Jump to content

Cultural impact of TikTok

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Logo of TikTok

The online video platform TikTok has had worldwide a social, political, and cultural impact since its global launch in September 2017. The platform has rapidly grown its userbase since its launch and surpassed 2 billion downloads in October 2020. It became the world's most popular website, ahead of Google, for the year 2021.[1]

Cultural impact

[edit]

Music

[edit]

TikTok has been noted by many media outlets as having a major influence in the music industry. American artist Lil Nas X notably rose to fame after his song "Old Town Road" went viral on TikTok in 2019. He acknowledged the platform's influence in popularizing the song, saying "[TikTok] really boosted the song ... I credit them a lot".[2][3] Doja Cat has also been noted as an artist who achieved mainstream popularity thanks to her success on TikTok. Insider noted in 2020 that "one of the most popular, pervasive dances of all time" from TikTok was set to Say So, which became her first no.1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.[4] Pitchfork also noted Doja Cat's "astonishing, unprecedented TikTok reign", saying that before her fame on TikTok, "many people didn’t fully register Doja Cat as a star".[5]

When it was launched, TikTok allowed users to upload videos that ranged from 3 seconds to 1 minute. The short video length limit led to users making sped-up versions of songs to use in their videos. This allowed them to fit more of the song in their video.[6] Some artists, including SZA and Steve Lacy, released official sped-up versions of their songs after unofficial sped-up remixes of their songs went viral on the platform.[7]

TikTok has also helped popularize older songs. Fleetwood Mac's song Dreams re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 over 40 years after its release after a video that featured the song went viral on the platform.[8] Dan Whateley from Insider noted that songs could "rise up organically on the app even if they've been outside the mainstream for decades".[9]

In September 2023, Billboard and TikTok launched a new chart called the TikTok Billboard Top 50 to track music that is popular on the platform in the United States.[10]

Some artists have complained of a "burnout" due to TikTok's massive role in the music marketing process.[11] American singer Halsey said in 2022 that her label was stopping her from releasing a new song if they didn't agree to "fake a viral moment on TikTok".[12][13]

News and information

[edit]

TikTok is becoming a growing source of news for Americans. Pew Research Center found that the percentage of US adults who regularly got their news from TikTok more than tripled from 3% of US adults in 2020 to 10% in 2022. The percentage of US adult TikTok users who regularly get their news from the platform increased from 22% to 33% in the same time period. This is much lower than the percentage of Facebook and Twitter users who regularly get their news from those platforms. However, unlike with TikTok, the proportion of Facebook and Twitter users who get their news from those platforms declined every year from 2020 to 2022.[14]

An increasing proportion of Generation Z internet users have also started using TikTok as their preferred search engine over Google.[15]

As the popularity of TikTok grows, more and more individuals join the platform. Hence, current political ideologies are being spread on the platform. Therefore, TikTok has turned into a political landscape, where young individuals are consuming far-right related content on a daily basis. TikTok has allowed for far-right supporters to have a platform where radical views are naturalized. TikTok has addressed multiple times that hateful content, related to far-right ideologies, is being banned and removed from their platform.[16] However, most hateful content (related to religion, identity, race) have gone unnoticed by the system until December 2019. Moreover, although user protection has improved, hateful videos still go undetected by the platform. Additionally, since TikTok functions on an algorithmic system, individuals can get more exposure to hateful content without intending to do so.[17]

Food

[edit]
See also: TikTok food trends

TikTok content is able to influence the food choices of its users. A 2023 study of teenagers found that TikTok content influences both short term food decisions, such as trying a new food item or recipe, as well as long term food decisions, like dietary adjustments.[18]

TikTok has also led to an increase in custom orders at restaurants, known on the platform as menu hacks. In 2021, some Starbucks baristas complained of an increase in complicated, custom drinks being ordered that were not on its menu after videos of the customs drinks went viral on TikTok.[19][20] In 2023, Chipotle Mexican Grill added a viral TikTok custom order created by two influencers as a permanent item to its menu after receiving an influx of orders for the item.[21] The same year, several videos of different Waffle House branches refusing to serve custom orders from TikTok went viral on the platform.[22]

Fashion

[edit]
See also: Internet aesthetics

The wide audience that TikTok videos are able to reach compared to other platforms allows just a small number of viral videos about a similar style of clothing to create a new microtrend. The high quantity of new microtrends produced by TikTok users has increased the popularity of fast fashion retailers such as Shein, who are able to rapidly reproduce and sell items that are trending on TikTok.[23] Fashion trends and fads that have become popular through social media platforms have collectively become known as "internet aesthetics".

