Diffusion of Innovations: Tik Tok

    The new social media app, "TikTok", first launched in September of 2016 but didn't gain popularity until around the summer of 2019. TikTok first started out as a platform for artists to share content. On the TikTok home page also known as the "For You" page, people were able to see dances to songs and be able to react and recreate them. Since then, TikTok has grown into a much broader platform of content. Artists, comedians, doctors, and plenty of individuals in other fields of work are able to present their content to others. There is also a diverse demographic of users who come from all places over the world, different ages, and cultures. This app is also commonly compared to the app Vine from 2012 which is no longer running but held a similar concept. Like most social media platforms and apps, this was first adopted by teens and young adults. There is reason to believe that TikTok spread quickly as the app gave a feeling of nostalgia to people who used Vine. Although these two apps were similar, TikTok incorporated more freedom for creativity with each video as far as video length, editing tools, and more opportunities for interaction. 

    Over the past year, especially during the Coronavirus pandemic, older generations have been downloading and posting TikTok's as well. With the ability to share TikTok videos over text, email, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat this helped the spread of new TikTok users. Facebook's user demographics are mostly older generations which have helped traffic older users to download TikTok. Just like any other social media site, there are negatives and positives that come along with the app. People have categorized this app as being dangerous in the sense that users are inclined to sit on the app and scroll through videos for hours on end. It has also been told that the time duration of the videos has been decreasing the attention span in teens and young adults making it hard to focus in school and retaining extensive information. Although this puts a negative effect on society, a lot of people have reason to believe that the outcome of the app and its growing population of users, has helped save lives and make a difference around the world. Individuals with mental illnesses, disabilities, financial struggles, etc; are able to share their stories to promote education and awareness on these topics. This app has also opened a door for creativity and for users to express themselves the way they please.