It was the spring of 2020, my junior year of college at Georgia, but I was back in my childhood bedroom in Texas. Because everyone was displaced if you were in college during COVID. The sticky heat, the Zoom classes, the fear and lockdowns and oddness of it all \u2014 that\u2019s when TikTok first entered the chat, my group chats at least. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My friends would send the dance videos that\u2019d been posted on this new app (to us) called TikTok. The girls dancing in the videos were at least five years younger than me \u2014 girls like Charli D\u2019Amelio and Addison Rae, both of whom became famous via TikTok during COVID and are now multimillionaires. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You could still watch the videos even if you didn\u2019t have the app downloaded, although the app that the dances were on didn\u2019t really matter to me. I used to be a dancer, so I liked learning the catchy little routines for fun. There was something playful about it \u2014 a break from the boredom. I remember the viral \u201cRenegade\u201d dance to the song \u201cLottery\u201d by K-Camp. There were also the dances to \u201cSavage\u201d by Megan Thee Stallion and Doja Cat\u2019s \u201cSay So.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It feels funny to look back on those dances like this \u2014 to write them in words and think them aloud, so formally and distinctly \u2014 like they\u2019re now part of some moment in time. They are, though, and I mention them here because those dances mark my first and last time ever engaging in a TikTok-related trend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Removed from the chat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike the majority of my generation, I don\u2019t have TikTok. I\u2019ve never had TikTok. That\u2019s not to say I think I\u2019m any better than my fellow Gen Zers or that my online habits are any healthier. I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m the type of person who prefers to live under a rock either (though I did live in a tiny mountain town for three years after graduating from college, which probably contributed to me never having the urge to download the app). Nevertheless, I\u2019ve never downloaded the app. That is the point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even now, at 26 years old and living in New York to pursue journalism, TikTok is absent from my life. It\u2019s actually pretty ignorant when I think about it \u2014 an aspiring culture writer avoiding the very app that captures the zeitgeist and fuels a lot of it, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The short-form video app has become a predominant engine for my generation, churning out discourse, culture and language, and even replacing sites like Google as a primary search engine. According to a Her Campus Media survey, 74% of Gen Z use TikTok to search for brands, products and services, and 51% prefer it to Google<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a whole other language that happens on TikTok that I don\u2019t understand and probably never will. When the app\u2019s dialect manifests in real life, which happens a lot, I am the one having to ask things like, \u201cRemind me what \u2018demure\u2019 means again?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n I never really got the whole \u201cbrat summer\u201d thing. I\u2019ll forever fall behind on all the \u201cgirly\u201d trends; \u201cclean girls,\u201d \u201cno-makeup makeup,\u201d #coquette, #tradwife \u2014 it goes too far. It always does. And when someone had to explain to me who The Rizzler was, and how this kid and his face (formally known as \u201crizz face\u201d) was so funny that it went viral, I stared blankly. \u201cYou don\u2019t get it,\u201d my friends tell me. I know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I picked up what \u201cgirl math\u201d meant from context clues and watched Pookie and Jett do their fit checks on Instagram. ABBA music was suddenly back and playing at every pregame \u2014 that one, I loved. I missed the vabbing trend and the \u201cGorilla Glue Girl\u201d and Chef Pii\u2019s controversial production of The Pink Sauce. #TikTokmademebuyit, #POV, #OOTD. All the \u201cGet Ready With Me\u2019s\u201d (GRWMs). I\u2019ve never watched Alix Earle get ready or get real, nor have I tried Emily Mariko\u2019s salmon bowl. I missed out on the baked feta pasta and cucumber salads and the Sleepy Girl Mocktails. <\/p>\n\n\n\n