Trigger warning: This article has mentions of alcoholism
Whether you’re an artist, musician, beauty guru, or dancer, TikTok is a great social media app for showing your creativity and expanding your social network. If your goal is to become a micro-influencer or expand your brand, your first step would likely be to become a “TikToker”. This reputation has allowed TikTok to be a comforting and addicting app to many, but harmful to others.
TikTokers, like Addison Rae, have been extremely lucky to undergo a complete rebrand from a “Hype House” content creator to a pop music icon. The difference between a TikTok influencer and a celebrity is that TikTokers have to be constantly posting to keep up with the algorithm, meaning that they can hardly escape the public eye and its scrutiny. Rae has successfully shifted from posting dancing videos three times a day to using her platform to promote her music and some of her fun moments with friends.
Many users are not so lucky: Joshua Block, known as @worldoftshirts, is a prime example of how his millions of viewers encourage harmful behavior. At first, much of Block’s content consisted of dancing and comedy. His fame began picking up a lot more when he started making videos singing loudly in New York City. It’s around this time where Block begins falling deeply into alcoholism. Online users dedicated entire accounts to tracking his daily alcohol intake, showing his viewers just how much he’s drinking; and others just watch him like a zoo animal as he drinks himself to death.
Joshua Block has unfortunately become a ‘lolcow’ within the past years for millions of viewers on TikTok as they encourage his binge drinking, garnering clips of his drunken state for a few cheap laughs. In a video posted on TikTok by @pinkbinz, the term “lolcow” is used to describe another TikToker Jasmine Orlando, known as Shawty Bae. According to Urban Dictionary, a lolcow is someone who makes people laugh while unaware that they’re being made fun of — someone who is “milked” for laughs. The emergence of lolcows on social media is not something that originated on TikTok, but has been on other platforms like Vine and 4Chan. Viewers find creators who stray from neurotypical norms and exploit them into doing harmful things online for their enjoyment.
Orlando has been a content creator since Musical.ly, and is known for her lip-syncs, reactions, and livestreams. Instead of enjoying her content, Orlando’s viewers would rather urge her to do harmful things like squeezing lemon juice into her eye by telling her it would make it feel better.
“Pinkbinz” also discusses Orlando’s adult content on OnlyFans and the many leaks that occurred from viewers subscribing to her channel and posting them on their platforms. She acknowledges that many people are subscribing to Orlando’s adult content not because they genuinely find her attractive but with the malicious intent to publicly humiliate her.
Many TikTok users who stray even slightly from social norms become exploited into mass producing harmful content for likes and views. This trend of viewers treating TikTokers as exotic creatures on display at the zoo with no regard to how they are directly and indirectly ruining the person’s life needs careful consideration.
Next time you have your daily scroll through TikTok, be aware of how your comments can impact different users. If you come across a creator riding the hype wave of what seems to be people mocking and exploiting, do something. Any message you leave that creator can help prevent them from being exploited further. Don’t be a bystander.
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