Haul videos are popular amongst TikTok fashion creators.[24] Shein successfully worked with influencers on TikTok and Instagram to grow its business by sending them free clothing and discount codes to share with their followers that earn them a commission on sales. Influencers are also paid to post haul videos for Shein with the free clothing.[25] The popularity of haul videos on TikTok also results in users advertising Shein for free by making and posting their own Shein haul.[26]

Cosmetic surgery

[edit]

Videos about cosmetic surgery are very popular on TikTok.[27] In January 2022, videos with hashtags related to plastic surgery had over 29 billion views combined on the platform.[28] TikTok and Instagram have led to an increase in the number of cosmetic surgeries performed on young people.[29]

In 2021, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery published an article that found that plastic surgeons were among the earliest adopters of social media and at the time the article was published, it was found that at least five plastic surgeons had surpassed 1 million followers on TikTok. The article noted that some surgeons were influencers on the platform and had the ability to influence public perception.[30] A 2021 study published by the University of South Florida found that content posted on TikTok by plastic surgeons helped legitimize plastic surgery by educating their viewers and reducing their fear of the surgeries.[31] Plastic surgery is also legitimized by the TikTok recommendation system which shows users who showed interest in plastic surgery videos even more plastic surgery videos via the For You Page, which makes plastic surgery seem more widespread than it actually is among both celebrities and normal people.[31]

TikTok does not allow direct paid advertisements of cosmetic surgeries on its platform, but cosmetic surgery clinics are able to promote their services using normal unpaid posts, as well as by paying influencers or giving them free surgeries in exchange for the influencer posting a video about their cosmetic surgery experience.[32]

Cosmetic procedures that have trended on TikTok include rhinoplasties,[33] buccal fat removals,[34] and botox injections.[35] Cosmetic procedures sometimes trend in the form of an internet challenge on TikTok. The "#Nosejobcheck" challenge involves users posting videos of their noses before and after their rhinoplasties, with a specific background sound for the challenge used in the videos.[36]

Literature

[edit]
Main article: BookTok
The BookTok section at a Barnes & Noble store

Videos discussing and recommending books has collectively become known as BookTok by users. Books that become popular on BookTok often experience a large increase in sales.[37] The author Colleen Hoover who rose to popularity on BookTok saw six of her books reach the top ten of The New York Times Best Seller list in the paperback trade fiction section in October 2022.[38] An analyst from the book sales tracking service BookScan said that BookTok "remains the industry’s most important platform for discovering new writers".[39] Some publishers have paid popular BookTok influencers to recommend books to capitalise off of the phenomenon.[40]

The success of BookTok content on the platform lead TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to launch their own publishing company called 8th Note Press in 2023.[41][42]

Medication shortages

[edit]

Trends on TikTok have contributed to the shortages of some medications. Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk produces three medications containing the active ingredient semaglutide. One of the drugs, Wegovy, is certified by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of obesity. The other two, Ozempic and Rybelsus, are only certified for the treatment of diabetes.[43] In 2022, the United States suffered shortages of Ozempic after it became a trend on the platform to use the medication off-label for its weight loss effects.[44] Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration reported that Ozempic's popularity on TikTok had contributed to a global shortage of the medication. It recommended that doctors not prescribe the medication to new patients and prescribe alternative medications to existing patients where possible.[45][46] By March 2023, TikTok videos posted with the hashtag #Ozempic had amassed 690 million views.[47]

Other websites

[edit]

The popularity of TikTok has led various other web services to adopt similar features in order to compete with TikTok. Instagram launched added a short, veritcal videos section called Instagram Reels to its app in 2020. YouTube followed with the release of YouTube Shorts in 2021.[48] In 2022, Facebook launched a videos tab on its app that shows users a personalized selection of videos.[49] The same year, Twitter announced that it would also be launching a short videos feature and Amazon added a scrolling feed with photos and videos of available products to its mobile app.[50][better source needed] In 2023, Spotify redesigned its home screen to have a similar scrolling interface to TikTok and Reddit also added a separate video feed to its mobile app.[51][52]

