When I think of this period of my life, the first thing that comes to mind is certainly not a beautiful looking loaf of sourdough. No, it’s rather the fact that I haven’t seen my grandparents in about 5 months, that some of my favorite bars and restaurants have closed permanently, or the fact that I haven’t been able to go to a gym, but that’s beside the point. My point is – I’ve been inside a lot. And I’ve been on TikTok a lot. Like…a lot a lot. Forget about the controversy. Forget about the Chinese government looking to spy on what I do and who I talk to. Forget about the American government who wants to take my serotonin away. Fine. Whatever. But TikTok has become one of, if not the leading, social media app over the last year. With its popularity it has brought along dozens of niche DIY crafts, videos of loved ones dancing to popular songs, and works of creativity that could only blossom during one of the darkest times of our generation. Also, look up ghost photoshoots. Please.
Anyway, I think the thing with TikTok trends that go viral, is that they can last however long they bring joy to people, whether it be 10 days or 10 months. There are definitely trends that outstay their welcome pretty quickly – drinking milk out of a toilet paper tube, fake breaking up with your significant other, and many more. But the good ones, the ones that stand the test of time, that’s where the true magic can be found. Whipped coffee, or Dalgona coffee, is one of the harmless trends that had its stay on the popular app, letting people create something they’d more than likely never heard of before, and see for themselves what all the hype was about. (Personally I didn’t get it but that’s ok). The aforementioned Ghost Photoshoots are a blast, invoking some sort of nostalgia that I can’t quite put my finger on. Most of the photos produced have a film-like quality to them, almost as though the people making them wanted to show how timeless certain things can be.
I personally have been swept off my feet by the prospects of another trend: hair makeovers. Whether they’re dying it, shaving it, or cutting it, people have been drawn in by the boredom of quarantine, and the fact that hair does indeed grow back. Hair is one of the most impermanent constantly changing things about us. We shed more hair a day than we think, and often, get so tired of the same old thing that we one day spontaneously change it. In my apartment in April, with a pair of scissors and a couple of glasses of wine, I decided that that night would be the night I give myself the infamous “front bangs”. If Zooey Deschanel could do it, so could I. (The answer is I could). I did something that for the longest time I didn’t have the confidence to do. All because I was stuck in the house with nowhere to go, no one to see and I thought my world was ending. (Cut to months later when my life does in fact crumble around me, but that’s for another article.)
I want people to understand how important these trends have become to people during these “unprecedented times”, and how they’re helping people see the good in others and themselves. Whipped coffee and front bangs seem insignificant, but right now, they’re larger than life.
