TikTok loves to tell people how they’re doing something wrong. It’s often random generic things, too, like the way you walk, or the way you tuck your hair back. Now, the latest everyday action to be overly scrutinized is — of all things — waving. TBH, I didn’t know saying hi could be so controversial, but here we are.
This all started on June 5 when creator @jordyyhard posted a TikTok talking about how to wave correctly, saying how waving your whole hand back and forth is absolutely not it. The wave she proposes as the superior technique is the finger point wave, where your fingers are hitting your palms as if you’re grabbing the air. The video went viral, gaining over 7 million views and 800,000 likes as of June 11. It has since inspired other creators such as @shelbyannbell and @isa_kristen22 to make their own videos agreeing with the dominance of the finger point wave, racking up thousands upon thousands of likes each.
Some people are really into this wave style, such as social media icon Tana Mongeau, who gave her two cents about the finger point wave, commenting “bonus points for acrylics or jewelry clacking” on @jordyyhard’s video. Microsoft also commented, “i’ll be waving like this during every icebreaker now.” (Random, but pop off, corporate social media manager!)
On the flip side — and I truly didn’t know this was possible — but these videos have also sparked major debates online. Some are in total disgust over the new “it” way to wave, commenting things like, “Eh no sorry it’s giving toddler babe,” “i could not disagree more. i do not want to hear your hands,” and “wave at me like that im walking away.”Â
Many are making it a point not to just diss this wave style, but also advocate for their own wave styles of choice in the comments sections of various videos — whether that’s the classic wave, where you wave your hand back and forth, or the finger inchworm wave, where you move your pointer finger up and down.
I’m honestly still a bit conflicted on how I prefer to wave… I think I’m going to stick to just saying hi to be safe.