Jonathan Frenkel
Israel 21C, Sept. 8, 2020
“Sadly, anti-Semitism has also thrived on TikTok”
As is the case with social media, the tide ebbs and flows when the newest application reaches the hands of digital natives. Facebook made way for Snap and Instagram, and now Instagram is yielding to the latest social media giant out of China: TikTok.
TikTok has emerged as the voice of Gen Z during the pandemic and has ballooned to 800 million users. It is the platform of choice and the voice of the social protests in the US. According toWallaroo, “60% of TikTok users are Gen Zers. Next year, 74 million people in the U.S. will be part of Gen Z, which will make it the largest generation of all.”
To understand how TikTok (and Reels, a rival started by Facebook as part of Instagram) works, users create 1-minute posts focused on comedy, dancing, or something similarly light-hearted. As more people join the platform, there are numerous short-form videos on learning and inspirational content.
Social media has progressed over the years from the newsfeed to short-form videos (stories). The attention span of how we consume this media has also shortened to under a minute. What makes TikTok so relevant is that seemingly anyone can get massive engagement from a single TikTok, and ads have not yet flooded the app.
Millennials migrated to Instagram because its predecessors became too busy and commercial, and the cycle repeated itself with the migration from Instagram to TikTok. Gen Z in Israel has embraced this app. … [To read the full article, click here]
