Difference between revisions of "TikTok Subcultures"

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== Ethical Concerns ==  
 
== Ethical Concerns ==  
 
[[File:ThisIsWar NoBlueStates.jpg|200px|thumb|right|TikTok made by conservative account @ericyansound]]
 
[[File:ThisIsWar NoBlueStates.jpg|200px|thumb|right|TikTok made by conservative account @ericyansound]]
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There have been concerns regarding the radicalisation between subcultures. The most notable example of this is the radicalization of political extremism subcultures, where there are concerns that those with extreme views group consistently with others with those same views without exposure to other political viewpoints. Eugene Wei, former Head of Video at Oculus, coined this phenomenon as the “Sorting Hat”, referencing the famous Young Adult novel Harry Potter where the Sorting Hat places students into four distinct Houses. Eugene Wei states that “[like the sorting hat], TikTok’s algorithm sorts its users into dozens and dozens of subcultures. Not two FYP feeds are alike”. <ref>Wei, E. TikTok and the Sorting Hat. Remains of the Day. https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/8/3/tiktok-and-the-sorting-hat</ref>
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There have been concerns regarding the radicalization <ref> The RAND Corporation Is a Nonprofit Institution That Helps Improve Policy and CHILDREN and FAMILIES.
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</ref> between subcultures. The most notable example of this is the radicalization of political extremism subcultures, where there are concerns that those with extreme views group consistently with others with those same views without exposure to other political viewpoints. Eugene Wei, former Head of Video at Oculus, coined this phenomenon as the “Sorting Hat”, referencing the famous Young Adult novel Harry Potter where the Sorting Hat places students into four distinct Houses. Eugene Wei states that “[like the sorting hat], TikTok’s algorithm sorts its users into dozens and dozens of subcultures. Not two FYP feeds are alike”. <ref>Wei, E. TikTok and the Sorting Hat. Remains of the Day. https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/8/3/tiktok-and-the-sorting-hat</ref>
  
 
Furthermore, there arises the concern of the widespread misinformation fueled by confirmation bias. For example, tech magazine Wired analyzes the influence conservative subcultures had in relation to MAGA Radicalisation, highlighting a viral conservative Tik Tok that “depicts a map of the US made up of a smattering of small blue dots surrounded by a sea of red [with the] caption: ‘THERE ARE NO ‘BLUE STATES’ NOT ONE!’”. <ref>Hickey, C. TikTok Played a Key Role in MAGA Radicalization. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-tiktok-played-a-key-role-in-maga-radicalization/?code=pNMTDv4TcalVCSic1kn4ln6ZV5vu5zMoykLKzwQggX3&state=%7B%22redirectURL%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fstory%2Fopinion-tiktok-played-a-key-role-in-maga-radicalization%2F%3Futm_source%3DWIR_REG_GATE%22%7D&utm_source=WIR_REG_GATE</ref> Wired states that “[a]lthough the image is factual, it’s a county-by-county map of the 2020 election results, [lacking] critical context”. <ref>Hickey, C. TikTok Played a Key Role in MAGA Radicalization. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-tiktok-played-a-key-role-in-maga-radicalization/?code=pNMTDv4TcalVCSic1kn4ln6ZV5vu5zMoykLKzwQggX3&state=%7B%22redirectURL%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fstory%2Fopinion-tiktok-played-a-key-role-in-maga-radicalization%2F%3Futm_source%3DWIR_REG_GATE%22%7D&utm_source=WIR_REG_GATE</ref> In a June 2020 update, TikTok recognizes the concerns surrounding repetitive patterns and diversifying recommendations in their recommender system, claiming that the future of the recommender system will address these concerns. <ref>Wei, E. TikTok and the Sorting Hat. Remains of the Day. https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/8/3/tiktok-and-the-sorting-hat</ref>
 
