It’s Saturday morning. I wake up and immediately roll over to grab my phone to open up Tik Tok. The ‘For You Page’ is definitely for me, as I scroll through a set of pre-chosen videos. I cannot put down my phone. I keep on scrolling, which continues for the rest of my morning until my mom is ready to burst into flames. #Addicted

Tik Tok, known among teens as “The Holder of Trends,” is a social media app where viewers can watch and create comedy, talent and lip-sync videos. People award submissions with a heart if they enjoy a video. The more earned hearts, the more popularity a video has. Tik Tok was originally known as Musical.ly, but it changed its name so it would draw people to the app and better represent its users. It was created by ByteDance, a private technology firm that was founded by Ziming Zhang, which is now worth $75 billion. ByteDance also launched Toutiao, a news and information content platform. 

Tik Tok has grown in popularity, as videos from elementary school students and the elderly are routinely posted on the app, all in hopes of a viral video.

“I think it (Tik Tok) is really funny because it has music, songs, and people do dances. I think it is very fun and cool to upload videos and I hope it (my video) will be famous,” 3rd grader Emily T. said.

In Tik Tok, there are common songs and memes that viewers make videos from. But after a while, they begin to age and new trends take over. Currently, one of the most famous trends is the “Martha Dumptruck in the Flesh” from the musical Heathers. 

“Everything is like a phase, so everyone likes something [a meme or video]. Then once they see something new come in, they throw [the old meme or video] away and don’t want to talk about that one,” Kennedy C. said.

The concern is age-appropriate content. Parents may need to be aware of the possibility of sexual content and profanity. Although Tik Tok requires an age limit of 13, children can easily access Tik Tok and create their own accounts.

“I feel like there should be a restriction because there are some things on (Tik Tok) that kids shouldn’t watch or see. So I think even though there is a policy, a bunch of people don’t follow it, and they should look more into that,” Kennedy C. said.

In the current world of social media, Tik Tok continues to rise in popularity. According to https://www.businessofapps.com/data/tik-tok-statistics, the site is the #1 app downloaded in the app store, with approximately 104,020,000 downloads in October 2018. People of all ages continue to enjoy the app on their phones. Sorry, gotta go, my video just got more likes!