And I oop… 

As I sip on my grande iced vanilla latte in Starbucks, I begin to lose my train of thought due to the distracting pack of 6th graders huddling together around a screen. As they begin to bolt for the door, clearly on a very important mission, one begins to yell, “Wait! Don’t start ‘tik toking’ without me.” I, a senior in high school, immediately begin to judge them for their immaturity and nonsense. But what if it isn’t all just nonsense?  

TikTok, a social media video app, has recently become quite prominent in society today. This phenomenon, replacing past apps such as Vine or Musical.ly, allows the user to create and share personal short videos. These short videos can consist of lip-syncing, dancing, singing, comedy and other talents. 

This app has proven to be a large creative outlet for people, however, I have always refused to download it, until now. In the past, TikTok seemed pointless and overrated to me, but I decided to finally give it a try. 

I unlocked my phone, traveled to the app store and then slowly typed in T-I-K-T-O-K, trying my hardest to avoid the inevitable. Once the download was complete, I pressed the app and was greeted by a random video on the For You page. After I created my username, the damage was officially done; I had a TikTok account. 

After I let that disturbing realization set in, I began to navigate my way through the app. I gathered my friends around and requested their presence in my very first TikTok video. We chose the song Obsessed by Mariah Carey and began to film. 

The making of the video was fast and enjoyable. We danced (embarrassingly) in front of my phone while laughing and joking around. I was ashamed to admit that I had a good time. When the video was finished, I was surprised at how easy and fun TikTok actually was.

In conclusion, I definitely judged TikTok way too soon. So to all my fellow TikTok-ers out there, have fun creating more silly little videos. Oh, and don’t forget to follow me @lil-wern to check out my very first TikTok.