TikTok: you either love it or don’t understand it. Those who love it bask in the abundance of creativity and humour it offers. Those who don’t understand it find it cringy, uncool and a waste of time. I feel sorry for the latter.
Vine was great, wasn’t it? There are many similarities that the two platforms share. Everyone liked Vine, but the same energy isn’t reciprocated for TikTok and for a reason: you could never replace the iconic vines that still circulate the internet today. They hold an outstanding legacy in contemporary online culture. Even though TikTok hasn’t reached the same level of importance (yet!), it makes up for what it lacks in the popularity factor by offering more than its precursor ever did.
The ability to create a video up to 60 seconds long is already a defeat on Vine’s part. Add to that features such as soundtrack syncing, augmented reality filters, editing tools and the option to share and collaborate on your favourite videos turns the platform into an addictive social network. No wonder the platform sees over 500 million users a month. But for those of you who have no idea where to start, I’ve listed a small number of TikTokers that are currently providing some of the best content on the platform.
@colewalliser
This Canadian filmmaker is behind E!’s Glambot at the biggest red carpet events. The Glambot gloriously shoots portraits of celebrities in 1000fps slow-motion frames. Brad Pitt, Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonet, and the cast of Parasite are the most recent faces to be featured. Walliser offers a behind the scenes look to the process, where he has 30 seconds to explain to the celebrities what it is and what to do. It is both amusing and intriguing to watch, and the results are always flawless. Perhaps the one good thing to come out of quite a lack-lustre award season.
@skinnypudge
This channel is basically just a man and his cat. But the enthusiasm spectrum is what makes this channel so funny. Zach Padgett is just out there living his best life with his cat Elvis, arguably the best duo on the platform at the moment. The amount of joy that dressing up Elvis brings to Zach is so heart-warming. We have seen Elvis in a tiny cowboy hat, Elvis as a sandwich, Elvis as an alien, and my favourite, Elvis as prison Mike. Sure, Elvis doesn’t seem so thrilled, but the cut zooms into his face make the videos golden.
@brittany_broski
You probably know her as Kombucha Girl, but her comedy doesn’t end there. Her facial expressions can be further enjoyed in her other videos, where she can be seen flawlessly lip-syncing to the Macarena, using the filters to become a potato, and more recently, a cheese puff, and putting on Southern, English and Italian-American accents to create the best character videos. You can’t really describe her videos, but that’s usually what makes something so funny. Her range is truly remarkable.
@charlidamelio
Charli is one of the most successful TikTokers with over 27 million followers. Yes, she is affiliated with The Hype House, which brings more cringe than thrill to someone my age. But, for a 15-year-old, she is creating high-quality content that is quite inspiring. I’m not one for dance routine videos, but hers are so flawlessly executed that it’s easy to become addicted. On top of that, she is bringing back old classic hits, dancing to her own remixes of the likes of Rich Girl and Hit Me Baby One More Time that makes me think she has a pretty cool style for a young teenager.