Furthermore, there arises the concern of the widespread misinformation fueled by confirmation bias. For example, tech magazine Wired analyzes the influence conservative subcultures had in relation to MAGA Radicalisation, highlighting a viral conservative Tik Tok that “depicts a map of the US made up of a smattering of small blue dots surrounded by a sea of red [with the] caption: ‘THERE ARE NO ‘BLUE STATES’ NOT ONE!’”. <ref>Hickey, C. TikTok Played a Key Role in MAGA Radicalization. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-tiktok-played-a-key-role-in-maga-radicalization/?code=pNMTDv4TcalVCSic1kn4ln6ZV5vu5zMoykLKzwQggX3&state=%7B%22redirectURL%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fstory%2Fopinion-tiktok-played-a-key-role-in-maga-radicalization%2F%3Futm_source%3DWIR_REG_GATE%22%7D&utm_source=WIR_REG_GATE</ref> Wired states that “[a]lthough the image is factual, it’s a county-by-county map of the 2020 election results, [lacking] critical context”. <ref>Hickey, C. TikTok Played a Key Role in MAGA Radicalization. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-tiktok-played-a-key-role-in-maga-radicalization/?code=pNMTDv4TcalVCSic1kn4ln6ZV5vu5zMoykLKzwQggX3&state=%7B%22redirectURL%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fstory%2Fopinion-tiktok-played-a-key-role-in-maga-radicalization%2F%3Futm_source%3DWIR_REG_GATE%22%7D&utm_source=WIR_REG_GATE</ref> In a June 2020 update, TikTok recognizes the concerns surrounding repetitive patterns and diversifying recommendations in their recommender system, claiming that the future of the recommender system will address these concerns. <ref>Wei, E. TikTok and the Sorting Hat. Remains of the Day. https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/8/3/tiktok-and-the-sorting-hat</ref>
  
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There also arises a concern of the fueling of pitted hate wars and negative emotions between subcultures, as subcultures with different taste rarely mix together. For example, Alt TikTok became coined as “Elite TikTok”, assigning a negative connotation to those that are not on Alt TikTok along with the creation of many trends mocking Straight TikTok. <ref>Lorenz, T. What Is Elite TikTok? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/style/elite-tiktok.html</ref> Similarly with fashion subcultures on Tik Tok, as most fashion Tik Toks portray themselves as detaching away from mainstream culture, those that do follow mainstream culture, not following the fashion trends depicted in these subcultures are isolated
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There also arises a concern of the fueling of pitted hate wars and negative emotions between subcultures, as subcultures with different taste rarely mix together. For example, Alt TikTok became coined as “Elite TikTok”, assigning a negative connotation to those that are not on Alt TikTok along with the creation of many trends mocking Straight TikTok. <ref>Lorenz, T. What Is Elite TikTok? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/style/elite-tiktok.html</ref> Similarly with fashion subcultures on Tik Tok, as most fashion Tik Toks portray themselves as detaching away from mainstream culture, those that do follow mainstream culture, not following the fashion trends depicted in these subcultures are isolated
  
 
== References ==
 
== References ==

Revision as of 11:00, 17 March 2021

TikTok subcultures are the social cultures that arise from a set of users specific subject or set of subjects within the popular content creation app, TikTok. The genre of said categories ranges from overarching subjects such as fashion to specific subjects such as Retail TikTok.[1] As TikTok rose to become one of the most widely used social media platforms, the recognition of these subcultures has become a prevalent subject among users and industries that rely on the subcultures. For example, the fashion industry has become heavily influenced by the fashion trends, such as E-Girl[2] and Dark Academia[3]aesthetics, that arise among fashion subcultures on TikTok. [4] TikTok does not predetermine these subcultures, where instead users with similar tastes are grouped with one another based on TikTok’s recommender system, creating subcultures based on similar interests and tastes.

The Algorithm

TikTok subcultures are formulated by the recommender system. The recommender system primarily collects data from two forms of feedback: explicit and implicit feedback.

"Not Interested" button on TikTok

Explicit feedback[5] refers to the explicit ratings users give, such as liking a video to express their interest. TikTok’s explicit feedback comes in the form of liking a video as well as having the user explicitly select categories they are interested in upon the creation of their TikTok account. Another feature that TikTok uses to get explicit feedback is the “Not Interested” button, where the user can explicitly state their disinterest towards a particular video.

