It is already well known that the Tik Tok platform gained absurd popularity in a very short time. The real question is why? What makes people so drawn to watching videos for up to a minute? It has a real effect on them, and if so, what is it? And in addition, what are the reasons why this platform exploded in such a way that in a very short time it managed to overtake Instagram, having over 5 million users in Romania. In 2020, Tik Tok was in the top of the most downloaded applications in the world. So, in the following, we will enter the reasons why Tik Tok took over Instagram and became one of the most influential trend-setting platforms in Romania.

Pre-pandemic life focused on Instagram, where influencers, models, athletes, actors, musicians and virtually anyone actively posted on theplatform showed an ideal, a certain lifestyle, a seemingly inspirational positivity, but really toxic. Thus, Instagram had long since ceased to offer absolute freedom of expression, portraying some false and superficial goals. With the advent of the pandemic, the rotten part behind an ideal life on Instagram gradually began toemerge. People therefore needed a platform that allowed them to empathize with others, feeling the lack of communication that increased as a result of the limitation of social interaction. Therefore, users of already established social platforms moved to Tik Tok, where not only did they have access to content created by less popular people, normal people, with normal jobs and mundane lives, but they could access this content in a very short time. And so I believe that Tik Tok users fed their hunger for human contact, filled a void deep within their souls, once their way of living got turned upside down, destroyed, and forever changed.

As you have well noticed, the platform gives anyone and everyone the opportunity to become viral, breaking the barriers built by Instagram, where significant growth in followers is almost impossible. Overnight fame only happens when one posts something controversial, and, more often than not, it's hard to keep the public engaged at all times, so this fame goes away as fast as it came by/to be. Consequently, in a time of loneliness, throughout a pandemic, when people had no real sense of direction or purpose, they found the next best thing – a new obsession – trying to fill this gap left by the virus: going viral on Tik Tok.

Besides all of this, Tik Tok gives everyone the freedom to use their voice, regardless of their interests, the content, thus, being extremely diverse. Finally, the only thing we can all agree on is that Tik Tok did its job and did it well. In just a couple of months, it effectively helped people not lose their minds in such scary and uncertain times. All in all, this platform doesn't only have downsides – although people sure do like to constantly point them out, even though they tend to use it excessively.

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editorial: Maria Angele

graphic design: Bianca Constantin,

Anastasia Chivu

translation: Clara Pistol,

Natalia Velea

DP (desktop publishing): Andreea Seba