When it comes to TikTok, everyone has their own opinions. Some say the app is dumb; others voluntarily trap themselves in a wormhole for hours happily, then mindlessly scrolling. I am the latter. Recently, while scrolling through my FYP (for you page) I stumbled across a video made by none other than Hank Green - brother of The Fault in Our Stars author, John Green, and resident Tik Tok smart person. Normally, Green makes Tik Toks answering questions from his followers, or refusing to answer them like the notorious, "why can't we eat grass." However, this video was not in his usual format. Instead the video displayed him bragging about his biggest accomplishment, being that his followers page (the page consisting of content made by the people he follows) was better than his for you page (the page consisting of personally curated Tik Toks from anyone on the app). When I saw this I thought about how rarely I spent time on my followers page, and how out of the 150 people I followed, most I couldn't care less about.
So, I decided to make a change. If they didn't make me laugh - or smile for that matter, I unfollowed them. There is no time to voluntarily be unhappy in 2020. When it came to rebuilding my following list, I looked for people that not only made me feel good, but also made me feel good about myself. One person I knew I'd keep was Sienna Gomez, the 16 year old body positivity icon. Sienna Gomez is known for allowing her belly to sit however it may during her videos. Her videos are lighthearted, funny, and comforting as a result of the easy expression of her confidence.
The next person I followed was Dalia Cromwell, otherwise known as @the.extra.girl. Cromwell posts content from the back of her convertible, usually while being driven either through the city of London, or over a bridge. While she rarely speaks in her videos, it's the on screen text you want to pay attention to. Every Tik Tok is about being the most confident person you can be, and not letting the words or actions of others, specifically boys, change the way you feel about yourself. The Tik Tok that led me to click the follow button read, "Baby, love yourself like you're not waiting for someone else to do it. Let's normalize fancying ourselves. I don't need a man's validation for that tf. <3" I like to think of Dalia Cromwell's Tik Toks as my daily horoscopes for self care. Her videos are blunt, but they're always exactly what I need to hear, and always leave me feeling stronger.
Caroline Ricke otherwise known as, @richcaroline always provides a good laugh. Dressed in the latest trends of 2002, Rich Caroline spends her videos walking around her mansion saying absolutely outrageous things about her life as a "rich person." Her videos remind me to not take life so seriously, and to sometimes just let things be a little ridiculous.
I started my little Tik Tok experiment because I wanted to see if I could curate a feed for myself better than an algorithm made to impress me. And by taking the small amount of time to remove the people who weren't contributing to my happiness, and actively seeking those who were, I discovered a change in the way I thought about myself, and the world around me. I was more confident, less stressed, and overall happier. Maybe Tik Tok taught me something about what I should be seeking and rejecting in the physical world too. Woah, did this just get really deep? Who would've thought.
