The Future Influence of TikTok on Evolving Social Media Trends: A Comprehensive

Analysis

1. Introduction
A new paradigm of social media communication has emerged under the specific conditions
of the attention economy, youth culture, and the affordances of mobile technology.
Individuals act as media by creating videos that convey information and affect with the use of
their bodies, in spaces such as TikTok, wherein spectators turn into users and contribute
expressively to the social pipeline. TikTok reflects a new mode of communication influenced
by avant-garde cinema, the use of mobile technology, and the social habits of particular social
groups that all had and still have a shaping hand over the TikTok experience.
New media and social media evolve under technological conditions. TikTok fits the historical
conditions of its time. Preceding it was the video smartphone from 2007 onwards, which can
be described as a global, ubiquitous, predictive, and all-encompassing machine. The
appearance of promotion metrics such as stickiness and time spent viewing, the cheapness of
data in countries outside of Europe concerning video consumption, the proliferation of
basements and garages as cyberspaces of recorded life and body and mind amplification, and
the longing or desiring the immediacy of real life in "real time". This essay provides the bases
of understanding the impact of TikTok and social video in short as a new mode of
communication. The affordances of social media of the smartphone epoch are described,
focusing on the attention economy in which advertisement space competes with content.
Following that trajectory, the revolutionary paradigm shift of video production is explored,
examining what it entails for cinema, media, for who the TikTok generation is, and what an
evolving mode of communication on social video looks like. Finally, future evolutions of
social media video are questioned.

1.1. Background and Significance

Since TikTok burst onto the social media scene, it has taken the world by storm and solidified
its spot as one of the most widely used platforms among younger generations. As an app
made for sharing content, it allows users to share short 15-60 second videos with music or
audio on a slew of subjects, which can be enhanced with filters, effects, and more. Operating
on a short attention span, quick satisfaction, and relatable content, users communicate by
stringing together clips and images that evoke emotion, insight, or pleasure, despite TikTok's
language barriers. Though TikTok is still relatively new in the social media environment
compared to giants like Facebook and Twitter, its unexpected growth still draws curiosity as
to whether it has the ability to dominate the social media sphere. (Kaye et al., 2022)
However, TikTok is not without its issues, controversies, and concerns of its own regarding
security, parental controls, and political concerns. By examining its development, usability,
and functions, content creation techniques, and what it could hold for the future of the online
social environment, its ability to overcome these concerns and foster the evolving social
media landscape will be considered. TikTok is an exciting platform that has progressed to an
established giant in a short period of time, emerging with a unique approach to sharing
relatable content. TikTok's variety of usability and functions are built on creativity and
communication, allowing users to connect despite language and distance barriers, with short
and easily digestible videos. And with media giants like Instagram and Facebook's attempts
to alter their interests to fall in line with TikTok's, TikTok's approach to media is clearly
undeniable and may hold an ever-growing influence on how social media evolves.
The changing online social environment and emerging media giants are of interest and
importance due to how they affect people's lives, productivity, and personal interests. Though
Facebook is still considered the most popular platform among all generations, TikTok's
insurgence among the younger demographic has piqued curiosity about its power in the
industry, as well as its effects on current media giants developing a similar path to meet that
interest. Though these changes appear harmless enough on the surface, their implications on
international privacy, cyberbullying, and trolling are continuous concerns. (Losh, 2022)
(Yilmaz et al., 2022)

