TikTok on the popularity clock

Reece Godwin

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They haunt people on every social media app. They are advertised in between Instagram posts. They are in everyone’s nightmares. They are TikToks.

 “There is an ad for TikTok after every Snapchat story I try to watch,” Riley Corona, sophomore, said.

 TikTok is an app that allows users to make short videos. The user is given plenty of audios they can lip sync or dance to. Choices vary from movie lines, songs, and famous dances. Since TikTok surfaced, it has been all over social media. Some people find the videos funny, while others find them irritating.

 “It was cringe, then it was funny for the meme for like a week, and now it’s annoying,” Rachel Crosby, senior, said.

 TikTok was formerly known as Musical.ly. Musical.ly was the same idea as TikTok, with fewer features. Musical.ly was yet another social media platform that provided fame and fortune for people such as Savannah Labrant. The peak of Musical.ly was in late 2017, but parent company ByteDance also bought TikTok, which was originally only an app available in Asia. They merged the two apps together to create one that is now available everywhere.

 “When I think of Musical.ly, I have flashbacks of sophomore year,” Sarah Trotta, senior, said.

 ByteDance made the decision to merge Musical.ly and TikTok based solely on the reputation users had. The app, and those who got fame from it, were only known for lip synching. ByteDance wanted a fresh start and to give users a better reputation, which is why they added Musical.ly features to make one app.

 “TikTok is funny if you find the right ones,” Emily Page, junior, said.

 Most elementary and middle schoolers are enjoying these video recording apps, while high schoolers are using them as bait to mock their younger siblings.

 “I think my younger siblings like doing it because they remember when I was in middle school doing Musical.ly with them. Now they love doing it with their friends in elementary school,” Jazzy Strymecki, junior, said.

 On a survey about TikTok, many students answered with the word “cringe”. Most students can agree that TikTok is an app that lasted for a split second but will not be sticking around.