By now you've probably heard of TikTok — but what is it for?
TikTok is a wildly popular video app that allows users to create short-form videos, usually set to music. TikTok resembles the defunct short-form video sharing platform Vine, which hosted comedic video clips (remember this one!) until it shut down in 2016.
Unlike Vine, which capped videos off at six seconds, TikTok allows users to post 15-second video clips — and string together up to four video clips to create a 60-second montage or story.
Sounds simple, right? It is, on the surface. It's the way teens and young people are using TikTok, originally launched as a platform for lip-sync videos, that might confuse older users. One of the most popular ways for teens to engage on TikTok is to participate in challenges. Users will post videos of themselves attempting to do the same activity or recreate the same video, but with their own twist.
The way that a trend, or meme, forms and gains traction on TikTok isn't a hard science, but once a trend has been established, it catches on quickly. A recent trend finds users dancing to, inexplicably, the soundtrack of old voicemails. TikTok is, in short, a microcosm of the internet itself — mercurial, fast-moving, and often utterly incomprehensible to those not well-versed in its inner workings.
Though the shelf life of TikTok's popular trends and challenges are fleeting, the fame achieved by some of its most popular users has proved to be lasting. Like YouTube, TikTok has its own crop of celebrities, who have translated their massive following into cash returns.