By Preston Gossett | Arts & Life Editor
There’s a reason Tik Tok’s motto is “Make Your Day.”
One of the notable reasons for Tik Tok’s success is the fact that it focuses less on being a social platform, and instead focuses on other people’s creativity.
Granbury sophomore Ashley Brooke Boyd uses Tik Tok for multiple reasons; most notably, she thinks it’s a fun way to blow off steam. When Boyd isn’t working or leading bible study, she spends her free time drawing and making stickers. She also said Tik Tok is a good platform for people who are trying to promote their art in a fun and creative way.
“You just need to make a cool video that shows off your product in the hopes that it will go viral,” Boyd said. “So what I did is made a sticker chair for my room with all of my stickers [that I made] on it. I think it got around 150,000 views.”
The only downside to Tik Tok—it’s very easy to lose track of time while scrolling through the “For You” page, according to Boyd.
“I was almost late to an event because I was just scrolling through videos,” Boyd said. “It doesn’t have the time up at the top, so I was was just scrolling, not realizing that time was passing so quickly.”
For Mission Viejo, Ca., sophomore Allie Pitones, she enjoys Tik Tok more for the videos and funny content rather than creating any original content. Tik Tok is more than an app to her—she said it’s brought her frined group closer together, and they even have a group text where they just send each other videos.
“Lately, I’ve been spending a lot more time on Tik Tok than I ever have,” Pitones said. “It’s great though, because my best friend and I have a lot of inside jokes and spend a lot of quality time together making funny Tik Toks no one is ever going to see. They’re never leaving my drafts.”
Pitones and Boyd both appreciate Tik Tok for different reasons, but one thing they both agree on: Tik Tok has made some very interesting things trendy.
“The other day, I saw someone painting hydroflasks with scenes from different movie scenes, and one of them was a Stranger Things hydroflask,” Pitones said. “I immediately went to her profile, messaged her and ordered one.”
No matter what people choose to use Tik Tok for, the creators hope people are sharing their creative expression through their videos.
‘Our mission is to capture and present the world’s creativity, knowledge, and moments that matter in everyday life,” according to Tik Tok’s website.
