So everyone remembers Vine, the social media platform where people posted 6-second videos that looped. Popular vines were iconic and popular viners were even more influential. Former viners that you might recognize are Shawn Mendes, Liza Koshy, Lele Pons, and even Jake and Logan Paul. Shortly after the end of Vine, the internet mourned and vine compilation videos started popping up on Youtube.
Vine was iconic in the shortness of their videos, but you might remember another platform that was popular at the same time: Musical.ly. Musical.ly also had short videos, but the premise was people lip syncing to preexisting songs or scenes from shows. Musical.ly had a much younger audience than Vine, but it was still very popular with over 200 million users just before it merged with Tik Tok.
Now, Musical.ly was merged with the existing Tik Tok app in 2018 and the result is almost Vine-like. Tik Tok isn’t exactly the same as Vine, but it is working as sort of a replacement for the internet’s need for short videos. Tik Tok isn’t limited to 6 seconds like Vine allowing for videos ranging from 3-60 seconds. Sometimes the videos on Tik Tok feel too long, but they usually aren’t packed with stuff happening like Vines often were.
Tik Toks are often complicated with signs and soundtracks the viewer needs to pay attention to in order to get the joke. Like Musical.ly, Tik Toks are usually based around the soundtrack. Tik Tokkers tend to use the same songs with different versions of the same joke.
You might’ve heard of the meme where people throw cheese at their babies, right? Sometimes to the sound of “YMCA”? Yeah, that trend started on Tik Tok with people throwing cheese, eggs, or tortillas at their siblings, parents, pets, or babies.
Scrolling through Tik Tok can get repetitive though. For You is the app’s page of popular Tik Toks, but the Following page is Tik Toks only from the accounts that you follow. I typically stay on the For You page and I can see the same trend up to 3 or 4 times in a row. It’s usually a different take on the same trend, but it does get old after a while. You can also search hashtags to watch Tik Toks about the same stuff or trend.
From trendy or meme based Tik Toks to satisfying videos that appear everywhere on the internet, Tik Tok has something for everyone. Tik Tok is now even a home for former viners. I find more and more former viners created their new content on Tik Tok. Although it’s not the same as Vine, Tik Tok does well at filling the void that Vine left on the internet.