Economic impact

[edit]

A 2023 study by Oxford Economics estimated that small and medium-sized enterprises in the United Kingdom who posted on TikTok to advertise their and grow their businesses added £1.6 billion to the UK's gross domestic product in 2022 as a result of their TikTok activity.[53]

Consumer behaviour

[edit]

A 2021 study by Adweek and Morning Consult found that 49 percent of TikTok users bought goods or services after seeing them being discussed or promoted on the platform.[48]

In 2023, the European Journal of Business and Management Research published a study that found that TikTok users were much more likely to trust products shown in TikTok videos that had high quality videos, rather than products shown on the platform that were more useful or had lower prices.[54]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Rosenblatt, Kalhan (23 December 2021). "TikTok surpasses Google as most popular website of the year, new data suggests". NBC News. Archived from the original on 20 September 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  2. ^ Shafer, Ellise (2019-07-29). "Started on TikTok, Now We're Here: A Look Back at the Meme-Tastic Beginning of Lil Nas X's 'Old Town Road'". Billboard. Archived from the original on 2023-11-03. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  3. ^ "Lil Nas X on "Old Town Road" and the Billboard Controversy". Time. 2019-03-30. Archived from the original on 2019-10-11. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  4. ^ Tenbarge, Kat (25 May 2020). "Doja Cat harnessed viral moments to reach no. 1 on Billboard, but her online past has also resulted in controversial moments for the 'Say So' singer". Insider. Archived from the original on 2020-05-27. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  5. ^ "The Mystery of Doja Cat's Unimpeachable TikTok Reign". Pitchfork. 2020-05-18. Archived from the original on 2021-04-18. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  6. ^ Kaufman, Sarah (22 April 2023). "TikTok users are demanding that musicians release sped-up songs". NBC News. Archived from the original on 3 November 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2023. Fast songs allow users to fit more of their favorite tunes in their TikTok videos.
  7. ^ Murray, Conor. "Why Sped-Up Music—From SZA, Steve Lacy And Many More—Took Over TikTok And Became A Key Marketing Strategy". Forbes. Archived from the original on 3 November 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  8. ^ Zellner, Xander (13 October 2020). "Fleetwood Mac's 'Dreams' Charts on Hot 100 For First Time since 1977, Thanks to TikTok Revival". Billboard. Archived from the original on 3 November 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  9. ^ Whateley, Dan. "How TikTok is changing the music industry and the way we discover new, popular songs". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2023-11-09. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  10. ^ Roth, Emma (14 September 2023). "TikTok is tracking its most popular songs with a Billboard top 50 chart". The Verge. Archived from the original on 3 November 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  11. ^ Venkat, Mia (May 22, 2022). "TikTok has changed music — and the industry is hustling to catch up". Insider. Archived from the original on November 3, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  12. ^ "Halsey Is the Latest Artist Complaining About the Music Industry's Reliance on TikTok". Time. 2022-05-23. Archived from the original on 2022-08-31. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  13. ^ Garcia, Thania (2022-05-23). "Halsey's Label Responds to Singer's TikTok Claim That They Won't Release New Song". Variety. Archived from the original on 2022-08-19. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  14. ^ Matsa, Katerina Eva. "More Americans are getting news on TikTok, bucking the trend on other social media sites". Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on 3 November 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  15. ^ Carbonaro, Giulia (5 February 2023). "Is TikTok about to replace Google as the top search engine?". euronews. Archived from the original on 3 November 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  16. ^ Ozduzen, Ozge; Ferenczi, Nelli; Holmes, Isabel (2023-10-20). "'Let us teach our children': Online racism and everyday far-right ideologies on TikTok". Visual Studies. 38 (5): 834–850. doi:10.1080/1472586X.2023.2274890. ISSN 1472-586X.
  17. ^ Weimann, Gabriel; Masri, Natalie (2023-05-04). "Research Note: Spreading Hate on TikTok". Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. 46 (5): 752–765. doi:10.1080/1057610X.2020.1780027. ISSN 1057-610X.
