We don’t really have an idea of the impact and power of TikTok, and this is what Chris Stokel-Walke, journalist and author of the book TikTok Boom (2021), tried to demonstrate during his speech.
In Europe, more than 100 million people use this application daily, with over 23 million in the UK. An application that does not only appeal to young people, because as Chris Stokel-Walker reminded us, parents and even grandparents are progressively getting into it.
Some consider that this social network exploded overnight, as if it was an accident. In reality, this is not the case at all. Chris Stokel-Walker reminds us that behind TikTok, there is a huge Chinese company, ByteDance, valued at more than 300 billion dollars. Also, it took a long time to craft the TikTok app, first launched in 2016, as hundreds of options were considered.
Many politicians are warning about the risks of TikTok – especially on cybersecurity – and hope to one day put an end to the social network. But TikTok may not be our enemy, because it has succeeded in revolutionizing our digital lives, in « redefining the norms ».
When we see the « Reels » on Instagram or the « Shorts » on YouTube, we clearly realize the influence and impact that TikTok has on the world of social networks because the formats are very similar. The world in which we live, « it’s the world of TikTok ».
By Ayoub SIMOUR