“Renegade, renegade!” boomed across the popular app known as TikTok during Fall of 2019. Between the funny videos and fun dances to songs, the app is loved by many teens.
TikTok started as the app Musically until September of 2016. The popularity of the app grew in the fall of 2018 catching the attention of teens and adults of all ages. From summer of 2019 to now, is when the app has been the most popular. Which means, over quarantine, many people spent their time on TikTok because there was nothing else to do. Being on TikTok all the time has become an addiction and it is now hard to focus on homework and even when watching a show, the main focus is instead watching TikTok on your phone.
There are many famous creators on the app that can be known for their dancing, or their funny videos, which is why it is addicting and easy to keep scrolling. But there are also many people who are creating content to get on the “for you page” to become famous. Kian Sirowich, a sophomore and uprising comedian on TikTok, happened to be one of those people getting over 840 thousand views and 81,000 likes on his video. In a recent interview, Sirowich talked about how crazy it was to watch his video blow up. He stated, “It was crazy because my phone was blowing up with a lot of likes and I continued to watch the number of likes increase throughout the day.” Sirowich enjoys creating videos and he explained, “I think of something really stupid and think hey thats funny and post it even if other people may think its funny and I see how it does.” His goal is to hopefully gain more followers and continue to create good content for people to watch and enjoy. TikTok has affected Sirowich just like many other teens that use the app. He spends about 17 hours on TikTok a week and about 4 hours a day. TikTok has caused Sirowich to stay up longer at night, learn new language and phrases and has made it harder to focus on homework or school. Sirowich said he was addicted along with a great number of teens.
TikTok has taught users new phrases to say, has got them listening to new songs and gave people a good laugh on a bad day. It takes a single second to scroll to the next 20-60 second video, making it easy to continue scrolling. The videos make you laugh, the music makes you want to keep listening so who would want to stop. Nina Daponte, a sophomore and TikTok user is not one that would want to stop. Daponte uses TikTok daily just as much as the next person. She likes to take the time to learn the dances and sometimes post them for her friends to see. Daponte said she spends about 3-4 hours on TikTok a day and about 20-25 hours a week. It is easy for her to keep scrolling through the videos when you hear the music or look at the comments. “Watching the videos and listening to the music behind them introduced me to new artists and songs, just like looking at the comments taught me new phrases to use,” Daponte stated. She would say she is pretty addicted just like many other teens that use the app.
TikTok has really changed the way teens live their lives between the new music and new phrases. It can be harder to focus on school and homework with the app constantly calling your name. Kids would rather take the time to scroll through videos that are funny and interesting than do their homework.
