Back in maybe early 2020, I was at a sports bar with my family and my friend Ellie, and at some point during the conversation, I made an off-handed remark about how I didn't really think TikTok qualified as "social media." Both of my siblings and Ellie sort of stopped me mid-sentence to correct me, asking how I could possibly defend that statement. Like most of my opinions, what I said didn't really stem from pure logic. It stemmed from a gut feeling that I eventually had to try and translate into a coherent argument to explain what I was feeling. I ended up saying something along the lines of this: "I feel like the primary usage of TikTok is to consume content, not to create it or share it. I view TikTok as more similar to YouTube than to Facebook or Instagram, and I don't consider YouTube 'social media'"
I've thought back to this conversation quite a bit over the past few years, occasionally agreeing with myself and occasionally concluding I was full of crap and just reflexively hating on TikTok because I didn't really understand it at the time. But that conversation took place back when TikTok was the new platform on the block, still best known as the epicenter for tolerable dance videos. It has evolved quite a bit since then, but the dust around it has settled enough that I feel I have all the information I need to make a final judgement of my opinion on the matter.
Is TikTok social media? No. I still don't really think it is.
And for the exact same reasons I reflexively spit out at that sports bar. Over the last two years, TikTok has seemed to veer even further away from a community-oriented platform for online interactions and more towards a content-oriented platform for online consumption. This isn't a diss to TikTok: just like how arguing chess isn't a sport doesn't by any means diminish its difficulty, arguing TikTok isn't social media doesn't by any means diminish its value or influence. It's the most powerful media platform that exists today. But 99% of people I know who use TikTok only interact with the app by scrolling endlessly through videos for hours on end. There's very little reciprocation from the user.
I think TikTok is a streaming service, not social media.
Now, even if I think I've locked in that answer, my heart is only 60/40 at best in favor of this conclusion as there are still a number of viable counterarguments to make.
TikTok consists entirely of user-generated content, so doesn't that make it much more social media-oriented than a standard video streaming service? Absolutely. But there still seems to be a pretty distinct line between "creators" on TikTok and "consumers" on TikTok, even if that line is less defined than on YouTube. The majority of people categorize themselves as the latter and never actually produce any content, barring maybe one sappy "Summer 2021" compilation video with "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield pumping in the background for the sheer novelty of making a TikTok. It's not like you go on TikTok and see a long feed entirely of TikToks your friends made.
But you can comment on TikToks and "Like" them, so doesn't that make it social media? Well, that's true that you can do this, but Spotify, The New York Times, customer support forums, and plenty of other definitively non-social media sites also have "Like" or comment functions, so I don't think it's fair to say that functionality alone is a good enough signpost.
But viral trends on TikTok are such an integral part of the platform, and trends are inherently social in nature. Doesn't that make TikTok social media? This is a great point and perhaps the one I struggle with most. But I would still categorize sites based on the micro-level of how an individual user engages with them, not on the macro-level of how an entire user base engages with them. These viral trends might impact the videos a user sees, but the user experience is still very much centered around individual consumption. The trend-heavy nature of the platform just means he or she will be mindlessly scrolling through a different meme variety every week.
I acknowledge that probably 97% of people in this country would disagree with me and not hesitate for a second to categorize TikTok as a social media company. But it just feels more Netflix than Facebook to me. And given the astronomical growth of TikTok over the last two years, maybe that's a good thing.
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