TikTok not only has the power to hypnotize us for hours, but also has the effect of weakening culture and eroding the bonds that bring us together.
Today, in addition to giving us access to endless content, TikTok draws us into a tsunami of trends. These do not affect a particular group, they affect all Internet users, everywhere in the world.
Like waves, trends carry us away one after the other until they disappear to make way for the next one.
TikTok creates and popularizes new cultural references at lightning speed. I am thinking, among other things, of the ephemeral phenomena of “ brat summer » a you sad hamster », which will already be forgotten in the coming weeks. These trendsgo so far as to directly affect real artists, like Billie Eilish and her song What Was I Made For which she even performed on stage while meowing to please the audience.
The unifying platform represents a turning point in the history of culture, in this era where long-term cultural references seem to be on the verge of extinction.
“There are trends that are worrying,” says Laurence Grondin-Robillard, associate professor and doctoral student at the School of Media. Among other things, she tells me about a trend that occurred in France where people answered the question “what would you do if everything was allowed for 24 hours?” “.
The comments made online, particularly in the comments, degenerated. “[Les internautes ont]understood that if they used the word “rape”, they would be banned or censored. So, they put a purple dot, my cousin, purple dot, my sister, and it was disgusting,” she laments.
I agree.
The unifying side, which can seem positive to me when I think about the movementMe tooor to phenomena likebook casesquickly becomes a factor of worry and constitutes an illusion, a facade.
As Laurence Grondin-Robillard puts it so well, “the opposite also exists”.
There are followers of masculinist businessman Andrew Tate or people on the far right who only receive content that follows those ideologies.
-Fortunately, the application’s ability to geolocate users can have a positive effect on the influence of certain cultural actors in Quebec.
We can think of local businesses, like the Belle Afrique restaurant and its Fufu seed sauce, that we would never have known otherwise.
The researcher maintains that the application’s algorithms tend to present us with viral content that comes from elsewhere. However, “there is still the [géolocalisation]which will ensure that we will try, to keep you on the platform, to offer you content that will appeal to you.”
If the specialty of the Montreal-North restaurant has managed to travel around Quebec, it is not surprising that much less innocuous trends manage to make their way here.
TikTok exposes us to sometimes unwanted or even harmful content, and gives free rein to people with extreme ideologies to come together. The application is also poised to forever change our common relationships with culture.
The platform encourages its users to overconsume with its business model, which generates a chain reaction and which means that we constantly need to see more content.
Although this ensures the continuity of its success, the ephemeral side of fashions on TikTok means that “we will not appreciate the cultural elements as much as our parents and our grandparents”, confirms Laurence Grondin-Robillard. “It’s not going to follow us that long.” »
The algorithm means that, apart from certain content which goes around the globe, all the threads vary according to the interests of each person.
“At the end of the day, we will each have our cultural elements, but they will perhaps not be the same as our neighbor,” adds the expert. “It divides us more than it unites us. »
We risk remaining forever caught in a vicious loop of overconsumption of content which, despite its unifying appearance, pushes us towards an increasingly individualistic culture.