2. Current State of Social Media

The landscape of social media is constantly evolving, shaped by shifting user preferences and
technological advancements. As of 2023, prominent platforms such as Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok each possess unique characteristics and user demographics,
contributing to a diverse social media ecosystem.
Facebook, launched in 2004, is the elder statesman of social media networks. Initially
designed as a means for college students to connect online, the platform rapidly broadened its
user base. Facebook has faced numerous controversies related to data privacy, fake news, and
political advertising. Nevertheless, it remains the most widely used social media network,
boasting nearly 3 billion monthly active users as of 2023. Within the platform, users share
information, photos, and videos, join groups with common interests, and engage with brands
through sponsored advertisements. Facebook is particularly popular among users aged 25 and
older, with more than 70% of adults in the U.S. using the platform. (Sabla & Gour2023)
Instagram, introduced in 2010, is a photo and video-sharing app that has rapidly gained
popularity. Launched as a simple platform for sharing images, Instagram has expanded to
include features like Stories and IGTV. Approximately 1.4 billion people use Instagram
globally, and the platform is especially popular among users aged 18 to 34, with over 30% of
young adults using Instagram daily. Users share photos and videos, edit them with filters, and
engage with friends or celebrities through likes and comments. Instagram also has a growing
influencer community, where individuals partner with brands to promote products, generating
new income streams. Due to its younger user demographics, many brands view Instagram as
a crucial platform for reaching consumers.
Launched in 2006, Twitter, known for its 280-character limit, allows users to post short
statements or "tweets." It is a public forum where individuals express thoughts, reactions to
news, or share information. With over 330 million monthly active users globally, Twitter is a
popular source of news and trending topics. Celebrity accounts also engage in two-way
communication with fans, posing unique challenges for public figures. Twitter's primary
audience skews younger and urban, with 70% of users aged 18-29 and 50% aged 30-49. With
nearly 30% of American users residing in cities, Twitter users generally make higher incomes
and have more education than the average American.
LinkedIn, launched in 2002, differs from other social networks by concentrating on
connecting professionals. Users create profiles and join networks, resulting in a personal
social network that can expand to include individuals they do not know but have professional
connections with. With over 850 million members globally, LinkedIn is particularly popular
among university graduates. The platform presents job opportunities, and companies can
recruit talent, market to decision-makers, and raise company awareness. LinkedIn is a key
platform for businesses and corporations, with 98% of B2B organizations using it for
marketing, with a 97% higher lead close rate compared to non-LinkedIn users.
Introduced in 2016, TikTok allows users to create and share short videos set to music. Users
select a soundtrack and utilize effects to personalize the video. TikTok gained immediate
popularity with Gen Z and is particularly appealing to people bored during the Covid-19
pandemic. As of 2022, TikTok boasts over 1 billion active users globally, and nearly 100
million monthly users in the U.S. The platform has also garnered attention for unverified
information, pornographic content, and potential risks to national security due to concerns
about the Chinese government accessing user data. (Wahid et al.2023)

2.1. Overview of Major Platforms

Social media today embodies a digital collective of languages, art, lifestyles, and humor that
manipulates shared topics or ideas for engagement. The bringing together of people through
platforms online provides diverse forums for individual expression, interpersonal connection,
relationship maintenance, and the streamlining of changes in social dynamism, politics, art,
products, markets, and technology. The sharing of photos or videos, likes, and comments has
become a social norm while evolving social values, trends, and social networking. A vast
quantity of social networking languages sank into the internet at the dawn of the internet;
some surfed into the engaging fringe of social media, while the majority floated back as
undercurrents. A comprehensive understanding of evolving trends in social media requires an
exploration of the major and specific streaming.
Launched in 2016, TikTok is an engaging platform for sharing and viewing short videos of
oneself; however, swift offline diversion and abuse of privacy have clouded the pro-social
norm downside. Rapidly evolving into a cultural phenomenon, TikTok has snowballed in
users, touches, and streaming trends. Parodies, memes, challenges, and brands morph into
original short videos on TikTok at an accelerating pace. TikTok reshapes the net engagement
dynamics of evolving trends in a network. This platform as a digital crowd redirects focus
from posting to sampling shared end-products. Dancing, acting, lip-synching, and crafting
become widely participatory pastimes, facilitating ageless collaboration across crowd
demographics. Vibrant relays of co-creative formats and contents are sampled in trillions of
touches per year, making the short video-sharing niche a fertile ground for viral spreading.
The minutiae of modified formats and contents ultimately cascade into streaming trends, and
the platform's connective interface control prevents the attendances of a few central big fishes
while holding all other immersions at the fringe. Emerging shared ground characters tangled
in a common dynamic environment expose participants to fate-determining scores that
bestow swift social fame with cascading proclivities. (Ahmad & Rydén, 2023)(KOÇ, 2023)

