Five Influential Trends From Tik Tok In 2020...So Far

In the last two years, TikTok has become a machine for content. The cultural influence of the app is unforgettable, from its never-ending For You page to its ability to showcase new artists by almost instantly making songs viral.

While early critics dismissed the app due to its user base being predominantly Gen Z, with 2 billion downloads worldwide across all generations, it has grown into a huge platform.

Here are five major trends this year brought to us just by TikTok.

1. The Hype House's rise (and fall)

A lot of TikTok friendships have been made and broken, but The Hype House, one of the first big collectives, is made up of famous TikTok stars that have stuck together. Content houses are nothing new but the Hype House's formation fueled speculation about new relationships, breakups, and internal feuds. The Hype House drama has garnered millions of views for its members, like the drama of many YouTube video collectives. The legal battle between co-founders Daisy Keech and Thomas Petrou has fueled even more speculation about the group's dynamic. The overwhelming amount of content due to the drama of the content house cemented the position of TikTok among YouTube influencers.

2. That One Quarantine Coffee

Can you remember the beginning of quarantining? As we lived in our hopeful bubbles, we were all thinking that social distancing would only be necessary for a few weeks, and that everyone just had to bake some bread? Whipped coffee climbed to internet fame through TikTok. A sweet, fluffy drink dalgona coffee, also known as cloud coffee, or just 'TikTok coffee' became wildly popular and circulated on social media.

3. Alt Tiktok

While the mainstream end of TikTok exploded, Alt TikTok was generated by the hyper-specific algorithm of the app. Users ignored the popularity of major influencers such as Keech and Hudson, and instead began using the platform to post surreal videos inspired by the humor of the Millennial Dadaist. The rise of Alt TikTok took something unusual and made it viral, from making fake department store accounts to imagining the first words of Elon Musk and Grimes' child X Æ A-12.

4. Protest Tiktok

Protests took to the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul after the brutal murder of George Floyd. This abuse of power was followed by huge waves of uproar on social media, mostly TikTok. People united under the common motif of support and uplifting black voices when they needed to be heard the most. TikTok users used a version of "This Is America," which touches on issues of structural injustice, and systemic racism. As protests around the world were motivated by the Black Lives Matter campaign, American TikTok users started using a remix of Childish Gambino's "This Is America" to raise awareness on the mistreatment of minorities in the United States. The platform joined together with small supportive actions like the Black Lives Matter logo as a profile picture and larger actions of petitions, charities and educational videos. TikTok transcended from being a comedic video app to a means of activism and became the go-to platform to stay informed about global injustices.

5. TikTok users trolling Trump

The ill-timed Trump campaign rally in Tulsa Oklahoma, where the Black Wall Street was sadly demolished by rioters in the 1921 days of race-fueled unrest, was widely criticized for taking place at the height of national racial inequality unrest and during a pandemic. TikTok users called on each other to reserve tickets for the rally via viral video in protest, so that the campaign would expect an influx of supporters. Although the Trump campaign bragged that the rally had reserved seats for well over a million supporters, a paltry 6,200 turned up to the venue that could accommodate 19,000. The former prescient faced a devastatingly empty stadium. To top it off, the movement contributed greatly to the spike in COVID-19 cases across Tulsa.