How TikTok Became a Home For Those in Search of Community

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2021

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The social media app TikTok has grown exponentially since its release in 2016, with over 689 million active users worldwide. Famous for its short, looping videos that feature a range of content including lip syncs, dance routines, personal storytelling and documentary-style footage, it’s become a popular place to spend hours online, especially among Gen Z. Particularly in the past year, when in-person interaction was limited due to the pandemic, many people found community on TikTok and used it as a way to de-stress or express their creativity. We’ll talk about TikTok’s appeal and hear from popular creators Nick Cho and Taylor Cassidy about the communities they’ve found and built on the app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for KQED Podcasts comes from Landmark College, commemorating 40 years of educating people who learn differently, with programs on campus and online for both students and professionals.
0:12.0	Learn more at landmark.edu.
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0:23.4	Compar's two unlimited intro lines and lowest price 5D plans of top three carriers.
0:26.4	Tax on fees extra, reduce speeds after 30 gigabytes of usage.
0:28.8	Data thresholds may vary.
0:31.1	From KQBD Public Radio in San Francisco, I'm Nina Kim.
0:47.8	Coming up on forum, TikTok was supposed to go down last summer after ex-president Trump
0:53.3	tried to ban the video sharing app from U.S.
0:56.1	stores. But the already popular social platform beat back the ban with legal challenges and then saw
1:02.5	its popularity soar during the pandemic. This hour will hear from TikTok creators, Nick Cho,
1:08.6	Taylor Cassidy, and others about what they think drives TikTok's growth
1:12.6	and about the community they found on the app along the way. Join us. This is Forum. I'm Mina Kim.
1:37.6	The video sharing app, TikTok, has so much random content that it's easy to get drawn in by the absurdity.
1:45.6	And then before you know it, as I learned last night, you spent way too much time watching
1:50.9	short looping videos of lip sinks, dance routines, personal storytelling, or just weird goofy
1:57.6	skits.
1:59.1	This partly explains why the app, which has 700 million monthly users,
2:04.2	has taken off, especially among Gen Z. Forum intern Leslie Cosmet Torres has some other theories
	...

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