Not being a TikTok user this was educational as to the cultural impact the app has had. It will be interesting to see what the state of TikTok will soon be in the United States.

I keep returning to something she told me in our very first conversation. We were talking about how certain TikTokers act in real life, when they've turned off the camera. Maybe they're nice kids. Maybe they're not overtly racist. So what then? “When people do those things on the app to get clout, to get views, to get fame, but then they're a completely different person off the app,” Blackmon said, “that is where the problem lies.”

Good read even if you're not in to TikTok. The article reminded me of Natalie Wynn's description of "trickle-up linguistics."

I guess I should explain that American slang works according to what we might call a trickle-up model of linguistics: all the new words are invented by the most marginalized gay and trans people of color, then those words trickle up to straight black people and white gays, and then finally white cishets start using them.

Quite interesting. The end left such a good question that I wish more people would explore, that tension between the person someone is IRL and the one they perform online.

Also, this line was such a gem:

Of course, none of this changes the feelings and experiences of users, the actual people who use the app and offer up their data for manipulation.