So it’s gone. TikTok is gone.
At least for us. At least for now.
I feel sort of… I dunno. “Sad” isn’t really the right word.
I spent way too much time doom-scrolling late at night. TikTok was more of a guilty pleasure than an obsession for me.
But over the last couple years, I’ve found I’ve spent more of my social media time over there and less on other platforms.
I’m trying to elucidate why that is.
On paper, “Facebook” appeals to the writer in me, but nobody seems to want to read what I write anymore.
Either that, or they’re not seeing it.
I don’t like the de prioritization of written content on social media. I don’t like having character limits on my written work.
I like writing. (Or I did.)
But when my audience isn’t given the chance to read my work and/or doesn’t give it the time of day, it takes the joy out of making it.
I’ve tried my hand at making videos with mixed results. The ever-changing landscape of social media norms makes it difficult to nail down a good video-production formula.
Portrait or landscape? Short form or long form? Captions or no captions? Background music or no music? It’s so hard to know what to do.
At heart, I’m not a content creator. Not really.
I’m a story-teller.
I want the audience to hear our story exactly the way it sounds in my head.
I want to connect with people in just the right way with just the right medium.
Here is an apt parenting metaphor.
Good content creation is like cooking a gourmet recipe for the kids.
I’ll spend hours pouring over a single post to get it “just right.”
I’ll re-think, re-read, re-write and re-upload a single post only to have 94 out of 17,000 people even see it, with maybe 4 people reacting, if I’m lucky.
It’s like spending hours making my kids fillet mignon only for them to want McDonalds instead.
Social media platforms seem to want their creators to cook up “fast food.”
But I don’t make “fast food.”
I make “art.”
SO WHY TIKTOK?
Well first of all, TikTok just “hooks you.”
The TikTok algorithm is just top-tier. The content that TikTok shows me is exactly the kind of content that appeals to me. I don’t have to curate my feed at all.
The ads are also less frequent. Ads on Meta reels will appear on average about every 2 to 3 scrolls and they are jarringly unrelated to the feed.
TikTok ads seemed less noticeable and were also somehow more “organic.” Many of the ads were so well-produced, you wouldn’t know they were sponsored posts without the actual wording.
Secondly, using TikTok was not just “entertainment.”
TikTok will prioritize “current events” and mix in the content already determined as “high-value”.
So, while showing me a combination of videos from say, autism parents I have both followed or never heard of, it would also show me videos from the LA fires… Live feeds from people right in the thick of it. It showed me up-to-date reports from Gaza or Ukraine. Like real life stuff.
So I was hesitant to share our story over there. I didn’t think we would be as relatable to that audience.
But one day, I shared a short 30-second clip showcasing where Jonah started at the beginning of this autism journey and where we are today.
In 3 days, it massed nearly a million views.
A MILLION.
Do you know why?
It wasn’t because I had written some profound poem or a spoken word piece.
It was because there are so many young parents over on TikTok with kids who were just newly diagnosed and they aren’t on Facebook.
They don’t have the Facebook parenting support groups or follow the Facebook autism parent “influencers.”
They get their information from short little vertically oriented clips.
And while it isn’t the kind of content I preferred to make, it was the kind of content that made a connection with them.
I had close to 30 people DM me that week asking to know more about our journey… what we did, what we tried, what worked or didn’t work.
And not only that, the TikTok algorithm determined that my video was a “high-value” post to those connected to autism and 50,000 more views were amassed over the next year and a half.
Thats 50,000 additional people who found us, discovered our journey, and drew inspiration from our progress.
And while short-form video is not the typical medium I would use to draw inspiration (I usually reserve that format for entertainment) I saw how this younger generation can use TikTok to make those “deeper connections.”
The TikTok community deserves a space to express themselves in a way that appeals to them and in a manner that they see fit.
And politics aside, it’s a real shame that this platform is being taken away or censored or banned, because I saw over there in that younger generation the same thing that us “mature folk” crave over here…
…The thing that drives us all to endlessly scroll through feeds and timelines and Pages or groups…
The need for relationship, connection and community.
That and a few good cat memes. 😻