We all have experienced that moment when our friend sends us a reel or a TikTok of something that makes us question if we even have anything in common with each other. Or when you watch the videos that make your guy friends fall over laughing, while you’re still trying to figure out what exactly you’re looking at. Our for-you pages unlock a part of each of us that gets lost in our presentation to the rest of the world. It’s almost impossible for someone to know everything about you, since most of the time, they are still trying to figure out who they are. However, TikTok doesn’t forget. Embedding into their algorithm is a time capsule of everything that you have liked or were interested in at one point, even if it was only for a few days.
 Each video that appears contains a song, hobby, celebration, or even a super-specific and niche interest that tells a story of your passions, interests, or even who you are becoming. This creates an almost perfect collection of videos of one’s life. So what does this tell us about us as humans and you as a person? The first is that we are all connected.
In the United States, about 82.2 million people use TikTok on a single day. This number is huge and should make one feel as though the chances of seeing the same video or getting content tailored to your interests are slim to none. However, this isn’t the case. Mention names like Charli D’Amelio or dancers like The Renegade, and most people know exactly what you are talking about. This is because this app shows the unity we have through interests and reminds people that even though we are all very different, we are also very relatable. It’s validating to know that people like the same type of music that I do, or get excited about little things in life that I do as well. So even though 90% of the time I never know the person I see in a video, our interests connect us.Â
Your TikTok for-you-page can also motivate you toward your dreams. Watching videos of people living out your college dream, profession, or athletic goal can make our own feel attainable. Because most of the time you think of your goal as something far off in the future or even unrealistic, however, watching everyday people achieve a goal our ours gives hope that it is possible. For me, watching day-in-the-life videos of lawyers inspires me to work hard towards that goal and makes the profession seem less ominous, and shows me the steps others took to get there. In other words, our TikTok page tells a story of what inspires you.Â
Lastly, TikTok can show us how much we have changed. In this app, I am still a gymnast as I get videos of USA gymnasts, something that I was familiar with at one point. And in this app, I am still a dancer as the 2020 COVID dance videos appear on my feed every now and again. These videos remind me how much I have changed and bring back memories that I had forgotten about. These nostalgic videos are some of my favorites as they make me see all the parts of myself at once. Just last week, a gymnastics video on my feed made me wonder if I could still do a backflip. Because if that, I retaught myself a backflip and now I know that that’s something still in me.
While you might be thinking that your for-you-page is not that serious or deep, this isn’t true. It’s easy to scroll and not think that deeply into what you’re watching, but all this content is impacting who you are becoming and telling a story about w