Is TikTok the best social media app?
ByteDance Ltd. (Logo is public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
Launched in the U.S. in 2017, TikTok is a video-based social media platform.
Today, many teens are glued to their phones scrolling through social media. One social media platform that many of us are obsessed with is TikTok. I personally spend countless hours on TikTok without even realizing how long I was on there. TikTok has some good and bad things. For example, there are many positive accounts on TikTok that help people feel better about themselves. A bad thing about TikTok is that it can really take up a lot of your time and distract you. To figure out if TikTok is really the best app, I asked Freshman Julie Beshoar, a TikTok user, and freshman Lena Blagg, a non-TikTok user, their opinions on the app.
“[TikTok can be] both [positive and negative] because there’s a lot of very positive communities on TikTok, but [it] is also kind of addictive and time-consuming,” Beshoar said.
TikTok impacted Beshoar in both a positive and negative way. She tends to come across many positive accounts or communities that have helped her accept herself the way she is. Other than the positive accounts, a negative aspect of TikTok to Beshoar is the amount of time she spends on there because she finds the app addictive. On the other hand, Blagg does not have TikTok but she has considered downloading the app since many of her friends have it.
“I already have considered [downloading TikTok] because all my friends have it and you know sometimes like to send me TikToks… and it would be a lot easier for them to send them just through TikTok, so I don’t know if I’ll get it or not, but I have been considering it,” Blagg said.
Non-TikTok user Lena Blagg has thought about downloading TikTok since a lot of her friends have it and send her videos from TikTok. Blagg does already watch videos from TikTok on Instagram Reels, so she already has a feel for what TikTok is and what’s on it. Blagg also thinks if she has TikTok it would be much easier for her friends to send her TikTok videos directly from the app instead of through a different platform of social media.
As Blagg does not have TikTok, she has no problem with people who use it on a daily basis. Since she does use Instagram Reels, she knows that there are positive things on TikTok that help people in many ways. Blagg also thinks that TikTok is a good platform for people our age to use since social media is used daily anyway.
“I have nothing against [TikTok]. I mean, it’s a good platform for people our age… a lot of positive stuff goes through TikTok, and I mean I don’t think there’s really anyone in our generation that isn’t on social media every day,” Blagg said.
Another reason why Beshoar uses TikTok is that since she has a short attention span, it’s very easy for her to watch the videos since they’re 15-60 seconds long. In my opinion, TikTok is a great way to cure your boredom in a quick and easy way because all you have to do is spend a few minutes (or hours) on TikTok, and then you’re no longer bored. A lot of people, including me, like to watch TikTok as a way to forget about school for a little and enjoy the entertainment that the app has to offer.
“My attention span is really short and all the videos on TikTok are really short,” Beshoar said.
Heisenburg • Mar 12, 2021 at 9:16 pm
Tik Tok is the manifestation of the boredom, and the absolute lack of fufilling activies in the life of the younger generations. As today’s youth is partaking in less and less physical activity throughout the years, and they find fake meaning, call it stuffing in their lives through strolling through mediocre humour “Tik Toks.” Going through the apps, it does not help them in any way. No interests being expanded, and the only way it can be described is a braindrain. Not to mention the fact that a few months back it was shown to be spyware.
Tik Tok, whilst not having malicious intent behind the app ended up affecting the lives of many people. This truly shows how we live in a society.
From the anonymous, Heisenburg
Euclid of Alexandria • Mar 12, 2021 at 9:07 pm
Tik Tok is the epitome of the 21st century teenager. It’s far too loud and doesn’t understand basic social issues. The generation of today has a profound lack of understanding for the world. Ask them for their favorite Tik Tok star and you get answers like Bella Porsche and Charli D’Amelio. But ask the newsiest generation to point to Austria on a map and they say, “Like the sound of music?” Or simply ask them who wrote 1984? We are living in a Orwellian nightmare with a generation that is tragically underprepared to enter the world. Yet thank god we have an app that feeds the our morbid curiosity with these so called, “Internet Personalities”. I would rather endure asinine videos about Adam Sandler, than spend hours of scrolling through this endless mockery of internet technology. I know for a fact that Bob Kahn (creator of the “modern” internet) is shaking his head in disbelief in the way his creation has been led astray. We need to reeducate ourselves on the issues and endeavor to understand why we have failed this newest generation.
Much Obliged,
Your Anonymous Friend,
Euclid of Alexandria
Sonia Amelie Ray • Mar 10, 2021 at 6:25 am
To me, I don’t think TikTok is really a nice app, because it contains with more negative contents instead of positive contents, and though it’s a Chinese app, and it’s sometimes filled with negative contents, than positive contents, and some of users accounts used to be hacked, and some TikTok users used to buy followers, followings and last but not least likes. So, it has certainly been hacked. So, I don’t really think that TikTok is the best app on the internet that has ever lived, there’s still other apps, that you can consider the best, else than TikTok. It’s just for entertaining, not for something weird. Use it wisely!!