  18. ^ Wang, Chun-Han; Sher, Stephen Tsung-Han; Salman, Isabela; Janek, Kelly; Chung, Chia-Fang (27 June 2022). "TikTok Made Me Do It": Teenagers' Perception and Use of Food Content on TikTok. pp. 458–463. doi:10.1145/3501712.3535290. ISBN 9781450391979. S2CID 249993417. Archived from the original on 5 November 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  19. ^ Castrodale, Jelisa (7 May 2021). "Starbucks Baristas Are Sick of Your Ridiculous Custom Orders". Vice. Archived from the original on 5 November 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  20. ^ Schwab, Kristin (5 April 2023). "TikTok menu hacks bring chaos and cash to fast food". Marketplace. Archived from the original on 5 November 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  21. ^ Luna, Nancy. "Chipotle turns viral TikTok food hack into a new quesadilla menu item". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 5 November 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  22. ^ "A Waffle House sandwich hack went viral on TikTok. Many workers aren't happy about it". TODAY.com. 18 January 2023. Archived from the original on 5 November 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  23. ^ Jennings, Rebecca (1 February 2022). "Fashion is just TikTok now". Vox. Archived from the original on 21 December 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  24. ^ Jones, C. T. (15 September 2022). "How 'Dupe' Culture Took Over Online Fashion". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 20 September 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  25. ^ Vara, Vauhini. "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control: Inside Shein's Sudden Rise". Wired. Archived from the original on 2 January 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  26. ^ Nguyen, Terry (13 July 2021). "Shein is the future of fast fashion. Is that a good thing?". Vox. Archived from the original on 2 January 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2023. In fact, it has cemented its reputation among regular people, particularly Gen Z shoppers, who promote the brand through unsponsored clothing hauls and outfit posts on social media.
  27. ^ Long, Emily A.; Shiah, Eric; Lin, Samuel J. (June 2023). "TikTok: Is It Time to Start Trending with #PlasticSurgery?". Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery. 151 (6): 1043e–1050e. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000010121. PMID 36728791. S2CID 256501822. Archived from the original on 4 November 2023. Retrieved 4 November 2023. Videos about plastic surgery, particularly educational videos by board-certified plastic surgeons, perform exceptionally well on the TikTok platform.
  28. ^ Rivera, JC; Juan, HY; Long, AS; Hauc, SC; Junn, AH; Persing, JA; Alperovich, M (September 2022). "Presence of Cosmetic and Aesthetic Surgery on TikTok". Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Global Open. 10 (9): e4519. doi:10.1097/GOX.0000000000004519. PMC 9509022. PMID 36168605.
  29. ^ Bushak, Lecia (25 August 2023). "Selfies, social media driving up rates of cosmetic surgeries among young people". MM M - Medical Marketing and Media. Archived from the original on 2 November 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  30. ^ Das, Rishub K.; Drolet, Brian C. (December 2021). "Plastic Surgeons in TikTok: Top Influencers, Most Recent Posts, and User Engagement". Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. 148 (6): 1094e–1097e. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000008566. ISSN 0032-1052. PMID 34705755. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  31. ^ a b Rach, Markus (2021). "The impact of TikTok's plastic surgery content on adolescents' self-perception and purchase intention". Advances in Global Services and Retail Management. 2. USF M3 Publishing: 1–13. doi:10.5038/9781955833035. hdl:11590/391779. ISBN 978-1-955833-03-5. Archived from the original on 2023-11-08. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  32. ^ Tenbarge, Kat (27 April 2022). "Young influencers are being offered cheap procedures in return for promotion. They say it's coming at a cost". NBC News. Archived from the original on 12 September 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  33. ^ Zitser, Joshua. "Insider created a TikTok account and set the age at 14 to test how long before a plastic surgeon's promotional video appeared. It only took 8 minutes". Insider. Archived from the original on 15 December 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2023. #NoseJobCheck has over one billion views on the social media platform.
  34. ^ Rosenblatt, Kalhan (20 December 2022). "Buccal fat removal surgery videos have gone viral on TikTok but with pushback". NBC News. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  35. ^ Bushak, Lecia (10 April 2023). "'Brotox' takes over TikTok: Why more men are getting cosmetic surgery". MM M - Medical Marketing and Media. Archived from the original on 2 November 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  36. ^ Zitser, Joshua. "Insider created a TikTok account and set the age at 14 to test how long before a plastic surgeon's promotional video appeared. It only took 8 minutes". Insider. Archived from the original on 15 December 2023. Retrieved 4 November 2023. There's even a unique 'nose job check' sound. Over 120,000 videos using this sound have been published on TikTok...
