TikTok : The World's Fastest Growing Social Media
What is TikTok?
TikTok originally began back in 2014 under the name Musical.ly. Musical.ly was a popular short-form video streaming app, similar to Vine, that allowed users to express themselves mainly through music and dance. This was up until August of 2018 when it was taken over by a Chinese company named ByteDance and they converted all the users over to their new platform, TikTok. TikTok began with a very similar concept to Muscial.ly in the sense you were limited to 15 second videos, but gave users a much more free and broad scope to work with. Since launch they have expanded and adapted much more, letting users create videos anywhere between 5 and 120 seconds long.
Why is TikTok so popular?
TikTok is now available in over 150 countries and recently surpassed 1 billion monthly users worldwide. On average, users are believed to spend nearly 52 minutes a day on the app, while younger audiences ranging from the ages 5-15 are believed to spend an average of 90 minutes per day on the app! This poses the obvious question, what has made the app so popular? It is largely attributed to TikTok’s algorithm and a new implementation commonly referred to as the “For You” page. This algorithm uses AI and machine learning to fill your feed with the most optimized content for your specific interests. They do this by tracking the videos you interact with the most by either liking, commenting or some other form of interaction. This is why you can often spend hours at a time on the app and not see a single person you know. It is very heavily algorithm based and not meant to connect you with people you’re close with like most other social media.
The Importance of TikTok
TikTok is important because it gives people a way to express themselves in ways they’ve never been able to before. It shows off the creativity of others in a fun and innovative way. The app is also incredibly user-friendly, giving inexperienced social media users an easy way to jump into the mix. It’s an overall great way for strangers to interact with each other that likely would’ve never interacted otherwise. It has essentially started a whole new community of people that didn’t exist before. Popular TikTok users often gather real-life events that give people a chance to interact with each other face-to-face as well. It provides content for all age groups and is often a great learning mechanism in relation to new/unfamiliar cultures and ways of life.
Is TikTok the Future of Social Media?
The short answer here is, yes. In all honesty, they’ve found a way to almost perfectly optimize every aspect of the app. It’s likely the most user-friendly app considering all you have to do is download it and start scrolling. It has an incredible algorithm that gives you the best possible experience you could have on the app. I mean it’s got to the point where it’s essentially shaping the culture of our youth. Current and future social media platforms would be silly to not try and replicate what they’ve done. It’s by no means perfect in the sense that one app holds so much power. It has been banned in several countries to mitigate the spread of false information. There’s still work to be done on the quality control side of things, but there’s so many aspects within TIkTok today that we are going to see for years to come.