3. TikTok: Evolution and Impact

Initially launched in September 2016 as Douyin in China and later in 2017 as TikTok in
overseas markets, this video-sharing social media app effectively merged the imitations of
Musical.ly by China's ByteDance and the short videos of Douyin, becoming the most
downloaded app worldwide since Q1 2018. It ranked first across both iOS and Android
platforms in 2020 and 2019 and has reached 1 billion monthly active users as of September
2021. Following China's parenting social media (WeChat and Weibo), TikTok became the
second social media app along with Snapchat to be the top in terms of DAUs among the
world's 10 most populous countries. In an era when other popular social media platforms
such as Facebook and Twitter hesitated to explore a new path, video and self-generated
content offered a non-textual way. TikTok, like Snapchat, generated unexpected surprises in
new user engagement, followed by Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Friends, family, and
follower relationships changed to friend groups and a large audience. In addition to being a
content provider, the passive role of media consumers (watchers) changed into content
creators (relationships) between fans and stars. Influencer marketing based on authentic
relationships came once again into the spotlight. ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok,
established in 2012, aggressively promoted this new social media platform in emerging
markets, including North Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. As a result
of the intervening competition between social media platforms and macro cultural contexts in
each country, TikTok is now not only a video-sharing platform, but as YouTube was one to
the desktop, 'a video community' to Generation Z in the mobile era. TikTok reported that
active users on the app spent 52 minutes on average daily and 90 minutes in Brazil (the
highest), with the number of uploaded videos reaching 1.5 billion. Through the growth phase,
TikTok-focused issues have sought to understand this platform through the lenses of culture,
computing, and contingency in the existing literature, including addiction model, privacy
issues, and cultural ownership. However, there remain unexplored issues regarding emerging
social media platforms at the macro level within non-Western contexts. TikTok is a video-
sharing social media app that allows users to create and share short lip sync music videos
with various camera filters, effects, and sound clips, as well as social functions including
commenting, sharing, attending awards, and creating new content using hashtag challenges.
TikTok mechanisms encourage collective participation and viral spread as audience attention
shifts from content provider-created content to ongoing social big events created by fans.
This experimentation on TikTok generates a culture of creativity driven by the sudden
development of onsite memes between initially unknown provokers and responder users, thus
rising as a new form of communication similar to 'the violent take it by the spoke' in 19th-
century colonial context in the West. Generative interaction shapes the emerging production
style, cultural taste, and participatory culture of each generation in each media setting.
Similarities and differences between Generative Interaction on TikTok and Cultural
Interactivity at broadcasting social media, including normalized practice, were also discussed.
The notion of the content of religious ideas and Zoomers was underrepresented, as early
experiments tend to be comedy skits, abstract visual productions, and lip-syncing videos on
non-theological topics. Early production activity was pioneered by existing social media
content creators who were already popular on Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube. The
audience was encouraged to be a participatory observer and share such videos on other social
media, generating complicated role hierarchies in which TikTok was a sidekick of other
social media. (Fan & Hemans, 2022)