  37. ^ Barnett, David (6 August 2023). "'I can't stress how much BookTok sells': teen literary influencers swaying publishers". The Observer. Archived from the original on 3 November 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  38. ^ Mechling, Lauren (12 October 2022). "'Never seen anything like it': how Colleen Hoover's normcore thrillers made her America's bestselling author". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 August 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  39. ^ Milliot, Jim. "BookTok Helped Book Sales Soar. How Long Will That Last?". PublishersWeekly.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  40. ^ Zarroli, Jim (31 December 2021). "TikTok is driving book sales. Here are some titles #BookTok recommends". npr.org. Archived from the original on 15 December 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  41. ^ Hawkinson, Katie. "Tiktok parent company ByteDance wants to capitalize off the success of BookTok but authors worry it might ruin BookTok in the process". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 5 November 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  42. ^ "TikTok is venturing into book publishing". The Times of India. 5 July 2023. Archived from the original on 10 November 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  43. ^ Basch, Corey H.; Narayanan, Sandhya; Tang, Hao; Fera, Joseph; Basch, Charles E. (1 January 2023). "Descriptive analysis of TikTok videos posted under the hashtag #Ozempic". Journal of Medicine Surgery and Public Health. 1: 100013. doi:10.1016/j.glmedi.2023.100013.
  44. ^ Court, Court (23 December 2022). "TikTok trend wipes out Ozempic supply, leaving people with diabetes dizzy, scared". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  45. ^ "About the Ozempic (semaglutide) shortage 2022 and 2023". www.tga.gov.au. Therapeutic Goods Administration. 8 December 2022. Archived from the original on 5 November 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2023. When videos about achieving rapid weight loss with Ozempic went viral on TikTok, the trend was also reported online and across other media. This triggered a huge demand for the product that the manufacturer was not prepared for, and it quickly developed into a worldwide shortage.
  46. ^ Kolovos, Benita (31 May 2022). "Shortage of diabetes medication Ozempic after TikTok users promote drug for weight loss". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  47. ^ Han, Sabrina H; Safeek, Rachel; Ockerman, Kyle; Trieu, Nhan; Mars, Patricia; Klenke, Audrey; Furnas, Heather; Sorice-Virk, Sarah (4 July 2023). "Public Interest in the Off-Label Use of Glucagon-like Peptide 1 Agonists (Ozempic) for Cosmetic Weight Loss: A Google Trends Analysis". Aesthetic Surgery Journal. 44 (1): 60–67. doi:10.1093/asj/sjad211. PMID 37402640. Archived from the original on 23 February 2024. Retrieved 3 November 2023. Social media users share similar curiosity of #Ozempic with an impressive 690 million views on TikTok
  48. ^ a b Rouhandeh, Alex J. (14 March 2023). "Senators unconcerned over economic impact as they move toward TikTok ban". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  49. ^ Fischer, Sara (21 July 2022). "Sweeping changes remake Facebook app in TikTok's image". Archived from the original on 3 October 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  50. ^ Malik, Aisha (29 September 2022). "Twitter is adding a new TikTok-like full-screen video feature". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 11 October 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  51. ^ Pierce, David (8 March 2023). "Spotify's new design is part TikTok, part Instagram, and part YouTube". The Verge. Archived from the original on 6 October 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  52. ^ Schneider, Jaron (7 March 2023). "Reddit is Adding TikTok-Like Video Feed". PetaPixel. Archived from the original on 20 October 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  53. ^ Gray, Isabelle (17 July 2023). "The TikTok Effect: The socio-economic impact of TikTok in the UK". Oxford Economics. Archived from the original on 3 November 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  54. ^ Hoi, New Kuwi; Yin, Lun Ke (15 May 2023). "Short Videos, Big Decisions: A Preliminary Study of Tik Tok's Role in E-Commerce Consumer Behaviour". European Journal of Business and Management Research. 8 (3): 72–81. doi:10.24018/ejbmr.2023.8.3.1951. ISSN 2507-1076. Archived from the original on 20 October 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cultural_impact_of_TikTok&oldid=1249676075"