TikTok, the new source of Entertainment?

By Soo Eulynn

KUALA LUMPUR: TikTok – no it’s not a clock, but a video-oriented platform that allows people to create, promote, interact on various topics, has been a rising social media platform ever since the Covid-19 pandemic. People of all walks of life are grant to showcase their abilities worldwide to unify and connect with people around the world with just one app.

Ooi Wei Yan, 23, an Automotive and Transport Design student from Coventry University, England mentioned that he does not deliberately watch TikTok but he often stumbled across videos that are shared on other social media.

Image credit to Ooi Wei Yan

“TikTok gives inspiration for someone who wants to do something when they don’t have a clue. It’s a good reference point”

Ooi mentioned that he enjoys watching cooking TikTok videos during his free time as it makes him feel at ease. Users of TikTok often share various cooking recipes which make other users have a desire to try it.

Image credit to Ooi Wei Yan

“Everyone can be a creator, share their passion, show their expression with just a short time span.”

As an Economics student at HELP University, Stephanie Marsden feels that TikTok is a platform created to express talents. People who wish to create contents, rather have to be innovative and visionary in order to generate what people want to see. It is a trend that TikTok challenges were created for the community to join the fun like learning dance moves or mimicking famous lines from movies, which serves as entertainment.

Image credit to Stephanie Marsden

When asked if TikTok is able to contribute to Malaysia’s economy, Stephanie thinks that it will as many companies are starting to venture into TikTok as an advertising platform. When businesses are profiting, it does contribute to the economy. She added that she enjoys watching voice over videos on TikTok as it cracks her up.

Liew En Tong, a Media and Creative Studies student from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) said that she had used TikTok once for her assignment.

Image credit to Liew En Tong

“It feels so strange to me that I immediately uninstalled the app after the assignment is done”

Liew said that although she is a Gen Z herself, she doesn’t seem to understand the trend of using TikTok as she is unable to keep up with the fast-moving pace of contents that are shared on the app.

Does TikTok have a big influence to the society?

As the younger generations are born, they are already exposed to technology. Studies said that early exposure of technologies can relate to mental wellbeing and decreased social and cognitive functions. They are unlikely to explore contents on their own as they only perceive what is recommended to them. Take ‘Dalgona Coffee’ as an example, someone started making it for fun and in a blink of an eye and it’s literally on every social media platform.

“Younger kids will see it as a mainstream media” Liew added.

Grace Leong, 20, a Communication Studies student who is majoring in English Literature at University of Nottingham said that she uses TikTok mainly to cure boredom.

Image credit to Grace Leong

“The diversity in content that is displayed within the few minutes you’re on the app because each scroll features different videos from different categories”

Grace mentioned that through TikTok, she is able to learn about socio-political injustices rather on mainstream social media like Twitter and Instagram as people are willing to showcase their struggles and share their experience which is personal and insightful.

Like a rainbow with different colours, TikTok varies from different types of contents and topics. Commentaries are considered one of the famous contents which are enjoyed by everyone. Grace added that inspirational, self-development and self-expression topics are her favourite as it makes her happy to see people being themselves and boast about their self-confidences. This side of the app highlights self-expression, based on the algorithm.

June Loo, 23, a freelancer in Digital and Public Relations – also a content creator, mentioned that she had already discovered the app way before it was given the name. In short, she knew the existent of TikTok before it went viral.

Image credit to June Loo

TikTok was originally from a teen karaoke app called Musical.ly that has rebranded and pick up by a Chinese company (ByteDance) in November 2017 which was then incorporated into TikTok in August 2018. Existing Musical.ly users account have been upgraded to the latest TikTok with a newer interface.

“I use it on a daily basis because as a content creator on the app itself and I mostly make skits and past content videos because people seem to like it more”

June holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Public Relation – and has been doing fan-marketing for an American singer-songwriter Greyson Chance since 2012, which explains her exposure towards social media that has grown ever since. As a self-driven adult, she said that the reason behind the motivation to keep creating content on TikTok is thanks to the encouragements from other content creators around the app.

As of the previous year, one of June’s video abruptly went viral. She told that the day she filmed that TikTok video, she only had a hundred followers. Before she knew it, her video went viral the next day. “People who saw me at the mamak even came up to me and asked me if I’m the diam-lah girl”, June added.

Source: June's TikTok

When asked if TikTok is able to change the way people do advertising, she replied “TikTok has drastically changed advertising for the better.” Brands like Pomelo and Zalora uses this platform to promote their products very often – shows that companies have already ventured into TikTok advertising. June stated that TikTok serves as a good platform to learn about the Media and Entertainment industry as a whole – cos you’ll never know when you will go viral.