3.1. History and Growth

As a social media platform focused on short-form videos, TikTok allows users to create and
share content that is 15 to 60 seconds long. Launched in September 2016 by the Chinese tech
company ByteDance, TikTok was originally released as a lip-syncing app called Douyin for
the Chinese market. In 2017, ByteDance expanded its reach to the international market by
launching TikTok.
In November 2017, TikTok acquired Musical.ly, a US-based short-form video app with a
large user base. The acquisition allowed TikTok to merge Musical.ly's features, user
accounts, and technology, significantly boosting its popularity among a young audience in the
West. Following the merger, TikTok positioned itself as a more comprehensive platform for
video creation, allowing users to enhance their videos with music, filters, effects, and
interactive elements. The app gained rapid popularity, particularly among Gen Z users, and
saw soaring downloads in 2018. TikTok was the most downloaded non-gaming app in both
the iOS App Store and Google Play Store in 2018 and 2019, surpassing Facebook, Instagram,
and Snapchat in user growth.
TikTok's growth continued in 2020 with March download figures reaching 2 billion globally
across the App Store and Google Play, making it the seventh app to reach this milestone.
According to the 2020 Digital 2020: Global Digital Overview report, globally, TikTok had
800 million monthly active users in January 2020. From November 2019 to January 2020, the
app gained around 200 million downloads worldwide, with the majority of downloads
originating from outside China. In August 2020, TikTok had 100 million monthly active
users in the United States and 50 million daily active users. By September 2021, TikTok's
user base exceeded 1 billion users. The platform's rapid growth can be attributed to its
innovative algorithm, which enables users to discover new content by curating a personalized
"For You" feed based on user interactions and engagement patterns. TikTok's advanced
algorithm is regarded as one of the best in social media. In 2020, TikTok reached over 1.1
billion users, making it the fastest platform to reach that milestone. TikTok is currently the
fourth most used social media platform.

3.2. Key Features and Functionality

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
The platform allows users to upload, edit, and share videos, applying various filters and
effects. It has been featured on Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store, and has amassed
40 billion views as of February 2018. Users can share videos on TikTok's social networks or
on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube. (Lahooti et
al.2023)
Basic Functionality TikTok's functionality supports users in content creation, algorithm
intelligent gathering of information, and an interactive community. TikTok has great
creativity functionality with a wide variety of effects, filters, music, and interactive stickers.
There are a total of 20 online editing tools, including the MovieMagic, Tempo, Countdown,
and Loop.
Post-Creation, Augmented Reality (AR) Effects may be added to enhance videos and re-
video creation with three-finger tap recording and multiple video uploads. New features such
as Revibe, Reverse, Green Screen, and Emoji video creation/video uploading by Disney,
Ariel, and BuzzFeed can also be created. Easy sharing functionality allows the sharing of
clips, paused viewing for holding pause or rotating to change the default speed of video clips,
and screen tapping for viewers to narrate. The Feed supports different video types such as
beauty, food, short clips, and live streaming.

3.3. Influencer Culture

Initially gaining traction as a platform for lip-syncing videos, TikTok's subsequent adoption
has led to the birth of a new influencer culture among creators. As TikTok continues to grow,
brands are increasingly turning to TikTok for marketing opportunities, sponsoring creators,
and forming influential partnerships through the TikTok Creator Marketplace.
An increasing number of content creators utilize TikTok as their primary platform, with some
of the most popular accounts, such as Charli D'Amelio, on their own creator journey.
TikTok's duets and stitches make it easier for creators to collaborate, allowing them to
combine their own videos with another creator's original content and lead to increased
visibility. The platform's algorithm also applies a "follow for follow" feature that encourages
creators to follow each other for mutual support. Some of TikTok's biggest stars, including
D'Amelio, are utilizing this new popularity to jump-start a career in traditional media.
D'Amelio's newfound fame on TikTok opened doors for her to appear on "The Tonight
Show" and in a Super Bowl commercial, host a Facebook Watch series, and collaborate with
major brands aiming to connect with a younger audience.
Initially considered a fringe social network, TikTok is now changing how businesses engage
with online audiences and reach new customers. Brands advertising on the platform tap into
its influencers, who, while lacking major celebrity status, are often more relatable and trusted
spokespeople with the potential to go viral. TikTok's youthful audience makes the platform a
critical way to connect with Gen Z consumers. Originally, brands sought to create TikTok
accounts in hopes of attracting a growing audience with their own content. However,
TikTok's influencer marketing grew up quickly as brands turned to young stars more
comfortable on the app with established audiences to promote their products. As TikTok
rises, its influencer culture and Creator Marketplace will continue to evolve.

