Olivia Gemma
When it comes to news, there are many ways to get it. A few examples are news networks and social media. A specific social media platform that has really taken over the world more recently, with 800 million users around the world is TikTok. TikTok is a media where users post 15 second to one minute videos about anything they want. TikTok was released worldwide in August, 2018, but it really didn’t start getting popular until this year during our quarantine period. Many people started downloading it due to boredom and quickly got addicted! There are many different sides to TikTok. Dancing TikTok, deep TikTok, political TikTok, art TikTok, religious TikTok, Psychic TikTok, and much more. When it comes to political TikTok there are many different opinions. A huge topic right now, naturally, is Covid-19. I have dug deep into all sides of the story to find more views on how people are handling this global pandemic. Most people are really upset about Covid and how it has affected their lives. Covid has also affected the way we view TikToks. On Covid related videos, there are warnings at the bottom saying “Learn the facts about COVID-19.” One can click on the link and learn more about COVID-19.
Let’s talk about masks. Masks are probably the number one topic that comes up when talking about COVID. People get upset and angry when people aren’t wearing them and on the other hand, people get angry that they have to wear them. Lots of people on TikTok think that masks are useless and are just polluting the earth. I have seen many TikToks of people informing us that there are masks in the ocean killing wildlife and how people just don’t throw out their disposable masks. To prevent this, many accounts are selling homemade masks.
On the flip side of the mask issue, there are tons of accounts that go on rampages and rants about how masks aren’t healthy and breathing in your own carbon dioxide for hours on end hurts your lungs. Whenever there are people making TikToks without masks or in big groups of people, users get upset and leave comments on the post such as, “JUST WEAR A MASK IT IS NOT A BIG DEAL” or “why do i get mad when i see people not put it over their noses.”
The safety center at TikTok has made it really easy to stay informed with what is going on globally so you can stay safe. TikTok also has many funds that they donate to keep our world healthy. One of the funds is called “TikTok Health Heros Relief Fund”. They donated $150M to funds toward medical staffing, supplies, and hardship relief for health care workers. This includes $15M for the CDC Foundation to support surge staffing for state and local health departments and $10M to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to aid the development of coronavirus vaccines and immunization programs in Africa. They also have many resources for the community to give educational resources through the app to help users learn more about what is going on and what to do.