skills to the world. The answer is yes and no.
History
Very little do new apps emerge from the bloat of the three main social media platforms, that being X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram and Youtube. TikTok appeared to have come out of nowhere and absolutely dominated the landscape of online media. I was initially hesitant to download the app as when it first appeared the claims of it being chinese spyware certainly circulated between my friend groups.
TikTok truly hit the mainstream for myself when I came to learn that a lot of the content on the app was cringe. Whether it be bad cosplays, annoying people, out of touch adults. Pretty soon I was watching TikTok cringe compilations on Youtube due to a fascination with cringe content. Staying away from the application itself because I was under the impression that my phone was completely secure from spyware at the time.
For You
A year passes by and I eventually cave and download the app. Only to find that it was not filled with cringe but simply just random videos. TikTok uses a very advanced recommendations tab called the for you tab which catered content towards me. Months of scrolling I come to see content creators using tik toks short form content to advertise views on their channel. Content creators which I would have never heard of starting showing up in my feed. After seeing them show up again and again my curiosity eventually caused me to look them up. And pretty soon those channels became success stories due to the algorithm pushing them onto peoples for you page.
The creator I’ve seen rise from using the TikTok algorithm is Jynxzi. Jynxzi is a streamer on twitch who gained almost overnight success becoming one of the most popular channels on Twitch. Gaining 400,000 followers in a many of months simply due to using TikTok to push his stream to new viewers. TikTok was where I learned of him, seeing clips from his stream and I found it entertaining and looked at his stream. It worked.
Double-Edged Sword
Tiktok is the sixth largest social media platform in the world and can help launch creators into the public eye. However, it can also hold you back from ever getting past the initial plateau of fame. Due to tik tok short form content, long form content creators can use it to garner eyes to their channel however it won’t necessarily keep those eyes on that channel.
Many examples of this can be seen as certain creators will dominate the short form content getting millions of views and followers on that short form type content. However, when it comes to their long form content, they can barely break 10k views. You won’t gain an audience off TikTok, you will simply gain eyes to look at your content. An example of this can be the creator JustPearlyThings who currently sits at 1.8 million subscribers on Youtube, yet and single video can’t break over 10k views. There is zero engagement from her audience. She simply gained a following off TikTok clips of her being misogynistic which will cause engagement. Her views on TikTok are insane and yet her long form content is no where close to where it should be for her size.
Lower form of media
Despite the relevance and size of TikTok it still contains a sort of bias. People such as myself regard it as lower form content. An example of this can be demonstrated with musical artists. TikTok has a certain agreement giving creators the ability to use copyrighted material as sounds. This means copyrighted songs can be used for content. TikTok also seems to have a copycat culture and content gets heavily influenced by trends. Songs can be relatively unknown then appear in a famous TikTok trend and all the sudden be mainstream radio music. Spotify currently has playlists labeled as TikTok playlists.
This has boosted artists to the mainstream but many people such as myself look down upon songs which got big off TikTok. Even if it’s a good song which came out in 2006, I know many people who pray to the lord that their favorite song does not become popular on TikTok because you will be looked down upon for having your favorite song being a tiktok song. This labels artists who got big on TikTok being labeled as TikTok artists and become viewed as a type of lower form of content.
The future of TikTok Content Creation
TikTok can be a useful tool for creators to push their content into the mainstream due to its algorithm and short form content allowing users to view thousands of TikTok’s in a hour. However, it does not necessarily mean long term success. I look at TikTok as a lower form of content. Something that gets popular off of TikTok is looked down upon as lesser and TikTok fame dies quick. The app will help you rise but you will plateau and eventually fall.
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