Tiktok has 689 million users, including over 70% of students who responded to an April Bear Facts survey. For some students, the app is a chance to explore and experiment new trends and hobbies. 

TikTok, an app where creators can share their creativity, has an incredible influence on people, especially teenagers. Its “For You page” draws in people as it is tailored to the kinds of videos people want to see. 

But for Sanya Ahuja, sophomore, who uses the app for an hour a day, she only started using TikTok for fun.

“I pretty much did it as a joke. I think everyone downloaded TikTok as a joke because at first, there was Musically,” Ahuja said. “But TikTok was starting to get a lot of fame and a lot of people were starting to like it because it was better than Musically, which I used to have. So then I decided to download it just for fun … and then I started to like it because it had a lot of inspiration in terms of fashion or decorations. You’ll get a lot of inspiration, so that’s kind of one of the reasons that I downloaded it.”

Not everyone has the courage to post videos on TikTok and every user has their preference of the type of TikTok they want to post. Ahuja used to post dance TikToks with her friends, she has now moved on to posting transformation videos. 

“I used to post a few dance videos but then I found out that I’m not into dancing. But now, if there’s a transition trend, you can post something like a glow-up. First, when you have no makeup on and then you basically glow up by dressing yourself up. It’s really fun to do those types of artistic things,” Ahuja said. 

For Julia Braasch, senior, who has a following of 196, the app was to showcase her love of coffee. While she also has some dance TikToks, she is especially interested in coffee TikToks, where she shows her friends how to make various coffee recipes. 

“Just in general, I drink a lot of coffee and at the start of quarantine, I started getting into making my own coffee. I’ve always been someone who made my own coffee since the beginning of sophomore year and that just kind of became my thing,” Brassch said. “But then over quarantine, I started getting more into making more fun drinks, making them look pretty and just messing around with what I can do with what I have at home. I started seeing other people post themselves making coffee TikToks on my friend’s ‘for you’ page and I was like, ‘Hey, I could do that.’ One day, I was like, ‘You know, why don’t I just record one?’ So I did. One day, I posted it, and then it just became my thing.”

Typically, Braasch says she will either have cold brew made from the night before and if she doesn’t, then she makes Vietnamese coffee. She pours in a brown sugar syrup that she learned from TikTok and she froths up regular milk. Once her ingredients are prepared, she pours the syrup first, then the coffee, and then the milk.  

Sean Washburn, junior, @sean.washburn, posts relatable content that is “ideal for to” and agrees with what he is saying. He says that people will comment that his video was funny because his content was relatable. 

“I’ve learned that within COVID, a lot of teenagers are feeling the same feelings about how our schedules are on a daily basis. It used to be: wake up, go to school on your electronics, do your homework, go to bed, and repeat,” Washburn said. “ A lot of people have expressed their opinions about that on TikTok and how it’s that same feeling, over and over, every day. I realized I felt that way myself and so it was nice to feel that I wasn’t alone in that situation that other people were expressing their feelings on TikTok about that.”