Implicit feedback[5]refers to the natural interactions a user has with a video, such as the sharing of a video where sharing the video doesn’t tell TikTok whether or not the user actually likes the video. Examples of implicit feedback in TikTok include whether or not a user follows another user, what hashtags a particular video contains, and device and account settings. Implicit feedback is usually binary, such as whether a user has shared a video or not, thus easier to collect with less information gain compared to explicit feedback. [6] To obtain more information from the easily collectible implicit feedback, TikTok utilizes granular implicit feedback, such as the amount of time a user has spent on a video, to also provide more accurate feedback on its recommender system. [7]

Subcultures form from the collection of similar feedback among different users, where users with similar feedback become grouped to see videos that reflect their similar interests. For example, two users who explicitly like and interact with a specific fashion aesthetic video not only get recommended more videos that relate to said fashion aesthetic, but get recommended more videos that would produce similar reactions to said subject, thus grouping together those would form similar opinions and reactions to subjects. From the combination of explicit and implicit feedback among many users, TikTok’s recommendation systems create a flurry of subcultures among interests, where the subcultures are based not only on interest on said subject but also opinion.

The Subcultures

Alternative Subculture

One of the most influential and prominent subcultures on TikTok is the Alternative TikTok subculture, where the subculture is by New York Times as those who do not participate in mainstream culture, those with deep interests in alternative music, art, fashion, and humor. [8] As TikTok gained traction, the rise of Alt Tik Tok came to be mainly through as a detachment away from Straight Tik Tok, classified as the mainstream content usually associated with Tik Tok such as dancing and lip syncing. [9]

Fashion Subcultures

Another influential subculture of TikTok is the rise of fashion TikTok, videos revolving around fashion and clothing trends, where the subculture itself has a multitude of subcultures in of itself, such as E-Girl/E-Boy TikTok, Cottagecore TikTok, and Light/Dark Academia TikTok. [10] The most prominent feature of the combination of such subcultures is the “distinct clothing styles to separate themselves from the mainstream American teenage culture and express their despondence towards contemporary culture as well as their oppositions to hegemonic femininity and compulsory heterosexuality”, as stated by Lynn in her analyzation of social media self identity. [11]

Political Subcultures

Political subcultures on Tik Tok refer to the subculture of media on Tik Tok that relate to the political and social workings of a government . Accounts such as @conservativehypehouse and @liberalhypehouse highlight two Tik Tok accounts with different political affiliations. [12] There are even more specific political Tik Tok that involve political candidates, such as Bernie Sanders Tik Tok and Trump Tik Tok. Most videos that come from political Tik Tok subcultures involve utilizing mainstream trends to deliver political opinions and statistics.

Ethical Concerns

TikTok made by conservative account @ericyansound

There have been concerns regarding the radicalization [13] between subcultures. The most notable example of this is the radicalization of political extremism subcultures, where there are concerns that those with extreme views group consistently with others with those same views without exposure to other political viewpoints. Eugene Wei, former Head of Video at Oculus, coined this phenomenon as the “Sorting Hat”, referencing the famous Young Adult novel Harry Potter where the Sorting Hat places students into four distinct Houses. Eugene Wei states that “[like the sorting hat], TikTok’s algorithm sorts its users into dozens and dozens of subcultures. Not two FYP feeds are alike”. [14]

Furthermore, there arises the concern of the widespread misinformation fueled by confirmation bias. For example, tech magazine Wired analyzes the influence conservative subcultures had in relation to MAGA Radicalisation, highlighting a viral conservative Tik Tok that “depicts a map of the US made up of a smattering of small blue dots surrounded by a sea of red [with the] caption: ‘THERE ARE NO ‘BLUE STATES’ NOT ONE!’”. [15] Wired states that “[a]lthough the image is factual, it’s a county-by-county map of the 2020 election results, [lacking] critical context”. [16] In a June 2020 update, TikTok recognizes the concerns surrounding repetitive patterns and diversifying recommendations in their recommender system, claiming that the future of the recommender system will address these concerns. [17]

There also arises a concern of the fueling of pitted hate wars and negative emotions between subcultures, as subcultures with different taste rarely mix together. For example, Alt TikTok became coined as “Elite TikTok”, assigning a negative connotation to those that are not on Alt TikTok along with the creation of many trends mocking Straight TikTok. [18] Similarly with fashion subcultures on Tik Tok, as most fashion Tik Toks portray themselves as detaching away from mainstream culture, those that do follow mainstream culture, not following the fashion trends depicted in these subcultures are isolated

