Let’s be real. Doom-scrolling on TikTok is essential to our nightly bed-rotting routines. The book on my side table is often only for decoration. The moment I’m comfortable, TikTok is habitually opened, my reposts are stacked, and my embarrassingly long streaks are rekindled. Unfortunately, earlier this month my schedule along with millions of other fellow bed-rotters was interrupted.
Though short lived, the anticipation of the 24-48 hour TikTok ban, inflicted by current U.S. President Donald Trump, led to popular influencers posting drafts, reminiscing, but also sharing shocking secrets behind their videos before the app went black.
Anticlimactically, TikTok has been up and working once again for U.S. consumers, though the app is now under political control and falls in a “grey area,” as officials still aren’t sure of what is next.
Is everything magically back to normal? What do these influencer “confessions” say about the videos we subconsciously subscribe to?
“There’s One More Secret I Feel I Have to Share With You”
If this statement rings a bell, then you have probably seen the hundreds of influencers who broke jaw-drop-worthy news with their followers days to hours before the ban.
Some of these “confessions” were light-hearted and obvious, like famous TikTok personality Abby Herbert’s statement on her fake internet brother Chris Olsen. However, fans were shocked by the videos several other gen-z and millennial influencers posted, insinuating harsh truths about their content that wouldn’t have been mentioned if the app was not presumably unavailable.
Fake Workouts and Staged Videos??
Yoga instructor and lifestyle creator Lexi Hidalgo is a hot topic due to her recent TikToks approaching the ban. Hidalgo, who is widely known by the gen-z population for curating aesthetically pleasing Youtube and TikTok videos, shared with her audience earlier this month that she staged all of her workout videos, and barely drank the tons of coffee she made throughout the years with trending sounds and cute outfits. The myriad of stitched videos and duets that came up for this confession was a result of thousands of fans’ outbursts and feelings of surprise.
Hidalgo wasn’t the only viral influencer to tackle the storm. Baby Dumping, a famous mukbang creator, confirmed the ongoing theories consumers were speculating about her content. Baby Dumpling is notoriously known on many of our for-you pages for eating colossal amounts of food without seemingly gaining any weight. From nearly 3.2 million people watching her eat 9 In-N-Out burgers to All You Can Eat sushi, fans have been suspicious from the start, claiming the creator cuts all her videos and doesn’t actually finish the food. The food influencer later backpedaled her confession video after the ban was temporarily lifted, but with the political repercussions and uncertainty of this app, we aren’t sure what creators will cover up next time.
The issues with these creators don’t just stop at wastefulness. The actions and masked demeanors being portrayed on these pages only goes to show that we as consumers are forced to face the substantially concerning question after this ban (lifted or unlifted): what’s real and what isn’t?
Social Media Can Be Distorted
It isn’t a surprise to anyone that we can’t believe everything we see, but January in itself has unveiled how taxing this over-consumerism of social media is. The issue isn’t just the fact that these influencers shared crazy realities. It’s that these realities wouldn’t have been shared if they didn’t think the app was going to be unavailable for a majority of creators’ views, essentially conveying that millions of us would be falsely strung along for an immeasurable amount of time.
Creators like those who “confessed” have now made it visible that social media is often a distorted reality. The things we subscribe to aren’t always as true and accurate as they are initially depicted. Our perceptions of facts are subconsciously skewed by the rise of false news and calculated scripts only now unfolding as a direct effect of the ban.
So….what’s next?
No one really knows what will happen with the app in the foreseeable future. For now, despite the political climate and rocky conditions, TikTok is up and running for American consumers. Nevertheless, these creators have taught us some important lessons to take with us on these platforms.
With all things considered, these platforms are great outlets for creative expression when not misused. As we scroll, it’s vital to take the things we consume with a grain of salt. As much as we would like to trust the influencers who make us feel like we’re on Facetime, it’s important to realize that there is a person behind that screen with a reputation to uphold. We should never find ourselves becoming overly inspired by the workout trends or runway models flooding the internet.
The future of TikTok is a mystery, and although that may feel like a tragedy to many, we must keep in mind that social media is social media. Every video we like can make an impact on us, but we should strive for it to be a good one.
What’s your take on influencer identities? We want to know, share your thoughts @HerCampusSJSU!