The New York Times says TikTok is “rewriting the world,” calling it “a quirky hybrid of Snapchat, the defunct video app Vine and the TV segment ‘Carpool Karaoke.’”
TikTok users don’t really care what you call it—they’re busy spending hours watching some of the biggest viral videos the internet has ever seen.
If you feel like you’ve been out of the loop while scrolling through Twitter and Instagram lately, it could be because all the pop culture magic has been happening on TikTok the past six months.
What kind of pop culture magic? Check out the microwave challenge, for example, in which users sit on the floor and smoothly, effortlessly spin in a perfect circle as if on a microwave plate. And yes, there’s music, too — usually “Slow Dancing in the Dark.”
Then there’s The *TAP TAP* Tea — and all the remakes the original has spawned. The original audio has been reused by other TikTok users over 50,000 times.
If you feel like you’ve missed out on participating in (or even understanding) TikTok memes, don’t worry — there are plenty of YouTubers participating in a campaign where they teach their parents about the trends. They even help Mom and Dad recreate them so there’s hope for us yet!
