TikTok is one of the most popular social media apps right now. No matter what your interests are, there’s videos on there for everyone. When TikTok first started rising to fame in 2019, the app was a very fun and chill environment. No videos were taken too seriously, and everyone just posted whatever they wanted with no second thought. However, as the years have gone on, TikTok has become a very hostile and toxic environment for people to be a part of.
Personally, I used to love TikTok and all the videos and comments I would see on a daily basis. It was always a fun app for me to log on to, especially since it was mostly people my own age posting about their experiences. TikTok originally started out as an app for teenagers and young adults to enjoy. Since then, it has blossomed into an app everyone wants to use. This large increase in popularity is great for the app itself, but for the teenagers and young adults that just want to post whatever they want without negativity from others, it pretty much stinks. An app that was meant for teenagers to post funny videos and rant about their experiences has been taken over by politics, judgment and overall hatred.
Since the initial quarantine in March 2020, there has been a steady increase in negativity on TikTok. Maybe it’s because a lot of people have started to rely more on their phones and less on social interactions since quarantine. Or it might be because of the adults that have started to join the app. No matter what the reason is, there are often times where I open the app and immediately want to close it because of the negative videos and comments I see.
A big trend on TikTok is making fun of others and bringing them down. Of course there are some videos made solely for others to laugh at and make fun of their actions. However, a lot of TikToks that blow up are ones that were made seriously, and the creator definitely had no intention of being made fun of for it. For example, someone can post a TikTok of themselves dancing or just having fun, and the comments will start attacking them saying how cringey the video is. Even though for some this might be funny or entertaining, it’s a form of bullying that can be negative to see all of the time.
If you haven’t heard of it already, cancel culture is very big on TikTok. Whenever an influencer makes a mistake, they’re immediately canceled. This then leads to other social media apps following suit with the same type of toxic trend. Cancel culture comes with insults, death threats and some really nasty comments that can lead someone to feeling poorly about themselves. Even though some of the scandals that happen on TikTok can be messy and sometimes just plain wrong, we are encouraging this trend to a huge environment filled with children all the way to adults.
One thing that definitely needs to change on this app is the constant hate comments and judgment. Even though you might be commenting on someone’s post that has over one million followers, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to bring them down. One of the most popular quotes is “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all,” and this definitely needs to be used more by the people on TikTok.