On March 11, 2020, the Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, was announced a pandemic by the WHO (World Health Organization). Towards the end of the month, on March 24th, Sao Paulo's state governor João Doria announced the quarantine, and that is when it all began: the start of something no one had ever thought would occur.
Countless hours of boredom as well as emotional, and physical exhaustion were driven into people’s lives. However, despite the chaos, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. A thing nobody knew they needed in their lives but once introduced could not remember life without it.
What is this instrument of wonder?, I hear you ask. Well, It is nothing more and nothing less than an app. I am, of course, talking about TikTok. A social media platform, unlike any other that has surprisingly become Generation Z's favorite pastime.
But where did Tik Tok come from?
If you were a teenager during 2014, I'm sure you've used or at least heard of Musical.ly at some point throughout the year and was aware of the sudden popularity it gained. The main objective of this social-media app was to enable young people to express themselves by lip-syncing, dancing, singing, and comedy.
ByteDance, a Chinese app developer, responded in 2016 with "Douyin", which quickly became Musical.ly's biggest competitor. Originally it was released exclusively in China, but, later on, in order to capture the attention of people worldwide, it was renamed and remarketed as "Tik Tok". In the blink of an eye, the renewed social media platform gained nearly 100 million users. Musical.ly was eventually bought by ByteDance for the grand total of $800 Million dollars towards the end of 2017. Bytedance made the smart decision to combine the user accounts of Musical.ly and TikTok one year later, mixing both apps into one.
The combined brand and user foundation caused the app to rise in popularity at a fast rate. Almost unbelievably, at the beginning of 2018, the app was the most downloaded on the Google and Apple stores, exceeding other popular social media platforms like Whatsapp. Since April 2020, TikTok has had more than two billion installs on mobile devices, with a vast increase in popularity coming during the global coronavirus pandemic (as you might have expected).
Why do Teens like the app?
If you have ever used Tik Tok, you might have already seen all the weird challenges and trends on the app. A recent trend that has caught my attention is a ghost photoshoot. It's quite straightforward: the participant poses in white bedsheets resembling a ghost and takes photos of themselves. Usually, they put on sunglasses or other accessories to add spice to the pictures. The challenge is not just for people – even pets can take part and, well, the pet photoshoots are simply amazing. I mean come on, if a pug dressed up as a ghost with tiny sunglasses on doesn’t make your day I don't know what will. The users get the opportunity to participate in these challenges and trends through hashtags and sounds on the application.
The majority of people who use the app are young. Most of them care deeply about gaining likes, followers, and getting their videos featured on Tik Tok. Teenagers are now stepping out of their comfort zone and starting to become creators instead of spectators. They spend a large portion of their time online creating and sharing the content they make. The point is, there are plenty of fun things to explore on the app and it gives teenagers the opportunity to express themselves in various creative ways and create their own content. Even though you now have a general understanding of what Tik Tik is about, the best way to really understand the app is to try it.
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the one thing i do everyday
