With more than 1 billion downloads on Google Playstore and over 500 million active users, TikTok has acquired unprecedented popularity all over the globe.  Owned by a Chinese developer firm ByteDance, TikTok became one of the most downloaded apps on both Android and iOS in 2019.

Many people believe that TikTok was just struck by lightning, and its popularity will be short-lived. However, that is not the case. There are genuine reasons why TikTok turned into the only Chinese social media platform, which achieved global popularity.

5 Reasons Why TikTok Is So Popular

Many parents do not get TikTok’s popularity and believe it to be a complete waste of time. The truth of the matter is that we live in a world of short-lived trends and diminishing attention spans and TikTok is designed to encourage micro-entertainment that stays in the moment instead of creating long-term unforgettable memories.

Here are three major reasons why TikTok gained so much popularity in no time.

1. The market did not have any short video clips app

Do you remember Vine? It was launched in 2012 by Twitter and gained immense popularity as it acquired over 200 million users globally. Unfortunately, the project did not remain viable for Twitter to continue the support, and they scrapped it in 2016, leaving a huge gap for a social platform that allows users to create short video clips.

TikTok did not only realize the opportunity at hand but improved on the idea by adding entertaining features to its app. Officially, the app was launched in January 2018 and turned into a go-to short clip social platform for generation Z users.

2. Designed to encourage social competition

TikTok is not just a social media network where you can upload short video clips but it actively promotes users to participate in a variety of challenges. At any given moment, many trending hashtags feature short videos demonstrating a certain challenge. Users attempt to compete with their own take on the challenge and try to one-up other users.

These challenges and hashtags have a short life span, but some trends, especially those picked up by influencers and celebrities, tend to stick for a few weeks. This provides a way for teenagers to engage in micro-entertainment with a sense of accomplishment.

3. Provides a brief burst of distraction

As our digital world continues to expand, we have too many entertainment opportunities to indulge in. This is why our attention spans have reduced over the last few decades, and we have developed a habit of skipping anything that is mildly boring. This is especially true for millennials and Generation Z youngsters.

TikTok delivers a brief moment of micro-entertainment based distraction that is perfect for people with short attention spans. Video clip length ranges anywhere between a few seconds and a few minutes. It is ideal for someone not looking to indulge in long-form entertainment. Parents may be concerned how much time their children spend on TikTok and how can I monitor my child’s text messages.

4. Offers a curated feed of selected video clips

Many video social platforms make it quite difficult to find the content you are looking for. We have all been a victim of YouTube algorithms. It is not only quite frustrating but wastes your time. On the other hand, TikTok makers have perfected the art of selecting the right video clips their audience wants to watch.

The app offers a “For You” feed, which comprises of videos from app users that you would not generally be a fan of. It enables you to explore a diverse variety of videos and content types.

5. Anyone can become an overnight celebrity

Although all the factors mentioned above contribute to the popularity of TikTok, the most critical reason is that it allows an everyday Joe to gain overnight fame and become an online celebrity. In a world where social capital has started to matter a lot, especially in digital spaces, everybody wants to have a piece of stardom.

TikTok gives them a shot at it regardless of who you are and where you come from. On YouTube, you need to work hard for months and years to establish followership and it is not guaranteed that you will succeed due to how saturated that platform is. On TikTok, you are not putting in a lot of effort, to begin with, but still stand a chance.

Having said that, the same popularity has become a cause of concern for modern-day parents who are often not aware of their children’s activity on TikTok and many other smartphone apps. But, there is a simple solution.

How To Turn On Parental Controls & Monitor Children’s Activity On TikTok?

There are several ways to safeguard your child from the side effects and threats of using TikTok. Here, we are going to discuss a few of them with parents.

Educate Them About Cyberbullying

First of all, parents need to educate their kids about cyberbullying because every TikTok user can freely comment on any creator’s content. In this regard, you should tell your child how to report the content, person and chat on TikTok.

Monitor Children’s TikTok Activity with a Spy Phone App

I know many parents would say is it ‘enough’ to educate kids about cyberbullying. Indeed, it is not, and even parents are not aware of what their child is doing on such social networks. However, in this regard, we would suggest parents to use a spy phone service or a monitoring solution such as mSpy app allows parents to keep an eye on their children’s activities. The app also enables them to track phone calls, texts, instant messages, and social media platforms like TikTok.

Change the Privacy Settings

It is also a very crucial suggestion that parents must follow. Indeed, parents should open the child’s TikTok account and visit the ‘Privacy & Safety’ area, which comes after clicking the ‘privacy and settings’ button. After reaching there, you should conduct the following settings:

Set Off: Allow Others to Find Me

Turn On: Private Account

Turn Off: Who Can Send Me Comments

Select ‘Friends’ Option: Who Can Duet With Me

Turn Off: Who Can Send Me Messages

TikTok Parental Controls Setting

Modify Digital Wellbeing Settings

No doubt, digital wellbeing settings play a great role to protect your kid from potential threats of TikTok. You need to act upon following guidelines in this regard:

  • Visit the profile section and open ‘Digital Wellbeing’ section & turn on the digital wellbeing
  • Turn on the ‘Screen Time Management’ button
  • Turn on the ‘Restricted Mode’
Is TikTok Safe for Kids

Though these safety measures could avoid scams and personal information leak threats. However, it is suitable for parents to convince their kids to join any productive activity instead of the use of such apps. You can also visit the community guidelines of TikTok to understand how it operates and how much it is secure for your preteen or teen kids.

If you have more suggestions in this regard, then you can use our comments section to share them with us.

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Published by Editorial Team.

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