TikTok Trends
Formerly known as Musical.ly, TikTok has taken the world by storm, going from videos of people lip-syncing to popular songs to creating popular trends people can participate in worldwide. But recently, some of these popular trends have been doing more harm than good, ranging from negatively impacting mental health to getting into trouble with the law.
As with other social media platforms, many teens feel left out when they’re not able to participate in or enjoy TikTok as much as others.
“There’s a lot of beauty standards on social media, and as a plus-sized girl, I feel often left out of the TikTok trends, because if you look at what’s trending, its often what’s ‘conventionally beautiful’,” student Zaryanna Casas said.
Although there are many people on the platform helping to break these “beauty barriers”, some still feel like they don’t belong or aren’t good enough to be a part of TikTok’s trends, negatively impacting the mental health of many young people.
“When you participate in something that’s damaging school property that taxpayers have paid for, then you’ve crossed that line and gone into a criminal act.”
While these trends harm the mental health of students, they also cause a lot of trouble with law enforcement. According to Joelle Goldstein at People.com, at least thirteen students are facing criminal charges over “Devious Licks”, a trend that got popular via TikTok. It consisted of students recording themselves stealing and/or damaging school property to later post it on the platform, leading the people who participate to have run-ins with the law.
“When you participate in something that's damaging school property that taxpayers have paid for, then you've crossed that line and gone into a criminal act,” Alicia Manautou, spokesperson for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office says.
TikTok can be a fun way to waste time on your phone, but it causes many issues with its trends and lack of action until things go wrong. The harmful and dangerous “devious licks” trend eventually did elicit a negative response, albeit delayed. Reactions alone cannot put an end to these harmful and dangerous trends and doing something about it instead of letting it happen until there’s uproar can greatly change the outcome.