2020 was the year to join TikTok

TikTok dominated internet culture this year. 

TikTok was the most downloaded app of 2020, according to mobile analytics firm App Annie’s annual report surpassing Facebook, WhatsApp, and Zoom combined App Store and Google Play downloads. The report predicts that TikTok will break 1 billion monthly active users in 2021, with “content-hungry consumers” flocking to the app to “create, socialize, and stay entertained.”

There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic — and the subsequent worldwide lockdowns — played a part in TikTok’s immense success this year. 

The app popularized the art of dancing within the constraints of a 9:16 frame, so it was largely dismissed as a platform for teenagers to imitate trendy choreography. While TikTok was immensely influential last year, boosting viral artists like Lil Nas X to mainstream charts, the app’s primarily young user base deterred many from actually downloading it. When the life went into standstill as cities locked down and enforced stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of COVID-19 earlier this year, stubborn Twitter users declared that they’d never be bored enough to download the app. 

Their resistance was met with ridicule from other Twitter users; the phrase “I’ll never download TikTok” even circulated as a copypasta. 

Some stood by their principles, but for the majority, the sentiment didn’t hold as quarantine stretched longer into the year. 

Nearly ten months later, the pandemic is still raging. The United States alone recorded 19.2 million COVID-19 cases as of Monday, and in spite of warnings from public health officials to avoid gathering for the holidays, the country is bracing itself for the inevitable surge in cases and hospitalizations. 

When stuck inside with little to no opportunity to see people outside of your household, what else is there to do then mindlessly scroll through TikTok? 

As is with nearly every other aspect of pop culture, older generations will naturally dismiss whatever teenagers are currently enjoying. It appears that the most reluctant to download TikTok are in the minority, though, since its user data shows a growing millennial demographic compared to last year. Roughly 60 percent of its then-26.5 million users were between 16 and 24, Reuters reported last November. By June 2020, market data company Statista reports, 32.5 percent of users are between 10 to 19, and 29.5 percent of users are 20 to 29. The 30 to 39 and 40 to 49 age groups account for 16.4 and 13.9 percent of users, respectively. 

The Trump administration’s threats to ban TikTok in the United States over privacy concerns brought even more users to the platform as people scrambled to download the app before it was set to disappear from Google Play and the App Store.  Downloads rose 12 percent in one day the weekend before the ban, which ultimately did not go through, was supposed to take place. (TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is based in China.)

TikTok’s mainstream appeal extends beyond an increasingly diverse user base. Aside from bringing countless indie artists to chart topping success, the platform’s extensive sound library also brought older music back into pop culture. Songs from the Canadian band Mother Mother’s 2008 album “O My Heart” were used in hundreds of thousands of TikTok videos, boosting the band to No. 11 on Rolling Stone’s Breakthrough 25 Chart. Aly and AJ released an explicit version of “Potential Breakup Song” on Dec. 29 following the viral resurgence of the 2007 song, which has been used in two million TikTok songs. “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in more than four decades after TikTok user Nathan Apodaca shared a clip of himself listening to the song while riding his longboard and chugging cranberry juice straight out of the jug. The video inspired a TikTok trend that drummer Mick Fleetwood himself recreated.

The way TikTok algorithmically curates content for each individual user was also a wildly effective, even if unintentional, advertising tool. Based a set of weighted signals, like the content they’ve already engaged with, TikTok will show a small batch of users a certain video. If they engage positively, the app will show the video to a larger group, and then a larger group, and so on until it’s certifiably viral. If users have positively engaged with videos featuring certain sounds, hashtags, or captions mentioning specific products, the algorithm will probably show them more content like it. And with a boost from popular videos, products like roller skates, “magic” butt-lifting leggings, and color-correcting face cream have been out of stock for months thanks to the high demand.

But the real marker that TikTok has gone mainstream, ironically, is the internal rejection of the mainstream. By mid-2020, a subgroup of TikTok users started distancing themselves “straight TikTok” trends popularized by typically white, heteronormative, conventionally attractive creators. Dubbed “Alt TikTok,” “Deep TikTok,” or sometimes just “Gay TikTok,” the genre is defined by surreal humor, alternative aesthetic, and above all, feeling othered. TikTok is so intertwined with pop culture itself that it spawned niche alternative subgroups within its own community. 

In spite of the presidential administration’s repeated attempts to restrict TikTok, the app’s influence on online culture only became stronger this year. That’s not to say that the platform, or the community built on it, is flawless — TikTok has been accused of promoting  triggering content, suppressing Black and LGBTQ creators, and taking too long to crack down on accounts that spread disinformation. But TikTok’s growth and hold on culture in 2020 is undeniable. 

Hop on the bandwagon and join the rest of us in the joy of passive, endless scrolling. 

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