TikToking

The social media platform TikTok, with its short form videos displaying stunts, humour, music, politics and mischief, has amused and fascinated me for some time, so I’ve decided to make a few short films for the platform myself.

While the features of the platform allowing you to upload and edit phone videos are straightforward and simple to use, some content creators have done some fantastic work with transitions and camera moves: all very inspiring.

My camera

Most inspiring for me are the people I’ve come across on this platform. I’ve learned about design, architecture and cooking. I’ve listened to varying views on politics, economics and cinema. I’ve been fascinated by historians and polemicists. All these individuals, with their interesting, at times irreverent but always well put together videos.

Every social media platform seems to have a “moment”: Facebook’s first flurry in the early part of the century; Tumblr’s glow up a few years later; Twitter’s intersection with politics and culture a few years after that. All these moments have been extraordinary, and all have soured somewhat, whether with content problems or algorithm issues. Even as the platforms themselves have gone on from strength to strength financially, much of the same user affection from those earlier highs evaporates.

TikTok is having such a moment, with users trolling the former president and content creators building careers off their micro-short uploads: maybe bigger moments are to come. But in the meantime, it’s great fun to use.