TikTok: A Review

The app which has swept the nation deserves a closer look.

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service mainly used by teenagers and young adults. Its used for posting short clips, comedy, skills, or showing talent. The main use for this app is to discover people with similar talents as you and to express yourself through comedy, singing, dancing and a lot more. TikTok is owned by a company named ByteDance and was founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming. TikTok had once been called Musical.ly and was launched in 2014. In 2016, Musical.ly had been shut down because the founder, Luyu Yang didn’t want a LiveMe competitor. That same year, TikTok was announced.

Expressed above is the logo for TikTok. Next to it, there is a music note representing the idea of the app.
Often, you will see the students at LHS scrolling through their “For You” page. The “For You” page is a place where you can see the short clips posted that you are most interested in. You may also see many of the popular creators listed in paragraph two on this page.

Though this app has many diverse profiles, they are all very similar. The most popular group on TikTok at the moment is “The Hype House”. “The Hype House” consist of 20 members and their page has over 1 million followers. Some of the popular creators in the house include Chase Hudson, Charli Damelio, Anthony Reeves, Avani Gregg, Taylor Holder, Nessa Barret and many more. Even though this group has a lot of “hype”, there are many underrated TikTok stars. I believe that the social media stars in the Hype House take a lot of their fame for granted. While some of the influencers on the app are grateful and love their followers. One of the problems on TikTok right now is how we let the more famous people get away with saying offensive things. While if someone with less popularity said something that could offend people, they would blow it up. There was an investigation arguing whether or not TikTok was safe for young children. Many of the older stars were taking advantage of the younger children on the app by posting inappropriate comments on their page.

TikTok is the kind of app that you could scroll on for hours and not even notice. Which is why I like it. If you are trying to pass time, this app is an amazing source to resort to. If you are feeling bored, you could go ahead and post a video of your own. However, a downside to this app is some of the insulting things that some popular TikTokers post. For example, influencers that have a lot of money show it off by buying unnecessary things. They may post things that could make any ordinary person feel small and not important.  Overall, TikTok is a great app and I highly recommend that you check it out. You may discover new things about yourself and find new interests in the process.

Lauren Adam and Archie Jefferson made a TikTok outside Mr. Jefferson’s office yesterday during class. As you can see, the phone is sitting on the window ledge, recording them as they do a dance. Lauren has a TikTok page of her own and posts a video fairly often.