This generation has become obsessed with the world of social media, moreover the desire to be relatable to crowds of people that surf social media. This train of thought leads to the thought, "why do we make posts?" Updating family and friends has always been a main point to consider for something like Instagram or Facebook, but what about social media like TikTok and Twitter?
Seeing that TikTok is a platform that requires posts to be in video format, the ability to use it as a tool to update family and friends seems to become less of the main objective to posts.
Twitter is a platform that has easier capability of express a person's random thoughts or feelings toward anything. I can tweet about a job promotion I received or getting a new car, but the replies to a tweet are nothing in comparison to a facebook comment section filled with distant family relatives I have never met before.
If not all social media is "updating family and friends", then why is it used?
People want to find fame on large platforms. How does one do this?? Pure luck in my opinion, or by understanding how to be influential to the majority of those using a platform.
Henry Jenkins, Joshua Green, and Sam Ford wrote the book, Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture. In this book contains an introduction entitled, "Why Media Spreads" which focuses on the capability of information to spread on social media through their respective cultures. In this book, the authors utilize the term "spreadability" which refers to the ability to circulate information from audiences for their own purposes. Essentially, how well can a person reach large audiences with a tweet or TikTok video?
Twitter is a specific platform for more than social networking, but also blogging to a certain extent. The ability to tweet short paragraphs at one time is basically similar to me making this blogging; both are giving open thoughts publicly. Spreadability of information like this doesn't come without having some luck of course. All it takes is one tweet to be seen by a group of people, and they show it to their people, and the chain goes on.
Im sorry for the ugly emoji (#TeamiPhone), but let's take a look at this tweet of mine for example. Potential for relatability? Abso-freaking-lutely. This was at a time where the famous show, The Office, was removed from Netflix to be exclusive to Peacock. People were all going through the same thing here, and that thing was missing Steve Carrell and John Krasinski making an office job look fun. This tweet isn't necessarily a famous tweet, but it did reach audiences that aren't normally within my same "twitter-sphere" of connection when I tweet. People helped spread my tweet with retweets and likes!
So what about TikTok?
Marcel Mauss writes a book called, The Gift, which contemplates the idea of a person's obligation to reciprocate gift giving if they received a gift from someone initially. Mauss states there are free gifts such as charity, but also a mutual gift exchange concept that can be applied or embedded within social media today. Although Mauss wrote this in the 1950's, there is still relevance to how we can apply the concept of the gift to social media today.
People can make money from posting TikTok videos. Making money requires viral platforms however, which have created fame for people. A person like Addison Rae or Charli D'amelio has come to be famous through the use of spreadability on TikTok, but that isn't enough to create fame. People like them have to create media and develop interaction that will provide higher view counts and likes. Asking upfront for both of these isn't clearly defined through each TikTok, but it becomes more of an expectation from viewers as the fame grows. People become aware that there is a need for view count and likes in order to retain a high rate of revenue per each video made. Is there a certain moral necesity tied to a viewer that comes across these videos when a "TikToker" needs to generate demand on their profile? Where does one draw the line for what they consider fame? With all of this, what is a worthy TikTok video look like? The exchange of content for views and likes is similar to the concept of gift exchange by Marcel Mauss.
Not all media is made for developing fame or a person's profile. Social Media can be enjoyed as well, but it comes at a rarity in this day and age, especially with the pursuit of money being a intrinsic motivation to life.
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