TikTok Activism

In the new age of social media, all you ever hear about is its toxicity and how it is “rotting your children’s brains,” but you never hear about the good things it does for your children and what they are doing on these apps. In reality, there is a large underbelly of one app, in particular, that is not toxic, but outspoken about the problems of the world. That app is TikTok. 

When you hear of TikTok, you think of dancing to songs in front of the camera. But what most people don’t think of is activism and addressing and changing problems in the country and the world. One “movement” of teenagers on TikTok that people reference now is the fake ticket reservations that a large number of teenagers reserved in order to “prank” the president of the United States by having his rally be unexpectedly empty causing Trump to be exceedingly angry. Some even argue that that is the reason that he has wanted to ban TikTok. 

Some of the many other movements that TTik TTok plays host to are LGBTQIA awareness and education, as well as more recently the Black Lives Matter movement. In some cases, people on the app can go a little overboard but there are always people that bring them back and make sure to educate and give the right information to the best of their ability. For example, many people like to make sure people know the names of the Black people who were wrongfully killed by the police, as well as calling people to action such as calling representatives and senators in order to try and incentivize change in the police system. It seems futile to many people but just the effort gives me hope that we can at least have some change. 

With my new found outlook on the changes that teenagers could make in the world on platforms like Tik Tok, it inspires me to do things that I normally wouldn’t do like going to a protest or reserving a fake ticket online. And now when I go on Tik Tok, I not only expect to be entertained but to be informed as well. I hope that you now look at t social media like Tik Tok differently and get involved in change even in small ways.