Post #6:The Merge That Changed Social Media

Throughout our first EOTO project, we learned a lot about different communicative technologies. We learned about some older technologies, like the first telegraph, and then some newer technologies, like the first iPhone. When the different technologies were presented in class, I really took interest in TikTok. I know that if you asked a room full of random people if they have TikTok, more than half of them would say yes. TikTok originally started out as Musical.ly, but Musical.ly merged with TikTok back in 2018. Within my generation, social media is very popular and is getting even more popular every single day. TikTok was officially created back in 2016. It is an app that expresses communication through videos. TikTok incorporates videos about the latest trends, up to date news, life hacks, vlogs, and more. Although you have to be 13 years old in order to have your own TikTok account, the app allows for all ages to participate in some way. I use TikTok on a daily basis and it can become very addicting. With the ability to constantly scroll and see a new video, it is sometimes hard to stop. Whenever someone posts a video on TikTok, it instantly gets put out into the world for people to see. From there, people can like and comment on the video, and also share the video with other people. 

When my classmate presented on TikTok, I found it interesting that President Trump tried to ban the app. I know that when COVID-19 started to get really bad in 2020, TikTok was an escape for most people. It became a way for people to communicate with others through videos without having to go out of the house because of stay at home orders. Throughout my classmates presentation, I was shocked when she said that he wanted to ban the app, but then after some consideration, I realize how this app could be a potential threat when releasing information about our country to other countries. 

All of the presentations about the different technologies were very interesting and I found the EOTO projects to be very informative, but when one of my classmates presented on the communicative technology known as TikTok, it really caught my eye and made me want to make my own blog post about it.