TikTok Is Not That Bad

Alexander Jansiewicz, Staff Writer

Ok, ok. You read the title, and you are most probably considering that I’m mentally insane. Well, I managed to come across TikTok last Sunday afternoon and realized, “Hey, didn’t I do that one Instagram poll and more people said I should get TikTok?” After all, it was a promise that had to be fulfilled. People genuinely said that I should get TikTok just for the memes. So, I did that. I only half regret it so far.

Since I’ve dived into what is regarded by common teenage society as a cringey, meme-filled rabbit hole, I’ll break down what you see. On the main tab, you scroll down and up through a post that TikTok automatically selects for you, based on tags for videos you’ve already liked. You just keep scrolling, liking, commenting, whatever. It’s a simple system that anyone can pick up in seconds. You can also tap on the music/filters used, favorite it, and use it in your own creations if you dare to delve that far.

As far as content goes, it’s not as bad as everyone thinks it is. Of course, there are bad TikToks that deserve to be regarded as cringe. However, there is a good portion of funny, artistic, or creative posts. You just have to scroll through some of them to find the good stuff. Heck, I was even laughing at someone stupidly pouring maple syrup over a pancake lying on their laptop.

Only problem with the layout of the platform is that it’s hard to find the exact kind of content you want. Twenty likes of art memes later, and you’ll find yourself in one hell of a rabbit hole to get out of. That’s all your feed will become. Not to mention, some features that are more known in TikTok, like doing a “Duet”(the duo camera thing that you see on other people’s videos) are hidden under the share button. It took me a good while to figure that out too.

Other than the fact that the entire platform isn’t organized entirely, it doesn’t hold the common cringe stereotypes as true and promotes something new to social media.