When I look at TikTok, I think of a song and quote. The song is "Everybody is a Star" by Sly and the Family Stone. The quote is "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes," allegedly uttered by Andy Warhol. Both these date to the 1960s, pop culture nuggets that are certainly more than they seem.

The social media platform TikTok seems to be attempts at 15 minutes of fame in a dizzying package. Much of TikTok seems to me to be a lot of cringy videos in which people try to be funny, erudite, fashionable, or talented. But I see so many awful videos on this platform: people who cannot dance, who are dancing; people who can barely sing are singing, people who aren't funny, cracking jokes or mimicking or donning costumes. 

It's full of videos of people doing karaoke with split screens, and they look as bad as they would in real life. Gag.

I guess there is a certain hyper-democratic element to all this: look what I can do, everybody! Look at me, me, me!

It's unintentionally funny for a minute or two.

Do you know what I like about TikTok? There are lots of cute and charming pet videos. Some people post nice travel videos. And there are some people who are legitimately funny who post here.

About a month ago, I began putting up videos on TikTok, and I'm only seen in two of them. You do hear my voiceovers, and I have been focusing on posting about former synagogue buildings (because I write about them and give tours about them). I've also posted videos of ghost bike memorials and events around New York City, such as the Parade of Trains. I'm focusing not on ME but on the subjects that I feature.

My most popular video, about an abandoned synagogue building in Brooklyn, has garnered over 12,200 views and 412 likes. My second most popular is about a former synagogue in Newark, NJ, and it has 5,212 views and 316 likes. The main reason I am posting these is to expand the exposure for my research. 

My daughters have been showing me two types of TikToks: either really adorable animals or rather embarrassing people. They showed me TikToks made by a former friend of theirs who is wearing way too much makeup and ill-fitting clothing, as well as video karaoke made by the mother of an old friend of theirs. The woman is singing along to hit songs, way off-tune, and seems quite confident with her abilities.

I don't quite understand this. Are people so desperate for attention? Are they way too assured of their talents and abilities? Are they hoping to be hilarious in a droll way? Is this the freak show of the current day? Or is it just fun fun fun?

I also seriously question the people who feature their young children in TikTok videos. It's a major security risk and exploitative.

TikTok is overload.