At first, TikTok wasn't hyped up how it is now. People were mourning the loss of Musical.ly, but in reality, what was once Musical.ly, is just now TikTok. They didn't really go anywhere, they just revamped. It wasn't like Vine, who just disappeared completely.. (I miss Vine, please come back).
The purpose behind TikTok was to engage the audience by watching short clips that contains a bunch of content that'll leave them wanting more. It's like Twitter with 180 characters, but in TikTok, you can make videos up to a minute long and hope you get likes and shares beyond belief on the app.
It was developed in China, and once the app started spreading, it spread like wildfire and it became the most downloaded app in 2018. What's the hype about it? Why do people get gratification out of lip-syncing to songs, dancing provocatively not knowing that there are probably older humans watching them.
The most popular videos on the app are usually those created by young females who are lip-syncing and dancing to a song that eventually becomes very, very popular. The sad reality of it all is that these videos are being seen by older men who lurk on the app, message these young girls, and even use the 'duet' feature on the app to show their 'reaction' to the original content creator.
According to a Buzzfeed article, from an 18-year-old Liz W, she states, "If some creepy guy just keeps liking videos of younger girls doing similar audios or soundtracks or hashtags, those are going to keep coming up on his "For You" page, so it's easier for him to find more victims. And I think that's what makes it so easy for predators to come on it and victimize young children."
Now, there are people on the app who try and stop these predators, but they aren't stopping the content creators. Why, though? Why aren't we stopping these thirteen/fourteen/fifteen year old girls from dancing in a way that could be taken sexually? Why are these girls getting hype? Girls such as Danielle Cohn and Charli DeAmico are getting hype for no reason, and I believe that it's because they're younger (Both under the age of 18), and dancing in a way that someone could take sexually or provocatively. They aren't the only ones dancing like this, though. There are girls and even guys on this app dancing in a way that could be taken the wrong way. I don't think these kids realize it at first, but once their videos start to blow up, it'll be exposed to a larger audience, meaning that predators could potentially find the videos and find the creators.
I, personally, am not a fan of these girls that do this because they know it gets them likes and attention. Some of these girls are fully aware of what they're posting but they don't care. They're getting paid to post these videos, they're getting likes and follows, anything for the clout these days, I guess. It's disappointing, honestly. We live in a generation where it's all about likes, follows, recognition, and as someone who grew up with social media, I understand the hype around things, but it's gotten way out of hand.
All I am saying is you can renegade all you want, you can hit the woah, but please, STOP THROWING IT BACK FOR A REAL ONE.
