Tiktok and Real People

Generations tend to use different modes of communication to share stories, bond with members of the same generation, to explore creativity, and criticize events and banalities of their daily lives. The common use of smartphones enables such interactions, and consequently creates an environment for users to share content over different platforms, and especially social media platforms.

Each platform has its features and main focuses, be it photo or video-sharing, exchange of messages in public or private, or the creation of a filtered or realistic portrait of one’s life. With the creation of Vine in 2013, and its growing popularity in regards to the content it pushes users to share, 6-second videos, the user population has proven a clear interest in easy to consume and produce, relatable content. After the “death” of Vine as an app, its users kept using other social media platforms while waiting for another platform of Vine’s kind to pop-up. If Musical.ly was a glimmer of hope for users, its “tacky” or singing-focused content, felt too exclusive for a large audience coming from Vine’s times.

In 2016, ByteDance Ltd. creates TikTok, then acquires Musical.ly in 2017, and ultimately merges it into TikTok a year later. This strategic move creates enthusiasm for TikTok, as a potential “new” Vine, while simultaneously keeping Musical.ly’s audience interested.

It is in 2019 that TikTok reaches its highest potential to date, with more than half a billion users, and a reach that goes beyond its country of origin. It is downloadable for free on iOS, Android, and Windows. Its business model is built around ads for the moment and is currently building up to become an “influencer” platform where popular creators are verified by the application and are offered business deals and even agency contracts, as they transfer their popularity from one platform to another. It is now rightfully considered a social media and video-sharing platform by its users.

The app’s features, which are reminiscent of other social media platforms such as Instagram are: likes, comments, likes on comments, video-sharing (length up to 1 minute per video), filters on videos, followers, hashtags, public/private accounts, verified accounts, re-sharing of videos, and live streams. TikTok’s unique features are duets (reactions to another user’s video), the “for you” page (content suggested based on previous activity and preferences of content), and video-editing through the app (with effects, music and trends suggested by the app itself, and others created by users). All of these features considered, it is imperative to use a smartphone to produce and upload content, and a computer or smartphone to consume it.

The difference between Instagram and Tiktok is that the former is embedded in photo culture (Manovich, 11) while the latter represents a culmination of all types of video entertainment and humoristic content sought by users – Vine had filled a void in that area of entertainment that Tiktok is now taking over. Manovich describes Instagram’s now vanished purity as its former “square picture format.” (12) The platform’s constraints or features slowly became an annoyance for its users, while Tiktok enables users to create within a 60-second using its editing options. Its range of editing option is useful for multiple types of video content, because some creators do not necessarily need their editing to be sharp, but simply practical. It makes sense that the platform offers workable editing functionalities that are easy to navigate, since it is targeted for “real people” (Tiktok.com) who are not necessarily trained in video editing.

If Instagram is culturally perceived as an aesthetic-focused platform, TikTok is where users are more relatable, as the content is less curated, for now. In fact, a large array of content is available on the app. Singers, dancers, anime lovers, baristas, younger and older people, students and professionals, can share content depending on their interests, and reach a considerable audience through the platform’s use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) which pinpoints a user’s likes, follows and comments, and is able to make connections between content that have similar attributes, and recommend it to the appropriate audience.

The inclusiveness is the platform, with people of all backgrounds and walks of life, allows for content to be humorous, serious, creative, approachable, and inspiring while enabling social commentaries. Mental health is a topic often brought up in TikTok videos as it enables users to speak of their experience, help others, and get feedback from other users in similar situations. We could denote that usually taboo topics (i.e. sexuality, abortion laws, gun laws, gay rights) become elements of bonds and discussion for TikTok users. The “normal users” (Manovich, 20) mentioned by Manovich, are what Tiktok strives off; their “realness” (from the topics they discuss, the personality types they represent, or the background they come from) brings users together, what advertising and profit-making organizations usually disable.

The element which helps users find niche content suitable for their personality and entertainment needs is the platform’s algorithm. The platform abides by Bozdag’s “model of filtering for online web services including personalization,” (Bozdag, 214) with features allowing the platform, users, and content creators to make choices that facilitate an increasingly more advanced personalization. With two different content feeds, “Following” and “For You”, users can watch content they know are already to their taste with the former, and explore with the latter. The “Following” feed has an impact on the “For You” feed as it directs the platform towards different “categories” of content that the user is interested in. Then, the time spent watching certain videos, and likes attributed to those, sharpens the algorithm. Bozdag lists a number of other actors influencing the algorithm: location of the user, location of the item (content creator), user interaction history, interpersonal networks, item attractiveness, etc. These are being acknowledged and mentioned by TikTok users and creators, and even tested in some cases. For example, users may post videos mentioning Ontario and be able to reach Ontario citizens due to the algorithm. As Tiktok’s algorithm is still “new”, comparatively to Instagram’s, users are constantly testing it to see how accurate it is becoming. If this algorithm tends to be intrusive in the way it analyses users’ every moves, it helps communities such as the LGBTQ+ and ethnic minorities be seen and heard where they are overlooked on other platforms.

A number of Tiktok content creators have reached heights in popularity because of the algorithm and the relatively small number of content creators, at least in North America. Users are able to gain millions of followers in a matter of days because their videos are shown to a considerable portion of Tiktok users. This is valuable to companies whose target markets are kids, teenagers, and young adults.

            It is known that the marketized content found on Instagram transforms users into potential consumers, and that is common among other social media platforms such as TikTok. In fact, we can observe brands and “Tiktokers” collaborating in an increasing manner on the platform. Brands will reach out to popular creators, such as Charli D’Amelio, a white fifteen-year-old American girl who has more than 25M followers on the platform and offer money for content featuring their brand or products. For instance, Charli has recently collaborated with Dunkin Donuts, which was a brand she would often mention out of interest in her past videos, and made original content labeled as #AD. This is reminiscent of how Instagram as we know it came to be, and of the annoyance among users who are looking to be entertained rather than persuaded to buy services and products.

            As of today, in 2020, Tiktok remains a platform for entertainment and creativity, for “real” people, but its popularity among North-American users may lead to increasingly persistent interventions by lucrative companies and organizations, which may ultimately push users away from the platforms, toward a newer, less commercial platform.

Works Cited

Bozdag, Engin. “Bias in Algorithmic filtering and personalization.” Ethics and information technology, 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-013-9321-6. Accessed 10 February 2020.

Manovich, Lev. “Instagrammism and Contemporary cultural identity.” Instagram and Cultural Image, 2016.

Tiktok.com. https://www.tiktok.com/fr/. Accessed 12 February.