At the end of the day, many look forward to relaxation and endlessly scrolling through the diverse number of digital platforms on their devices. Whether it be Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, you name it, everyone enjoys looking at funny videos or peeking into other people’s lives through the snippets they share. While a majority see much of social media as positive and fun, there is also a dark side filled with toxic and dangerous trends, racism, cyberbullying and more.
Once social media came into our lives, it was brand new, exciting, an adventure, but it soon grew dangerous; becoming one of the biggest influences on younger generations. For instance, on April 18, 2015, the infamous Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge spread through various platforms. While the start of the challenge is unknown, many young adults took part due to its rapid traction on Twitter and Instagram. The challenge itself sounded harmless but resulted in participants receiving swollen, bruised lips or even permanent lip color changes.
This was not the only brainless challenge to go around on social media. Years after there have been a handful of ignorant trends popping up all over different platforms, but with the new and very popular app, TikTok, what was once a handful, soon turned into a wave. An overwhelming amount of these TikTok trends are about physical appearance. For instance, one of the most recent challenges to pop up on the app titled the #Bigbankchallenge where young women lip-sync the lyrics, “Cause I got a small waist, pretty face, with a big bank” and show their figures. These types of trends are sadly reoccurring throughout the app.
Alongside the Bigbank challenge, another challenge called the #Silhouttechallenge popped up. As stated in its title, various young adults show their figures through a silhouette. While body positivity is important, these trends and ones similar to them are harmful to young audiences and their self-esteem. Beauty standards are always changing, but TikTok is ruining individual’s perceptions of what their body is supposed to look like.
Besides these toxic trends, racism and cyberbullying are shockingly common on this platform. Resulting in users, regardless of age, becoming attacked and insulted on physical appearance, beliefs, or race. Most of these insults come from those that are older, younger, or even the creator’s age.
As a constant user of TikTok, there are many terrible comments and content made by popular creators on the platform. For instance, a video blew up a couple of months ago, featuring a teenage boy asking strangers what race they would not date. Once asked, depending on their answer, a counter in the corner with Asian and Indian would go up. While his account and video have since been taken down, at the time it outraged a majority of people. Although it is not the interviewee’s fault, it is the creator’s fault. He came up with the idea, edited it, and still chose to post it. His content and others like it show the obscene amount of racism and normalization of racism on the app. That said, while racism may not be rid of fully, it does not mean that it is ok to normalize it nor tell others it is ok to be racist.
On top of the unfortunate, multiple accounts of cyberbullying and racism, there is the romanticization of mental illness. While scrolling through TikTok once again, another common piece of content is some young individuals claiming to have mental health issues or spreading and assessing that others might as well based on their reaction to a certain song or sound. Though anyone can have mental health issues and portray them in different ways, many are also aware of those who make these false claims. It may seem like teens being teens, taking part in random shenanigans, but treating mental illness as a trend does more harm than good, especially to the majority of youth on TikTok or any social media platform.
There are many reasons why mental illness should not be treated as a trend, but the main and most important reasons are that it is offensive to those with actual mental health issues and can become something seen as “tragically beautiful” or that it should be desired. For example, there are multiple images found throughout the web with quotes like “Suicidal people are just angels who want to go home.” Not only is this alarming but unacceptable as well.
TikTok and the internet alike should teach kids and adults healthy ways to cope and feel content; they should do better. Mental health is something that should not be treated as a trend, not only is it very impressionable to young audiences, but it also is hurting those with actual mental health issues.
Ultimately, while there is much positivity and humor to TikTok, there is also a dark side that is not only normalized but always dismissed. It is essential to discuss these topics and try to bring change to this app and hopefully spread it to other platforms as well. TikTok and other forms of social media should do better to help others and uplift them rather than push them down based on appearance, race and beliefs.
