On Aug. 1, 2018, musical.ly and TikTok united to create “the world’s number one go-to destination for short-form video content.”
Since then, according to CNN Business, “ByteDance, the Beijing-based startup behind TikTok,” has amassed more than one billion monthly active users across its apps.
Despite the company’s growing presence, one Seton Hall student is hesitant to associate himself with the app.
“I don’t have a TikTok because of the early stigma against it,” Joe Cammarota, a sophomore visual and sound media major, said. “There were some accusations made about it when it was first popping off… I really just go on Twitter.”
Some Seton Hall students disregard the allegations of sharing private user data and use the app for its content.
In September 2019, The Guardian published an article with documents that revealed how TikTok’s moderators were instructed to censor videos that mentioned topics sensitive to the Communist Party of China.
TikTok has since denied these reports, but the company was again under fire just two months later after they suspended a 17-year-old New Jersey student after posting a three-part video about the Chinese oppression of its Uighur Muslim population, according to VOX.
TikTok also suffered scrutiny at the end of 2019 when a California college student accused the company of transferring private user data to servers in China, according to NBC News.
Some Seton Hall students disregard these allegations and use the app for its content.
“I do have TikTok, I like it because there is a good amount of funny videos on there,” John Makuch, a freshman visual and sound media major, said.
TikTok has garnered comparisons to popular short-form video service Vine, which launched in January 2013 and ended four years later.
“[Vine] is very similar, there is more you can do with the video, but it’s kind of the same style and format,” Makuch said.
Annabella Robb, a sophomore graphic design major, said, “I think it’s comparable, but I think people are more concerned about looking attractive on TikTok.”
Cammarota believed TikTok became so popular because “social media in a way has become stale… then TikTok came up and everyone was like ‘Oh, a new thing.’”
Robb believed there is a different reason for TikTok’s popularity and said, “I think with any other kind of social media, people like being the center of attention and just making things about themselves.”
With TikTok seemingly on every teenager’s screen, many students believe the app’s popularity will be short-lived.
“I think it’s going to do the same thing Vine did, where it has this very high peak and then fall,” Makuch said.
When asked if she believed TikTok would become a primary social media option in the future, Robb said, “I don’t think it will at all. I know big companies have TikTok, like the [New York] Jets, but I don’t think it’ll become big. Even Snapchat, which was so popular years ago, is dying down now.”
Jorie Mickens can be reached at jorie.mickens@student.shu.edu.
