TikTok: A New Type of Social Capital
Graphic by Bailey Richards.
What’s one way to make you feel old and irrelevant? Download TikTok. What’s a way to make yourself feel even older and more irrelevant? Have a conversation about TikTok with a teenager. Despite dedicating my quarantine to perfecting the Renegade, a recent text conversation with my 17-year-old brother clarified just how out of touch my 22-year-old self is.
It seems the social media platform that was once just home to “The Sway House” and Charli D'Amelio has evolved past cute dances and funny skits — it now functions as a form of teenage social currency. The cool kids in high school not only know the Renegade, but they can mimic every top trending sound and perform each new dance as if their life depended on it.
Regular conversations with my teenage brother are now interrupted with popular TikTok phrases and commentary that he slips seamlessly into his vernacular. He expects me to know exactly what he’s talking about when he jokes that “I ain’t never seen two pretty best friends” or mentions the newest hype house couple, because, well, everyone else around him does. Being the closest in age to him out of all four of our siblings, I am honored that he assumes I’m up on the latest TikTok drama, but also slightly embarrassed when I actually do know what he is talking about.
TikTok is giving teenagers a new way to communicate. They have their own world of funny skits and musical artists that are “TikTok popular.” It’s almost like a secret language that anyone over the age of 20 is excluded from.
The social currency of the app has evolved into a way of making friends and even flirting. My little brother recently started at a new school and the first thing he followed everyone on was TikTok. The other day he even mentioned to me that he and the girl he has a crush on were going to make TikToks together during lunch. (I, of course, had to stalk these Tiktoks after they were made.)
The teenage years are confusing and awkward, but if two 17-year-olds can bond over funny dance moves or lip-syncing to a Doja Cat song, I think TikTok might just be a good thing for the youth. It’s simple, cute and inclusive; all you have to do is download the app and start dancing in your mirror. TikTok is the new social capital of teenagers and I’m pretty sure it’s here to stay. Long gone are the days of Facebook groups or ICHAT: the real drama goes down in the TikTok DMs.