Last Fall Tara introduced me to TikTok, and showed me how to watch the videos on my phone, and gave me a couple of funny content creators to follow, to get me started.
I have had so much fun with this damned app it’s ridiculous.
TikTok is an app that works best on your smart phone. It’s a bazillion very short videos, usually 20 seconds to a minute long. When you open the app, a video will start playing, and will loop (plays the same video over and over) until you swipe up for the next video. If you like it, touch the heart icon, and TikTok will remember it and use that information to suggest new videos to you. If you don’t like it, just swipe up. The next video begins playing in a loop. This can go on forever if you’re enjoying it. I have set TikTok to tell me when I’ve been swiping for an hour. A new video pops up that says, “Hey! You’ve been at this a long time. Put your phone down and go do something else!”
Whatever you’ve heard on the media, TikTok is a million times more interesting than you think it is. Yes, there are teenage girls doing silly dances, and yes there are crazy conspiracy theory nutjobs who are spreading more conspiracies. BUT! If that’s not what you want to see…you will not see it. Think of it like the library: there are a thousand books in the library that you are simply not interested in reading. But oh, the library is still a perfect place for you! And if you like to laugh, it’s the place for you. Human beings are so funny. Unless, of course, you are more interested in animals. There are also a million animal videos. There’s cats, dogs, bears, lizards, and frogs doing astonishing things. There are videos of a beaver inside a home, trying to use household items like a plunger, some shoes, and a kleenex box to build a dam. So adorable.
Mostly what I watch are: videos from indigenous people who are each teaching about their own tribe’s traditions. I’ve seen underground ice storage in Alaska, and brilliant hoop dancing, and how to store regalia in between pow wows, how to smoke and preserve salmon, how to cast a net, and received such an education about Indian boarding schools. I watch artists that include a high speed drummer, an Irish step dancer, a brother-sister team that take robot dancing to a new dimension, a cartoonist that reenvisions old favourites into dark noir like Winnie the Pooh and Popeye, a folk guitar player, and my beloved Marcus Eaton, who posted a hilarious video of him and a friend playing bossanova to the beat of his noisy electric mixer. It is SO funny. I follow a guy in Vancouver, BC who hikes out in every kind of weather to amazing places and then brews a cup of tea and enjoys the view. I follow a guy who gives really inspirational positive messages to people who suffer with PTSD. I follow Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson, who explain science stuff.
I watch a lot of silly, silly stuff and laugh my head off. Like this video from a woman in Montreal who rates icicles on their deadliness.
Lately I’ve been brave enough to start posting my own videos. They are mostly chicken-related. Today I posted to TikTok one of me sledding. I wrote this whole blog post because I mentioned to Manja that I might post about the sledding, but I posted it on TikTok instead of here, so I had to post a link here, but to do that I wanted to explain. And now I’ve explained.
If I’ve created any new TikTok enthusiasts out there by this post, I apologize for the loss of time you will now experience in your life as you get sucked down the rabbit hole of hilarious and educational short videos.
NOTE: I just played all these videos to make sure it all worked after I posted, and the “suggested” videos that pop up are horrible! It says “related videos” and puts up human deformities and hot women in raunchy poses. No! Those are not related. Don’t click. Eeew.
Conscious Engagement 
Hmm . . . I think you added the note just to make people (guys) go look. Well, I ain’t falling for it!
Seriously, I’m trying to cut back on Internet distractions, so I’ll pass, but glad you found something you enjoy.
Actually, I was horrified, and thought if those videos pop up for anyone else, all my uptalking of TikTok is completely wasted.
I know what you mean about Internet distractions. That’s why I refuse Twitter. I am not a TV watcher. I don’t even have a signal here other than what might come through the airwaves if I rigged up an antenna. My set is for movies and the occasional streamed show like Downton Abbey and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but honestly it’s hardly ever turned on. So…when I do want to watch something mindless and laugh, I have a void that can be filled, and TikTok does the trick.
Congratulations. I don’t think I would manage it. 🙂
Thanks! I can relate. I had Tara get it going for me. And then I watched other people’s videos for six months because I had no clue how, and no desire, to post my own. There are TikTok videos of people who talk to their audience and say, “Go ahead and post a video, don’t be shy.” And I have commented on the videos – along with hundreds of others like me: “We’re not shy. We have no idea how to operate this thing.” ha ha. But eventually I started watching YouTube videos and learned how. I’m still figuring it out. There is a lot of basic, basic stuff that I still just have no idea how to do.
🙂 At least you are trying
I think one needs to be on Tik Tok to see the videos you posted. At least for me they are not playing. I have already too many windows open on my PC at all times and really don’t need another distraction. But I can see the appeal. (Deadliest icicles?? Really? I wish to knock them all down immediately.)
Ha ha ha!! I’m sorry you can’t see the videos, that’s a shame. But don’t sign up for it when you have enough to manage already! It is a tremendous distraction. Hee hee 🙂 And yes, knock down the icicles would be best, though some are too high to reach. You got the exact right meaning from the description too. That they could be dangerous to anyone who walks below!
I will probably never tictok and I did try instagram but that didn’t thrill me either. I’m kind of drawing inward these days rather than reaching outward. But if it’s making you laugh and happy then it’s a good thing. We all need more of that. Keep having fun.
You got it exactly! I have found something that makes me laugh and makes me happy, and I’m going to take it. I guess I didn’t mean this blog to pressure anyone into using TikTok. I wanted it to tempt the curious, heh heh. My boyfriend downloaded it just because Trump wanted to ban it, but he’s never used it. For anyone who reads this post and is that close to TikToking…I’m here for that final nudge. 🙂
Instagram is not that exciting, and I like it only because it’s even briefer than facebook and I can get away with even less interaction, ha ha. I’m on Snapchat just because sometimes that’s the only way Tara communicates and I just want to connect to my kid however I can. I have zero interest in Twitter or Pinterest, my gosh, what in the world is that for? Like Snapchat, Pinterest makes no sense at all to me, but I know people love it.
I know you are drawing inward and I hope that is what you need rather than a symptom of the wretched things in our world lately putting too much on your shoulders when you already have your health and your sister’s health weighing on you. I can come over and act out TikTok videos for you if that would help. Not that it would be any good, but I’m sure it would make you laugh. ❤
Watching you act out Tic Tok videos would be hilarious. As for drawing inward, my energy is running low in spite of appearances so I drain quickly. I’m selective now about where I put what energy I have. You probably understand that quite well.
I do understand, my friend. ❤