Have you ever noticed how fast social media changes? Not just in the trends, but the individual platforms themselves? In the early 2000s, we had Myspace, Friendster, and YouTube. By the mid to late 2000s, Facebook and Twitter were taking the world by storm. And just a few years later, we would get Instagram, then Snapchat and finally, TikTok. And while Instagram was and still is popular, I personally believe that, for a while at least, YouTube was the most popular. It was the place people went for laughs, news, viral videos, and of course trends. Does this remind you of another app?
In the past perhaps five years, TikTok has been topping the charts within these areas as well. Want to learn that new dance craze? Go to TikTok. Want to learn a new recipe? Go to TikTok. The platform has now has the place to be for everything and anything. It’s honestly insane to me how we went from twenty-minute videos to just six second ones. But it doesn’t just stop there.
Because of this new style of videos, people have been known for having a “TikTok attention span”. It has been said that because of how short the videos are, it has decreased our attention span and creates boredom more quickly. This is important because over time, it can collectively narrow our mind spans altogether.
I personally don’t have TikTok because of this reason as well as the fact that I do not like the format of the app. To me, it just seems too confusing. Also, I had Musically in eighth grade, and while it was fun then, I feel that now, being older, I think that I would get bored of it too quickly and immediately trash it. I also, personally, only enjoy Instagram and it is my favorite platform because I like looking at both pictures and videos— but especially pictures.
If I was to tell my seventeen year old self that TikTok is still around, I think I would be surprised. Back then, when it first started getting attention, I knew it would stay around for a while because it was so different. However, I didn’t think it would have the impact as it does today with everything you can learn from it.