As of May 2019, the Chinese app TikTok has now over half a billion users and 39% of them are Indians. TikTok was launched in 2017 by ByteDance for markets outside China. TikTok became world’s most downloaded iOS app in 2018, surpassing Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and PUBG Mobile.
One of the reasons of this popularity that is not mentioned is the ease with which you can start using the app. Imagine that you want to have dinner at a fancy restaurant. You book in advance, maybe there is a dress code, you go there beating the traffic, the waiter takes you to your seats, you look at the menu and decide what to order, wait and finally, maybe after half an hour since you started, you taste your first appetizer. This is what signing up for any social media app feels like. You fill up a form giving your details ranging from your mother’s maiden name to the high school you went to. You sign up with your email or phone. Or why not sign up with email and have phone as a 2FA. Or maybe sign up with existing logins. Then you find people to follow, the same ones that you are “friends” with on other websites. Then you post content and go through other people’s content. It was fun when social media was new. Now I dread at the thought of signing up for yet another website.
TikTok is way easier. As soon as you enter, you are presented with a huge conveyor belt and the dishes just keep on coming. You can taste them and if you like, you can make yourself comfortable and have a seat. This is signing up but it’s like an afterthought, it is not mandatory and you can taste the food without signing up.
TikTok also has a laser sharp focus on what the app should do. This was the reason why ByteDance paid over $1 billion to purchase musical.ly. A user can make short videos where lip-sync tracks can be added easily. That’s it. Make videos. No, scratch that. Make short videos. No grand vision with a jargon manifesto that changes every two years. Also, the timeline of TikTok is decided by AI, depending on location and other parameters. There is no time stamp on the video. You cannot choose which videos you will see unless you go to someone’s profile.
There are many aspects of Indian TikTok that stand out. Majority of the users are young and most of the content is lip-syncing music or dialogues. Both these deserve separate mentions.
Here’s what blew my mind. Most of the lip-syncing is so good that it is hard to believe that these are not professionals. And girls perform way better than guys. It is easier to conceal flaws when the lip-syncing is done on a faster frame rate which is a popular method but when done at normal rate with a close up, it is hard to fake it. Similarly, girls outshine the guys in the dancing department as well. Letting go of being self-conscious while dancing is one of the most difficult things to do and the kids have managed to do it.
I thought about this for a long time. What is the reason for these brilliant performances? Agreed, some of them may be taking classes for acting or dancing but that cannot be the case for all of them. And then it hit me.
They are not conscious of the camera because it is an integral part of their life.
Most of these kids were born during or after the dot com crash. They were in school when Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone in 2007. And they have been using a smartphone for the better part of their life. Taking selfies and video chatting is a normal part of their life. They have seen themselves on screen thousands of times and as a result the fear of acting in front of the camera that plagued the earlier generations is simply not there. They do not know why one has to be self conscious in front of the camera because they are on camera for hours every day. After hundreds of hours of taking selfies and using Snapchat, they know the best angle and filter that makes them look their best. In fact, apart from good acting, they have become experts in shooting movies.
This generation is going to produce some great natural actors and directors. TikTok India is a goldmine of talent for those who are looking for it. Lip-syncing, great expressive ability and no fear of camera. Where did these girls learn to do all of this?
I like languages so I notice them everywhere – in books, movies and on TikTok. India has 23 official languages, 122 major languages and 1599 other languages. Almost every Indian speaks/understands three or more languages. And yet, you will not see adult Indians trying to consciously learn other Indian languages. They instead opt for foreign languages like Spanish, German or Japanese. Rare exceptions exist like the Marathi writer P L Deshpande who went to Shantiniketan at the age of 51 to learn Bengali because he wanted to read works of Rabindranath Tagore in their original form.
TikTok seems to be lowering the language barriers across India. Most of the viral music songs that the youngsters dance to are from regional Indian languages. They do not understand the lyrics but they enjoy dancing to its tunes. And then there are Russian TikTok users dancing to Hindi music.
TikTok is a many layered environment. It is a gold mine for sociologists and psychologists studying urban and rural environments. And it’s a playground for budding actors and dancers.
Despite its well known evils, social media has some upsides, after all.
TikTok is now banned in India.
