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This Gen Xer Doesn’t Understand TikTok
Can someone please explain what’s happening on this platform?
I don’t understand TikTok. I’ve tried, folks. I really, truly have.
I never had much interest in the platform. The TikTok videos and trends I’ve seen didn’t seem particularly interesting to me. And let’s get real: do any of us actually need another social media platform to get sucked into?
I’m over Facebook — I only keep my account there so I can use it to get into groups for the classes I take. I hate Twitter — being there feels like being in high school again and venturing into the bathroom when all the cool girls are at the mirror and you know they’re going to rip you to shreds the moment they see you, but you really have to pee so you brace yourself while hoping for the best. And Instagram is fast losing its charm thanks to its habit of hiding every account I actually want to see, suppressing anything I post that is even vaguely related to social justice, and becoming a platform that doesn’t seem to have identified its own mission.
So no, this Gen Xer really, really did not want to get on yet another platform.
But it has also become painfully apparent to me that everything I do is subject to repetitive, limiting algorithms, which means the audience I already have on the platforms where I am already active is likely to be the only audience I ever reach unless I find ways to expand my presence to other platforms.
And so, with more reluctance than you can imagine, I begrudgingly opened a TikTok account last year and promised myself that for the sake of my work, I would try.
I hated it. I wish I had dipped my toes into the world of TikTok and looked around in wonder at all the amazing things going on there.
But no, I just really, really hated it.
What the hell is happening there? What are people doing?
Before I had even posted anything, my feed was filled with videos of women in large plastic tubs or giant balloons — yes, balloons — filled with Coke, while someone stood nearby gleefully holding a pack of Mentos.
I’m kinda ashamed to admit this, but yeah, I wanted to know what would happen. I mean, I know…
