T for Tiktok or Toxicity?

TikTok is one of the trendiest social media platforms right now. The short video app has gathered attention of viewers from all over the globe and content creators find it fun to show off their talent in under one min. Trends come and go faster than you can blink, and they are made for anyone to participate in. Where Tiktoks is showing off people’s talent be it painting, styling, dancing and what not the question arises, is it misleading the youngsters too? The viral dance moves done by all which may not even be age appropriate may portray a negative image to the viewers and may distant people from their true culture by making everyone do one same thing. Tiktok unfortunately promotes hate culture too. Talking about insecurities perceived as “fishing for compliments” and duetting with people just to make fun of them or roast them is all over Tiktok. There is also a cancel culture observed in Tiktok and people siding with a particular party and creating unnecessary drama just for the sake of likes on for you page (FYP) and Tiktok tea. Moreover, one of the most pivotal issue on Tiktok maybe the “point of view” (POV) posts. There’s nothing wrong with presenting one’s opinion but sometimes they encourage bullying, they encourage impossibly high standards of beauty, rating people on their look and normalising negative things one can think of. Also, in my opinion tiktoks creates a mixed idea of fame and hard work, we see 16-year-old dancers with millions fan base and the only talent and something to offer to public is a dance move. Young kids growing up seeing that maybe influenced enough to just focus their time and energy on trends and dance moves only. All in all, Tiktok is no doubt an entertaining platform but negative content and hate culture makes it a bit toxic.