We've all seen it or done it at least once, and if you haven't you're definitely bound to: making a tik tok. Tik tok is an app that has taken over the social lives of countless children, teens, and even adults across the world. Similar to Vine, Tik Tok consists of funny videos, dance videos, and trends. Unlike Vine however, Tik Tok does not have a seven second time limit, and allows users to create minute long videos, and even longer ones if uploaded from the user's gallery.

Tik Tok, previously called Musical.ly, used to be an app where users lip synced to songs and occasionally danced, but the style of videos posted on the app completely changed when on November 9, 2017 the company Bytedance acquired Musical.ly for $1 billion and absorbed it into the Tik Tok app in August,2018. The result was a social media platform that allowed users to share and create videos that had the opportunity to go viral, or "Tik Tok famous."

The app is structured in a way that encourages users to post videos. There is a For You Page which showcases popular or even random videos; many people use the hashtag #fyp to get on this page so their videos are seen by others. There are trends that sweep Tik Tok and disappear just as quickly; dance trends, humor trends, makeup trends, and even trends that are political or educational.

Tik Tok is also a place where, like any form of social media, information is spread. The spread of information can be good in many cases; professionals or students using humor to teach others, the spread of news information and activist movements, DIYs, etc. However, the spread of information can also be bad as seen when harmful political propaganda is spread, or when a rumor starts and popular users are essentially cyberbullied by millions of people who they do not personally know.

Many people vow they will never start going through Tik Tok, but these people fail to see many of its true values. If used in excess it can be harmful and distracting; but this does not take away from the fact that it has become a way for people of all ages, religions, genders, and ethnicities to connect and share themselves on an open platform.