things right now 019: tiktok edition
week of 01.13.25
Trending on TikTok or “culture is moving faster than ever”
If TikTok falls, where will the trends sprout from? The most obvious place would be Instagram, which was itself the dominant social media driver of consumer trends before TikTok surpassed it in the past few years.
There is a hierarchy of internet content. TikTok has sat at the top of it in the post-pandemic era—at least for video content. While X arguably still holds the crown for image macros and neologisms. At the bottom, in the catchment area, are the Meta properties Instagram and Facebook.
Memes flow.
This results in a consistent dynamic where TikTok-dominant users are meme-aware before X-dominant users, and X-dominant users are meme-aware before Instagram-dominant users. As the crow flies, viral jumps between populations happen at one to two week intervals, prompting the ever-dreaded response: “I already saw that.”
I say memes and not trends because the term “trending” has caused slippage. If no behavioral change accompanies the content (this can be as simple as prompting new purchasing behavior), I characterize the content as the former, not the latter.
Was there a surge in oral sex after hawk tuah? Did demure change preferences in women’s workwear? No and no. Though both produced very entertaining cross-platform plot lines in 2024. These memes had real entertainment value.
Ban or no-ban, the internet will do just fine producing memes. To quote Jurassic Park: “Life finds a way.”
Media Consolidation or Musk’s TikTok bid
In Internet Cool I discussed how post-disruption, our digital platforms look an awful lot like TV networks of yore. Thus, Elon’s rumored bid brings up old concerns about monopoly power in media. Musk has been very forthright that the back-end of every platform (content moderation policies and algorithmic ranking) shape public discourse. And everyone watched in real time as his preferences transformed the user experience—for the better and the worse.
If the speculation is true, I presume the FTC will have something to say about it. They’re already pursing an anti-trust case against Meta on the same grounds.
The Influencer Bottleneck or the death of the “TikTokker”
Last decade, we got used to identifying influencers, content creators, internet personalities—pick your semantic poison—by their platform of choice: the TikTokker, the YouTuber, the Twitch streamer, and yes, the Substacker. The TikTok ban proves the inherent risks of this strategy. Audiences aren’t fungible. Perhaps this explains the persistent value of the contact list.
If the platform owns all the data about your audience. It’s not really yours.
This explains the desire of TikTok’s biggest stars to supersede the platform entirely. See: Addison Rae, Emma Chamberlain, and Noah Beck.
Expect a dramatic culling of content creators as many struggle through the transition.
TikTok Refugees or the flight to Xiaohongshu
Xiaohongshu, translated as RedNote in English, topped American download charts over the weekend after self-proclaimed TikTok refugees fled to the platform. (Something similar happened with BlueSky two years ago when users protested Elon Musk’s acquisition of X.)
Originally launched in Shanghai as a shopping platform for women, Xiaohongshu has grown to become one of China’s most popular short video apps with over 300 million users as of July 2024.
Inevitably, some Americans have been surprised by Chinese content moderation standards: no queer activism or revealing clothing allowed!
Some in China hailed the influx as a historic chance for young people in China and America to connect. “In an instant, someone may discover a business opportunity, meet a like-minded person, or even suddenly post a year later that he married an American he met on Xiaohongshu,” one Chinese user wrote.
Others were more cautious. “Let’s see how many Americans can put up with this censorship system,” another post read. “After a time, they’ll for sure all be gone.”
And in other news:
Neo Deco or twenties aesthetics
The Associated Press cosigns the Neo Deco trend. Expect the Art Deco revival to be to the twenties what Mid-century Modern was to the tens.
Post-reboot TV or content as advertisement
My friend Jordan Richman had a great one-liner a few months back: “Max. It isn’t HBO. It’s TV.” I wanted to quote him in a piece, but a recent Slate headline (at least on Google News) beat me to the punch. The review is sanguine about the streamer’s new medical drama The Pitt, starring ER lead Noah Wylie:
Exactly how similar the two shows are is the subject of ongoing litigation, but if Dr. Robby, as his patients call him, isn’t John Carter, it’s impossible not to think of him as you watch Wyle juggle incoming patients, switching from command to compassion as he instructs anxious medical students and calms the families of the sick and injured.
The show seems to function best as an advertisement for rewatching ER, now in Max’s catalog. I’ve dipped in. It really was peak network television.
To meme is human