References

  1. ↑ “#Retail Hashtag Videos on TikTok.” TikTok, 2018, www.tiktok.com/tag/retail?source=h5_t. Accessed 17 Mar. 2021. ‌
  2. ↑ Jennings, Rebecca. “E-Girl Definition: What Is an E-Girl?” Vox, Vox, Aug. 2019, www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/8/1/20748707/egirl-definition-what-is-an-eboy. Accessed 17 Mar. 2021. ‌
  3. ↑ Greenfield, Jacquelyn. “Where to Buy Dark Academia Clothes Online.” Nylon, Nylon, 3 Nov. 2020, www.nylon.com/fashion/where-to-buy-dark-academia-clothes-online. Accessed 17 Mar. 2021. ‌
  4. ↑ Bateman, K. The 10 TikTok Subcultures Shaping Fashion Trends Right Now. W Magazine. https://www.wmagazine.com/fashion/tiktok-fashion-trends-subcultures-goths
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ellis, Rod, et al. “IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK AND THE ACQUISITION OF L2 GRAMMAR.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition, vol. 28, no. 2, 2006, pp. 339–368., doi:10.1017/S0272263106060141.
  6. ↑ Sureshkumar, K. How does TikTok’s algorithm know me so well? - Towards Data Science. Medium. https://towardsdatascience.com/how-does-tiktoks-algorithm-know-me-so-well-459e8dc7e90b
  7. ↑ Sureshkumar, K. How does TikTok’s algorithm know me so well? - Towards Data Science. Medium. https://towardsdatascience.com/how-does-tiktoks-algorithm-know-me-so-well-459e8dc7e90b
  8. ↑ Lorenz, T. What Is Elite TikTok? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/style/elite-tiktok.html
  9. ↑ Lorenz, T. What Is Elite TikTok? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/style/elite-tiktok.html
  10. ↑ Bateman, K. The 10 TikTok Subcultures Shaping Fashion Trends Right Now. W Magazine. https://www.wmagazine.com/fashion/tiktok-fashion-trends-subcultures-goths
  11. ↑ Lynn, M. Developing the Self in the Digital Space – Confluence. NYU - Gallatin. https://confluence.gallatin.nyu.edu/context/independent-project/developing-the-self-in-the-digital-space
  12. ↑ Lorenz, T. The Political Pundits of TikTok. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/style/tiktok-politics-bernie-trump.html
  13. ↑ The RAND Corporation Is a Nonprofit Institution That Helps Improve Policy and CHILDREN and FAMILIES.
  14. ↑ Wei, E. TikTok and the Sorting Hat. Remains of the Day. https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/8/3/tiktok-and-the-sorting-hat
  15. ↑ Hickey, C. TikTok Played a Key Role in MAGA Radicalization. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-tiktok-played-a-key-role-in-maga-radicalization/?code=pNMTDv4TcalVCSic1kn4ln6ZV5vu5zMoykLKzwQggX3&state=%7B%22redirectURL%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fstory%2Fopinion-tiktok-played-a-key-role-in-maga-radicalization%2F%3Futm_source%3DWIR_REG_GATE%22%7D&utm_source=WIR_REG_GATE
  16. ↑ Hickey, C. TikTok Played a Key Role in MAGA Radicalization. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-tiktok-played-a-key-role-in-maga-radicalization/?code=pNMTDv4TcalVCSic1kn4ln6ZV5vu5zMoykLKzwQggX3&state=%7B%22redirectURL%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fstory%2Fopinion-tiktok-played-a-key-role-in-maga-radicalization%2F%3Futm_source%3DWIR_REG_GATE%22%7D&utm_source=WIR_REG_GATE
  17. ↑ Wei, E. TikTok and the Sorting Hat. Remains of the Day. https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/8/3/tiktok-and-the-sorting-hat
  18. ↑ Lorenz, T. What Is Elite TikTok? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/style/elite-tiktok.html
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