You all may know of the very popular app controlling our everyday lives with the name, Tik Tok. How does an app like Tik Tok get so popular and why do so many people like to use it? Tik Tok was first introduced in September of 2016 and used to be known as Musical.ly. It’s an app run by a large Chinese company named ByteDance, who supposedly was in talks to raise an additional 1.4 billion for artificial intelligence and media content.

The app is almost like a replica of Vine, which was taken down on December 16th, 2016. Vine was one of the most popular apps for memes back in 2016. So many people used it for the most random, yet funniest videos. 200 million people downloaded Vine by 2015 and made content that has shaped our culture today. Like Vine, people on Tik Tok make 15-second videos lip-syncing, dancing, or even making their own content. Most people use text boxes to make a joke or a “meme.” Even certain song lyrics can be tied into the joke being made. The app is really just full of teens expressing their humor and trying to come up with interesting ideas for the videos. Some people can even get famous off of these short videos.

Many people refer to it as Tik Tok famous, which I’m sure tons of teens would love to achieve. Students here at FHS have experienced getting famous or close to it. Caleb Speth, a junior here at Farmington High School, has been making Tik Toks for a long time. Before Tik Tok was really popular here, Caleb was one of the first students out there to get this app and start building his profile. Caleb goes by @stoopidspeth on the app and is seen as a comedian, like most people go for. He has a total of 14.9k followers and has received 356.9k likes across all of his videos. I asked Caleb how he felt about getting Tik Tok famous. “I didn’t expect to, but I had the intentions to. My hard work and dedication finally paid off after a few videos went viral.” Caleb claims that he is still going to make videos and grow in followers. His next goal is to officially be verified as a ‘Tik Tok user.’ “With my support from friends and my current followers, I strongly believe I can get there someday. All I can say is I’ll see you at the top.”