4. Future Trends in Social Media

As social media continues to evolve, new technologies and trends will shape its future. This
section explores some of the anticipated developments, including augmented and virtual
reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning, changes in content creation and
consumption, increased regulation and scrutiny, and the rise of niche platforms. The future of
TikTok and other social media platforms will depend on how they adapt to these changes. 4
Future Trends in Social Media.
Social media is likely to continue evolving, driven by new technologies and changing user
expectations. Key trends anticipated in the coming years include the increased adoption of
augmented and virtual reality, which will create more immersive experiences, particularly for
advertising. Artificial intelligence and machine learning may be used to create deeper
personalization and new tools for content moderation. The rise of the TikTok-style feed and
the decline of written posts across platforms is likely. Video games applied to low-stakes
social utility, livestreaming shopping, and the development of a metaverse are also expected
to grow. More regulation and scrutiny of platforms are anticipated, especially around young
users and user data protection. Existing social media networks and news channels are
expected to enter the space or copy TikTok-style offerings, while new players might emerge.
New platforms catering to specific interests or audiences are likely to develop. This indicates
that the social landscape will become more heterogeneous while offering a greater volume of
global news.

4.1. Emerging Technologies

Even as social media advances towards a metaverse, its backbone must remain the ability to
connect people across diverging communities through media which, in its basest form, is a
shared breed of information. Technologies that promise to bring people together or widen the
net of what can be shared with each other can enhance the most widespread modes of social
media or allow for entirely new modes of media or forums for media exchange to flourish.
There are new robust software, hardware, and network-enabled technologies on the forefront
of discovery that promise to do just that. Some have already shown potential or given
glimpses of what's to come.
Artificial intelligence (AI) image synthesis and text generation (including AI-generated
video, music, and 3D object generation) are revolutionizing creating media, allowing a
variety of user-created content that was previously impossible or very labor-intensive. Many
of these AI programs consist of a neural network niche behind a user-friendly interface that
extracts and condenses creative design decisions into models. These models can then be
sampled to generate fresh reverberations of the separated styles or attributes from the model's
original input.
DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, RunwayML, Playground AI, ChatGPT, and GPT-3
are some of the most mainstream examples of this technology that have already grown
thousands to millions of users in a few months of scaling. Additionally, there are many other
tools in development for the wide sampling of photos, paintings, drawings, text, essays,
music, sounds, games, 3D objects, and hypertext, potentially enabling the rapid generation of
nearly every type of media across any trappings or styles. Users of these technologies often
discuss them not as tools existing as part of a platform but as a mixed-ability of media
authorship or a democratization of art itself, with certain expectations even as these
technologies are embraced to invigorate creative expression. (Luk2023)(Business & Taulli)
Web3 (or Web 3.0) and decentralized social technologies address some ontological concerns
regarding the social media platforms that have, in many ways, founded their business models
on the commodification of people's unhinged capacity to share and curate content, which in
turn leads models to alter the nature of social exchanges on these forums. Blockchain data
structures are the foundation of many decentralized techs, and these permanent, verifiable,
and openly-accessible ledgers were initially designed for sharing cryptocurrency transactions
- FlyEthereum, Bitcoin, or Monero.

5. Recommendations for Future Studies

This analysis laid the foundation for further research, given the profound impact of TikTok
on prevailing social media trends. Future studies on this continually changing area may
benefit from the following recommendations. TikTok and its influence on social media trends
may be examined as a case study. Diverse types of TikTok social media users may be
separated based on demographic and social characteristics. There should also be a study on
non-social media users in order to comprehend and detail their rationale for non-participation.
Methodologies and Data Collection
Quantitative methodologies may be utilized to address the above gaps. A mixed-method
study is recommended for a comprehensive overview of TikTok trends. Survey participants
may include high school and university students aged 14 to 24, TikTok active and inactive
users having at least 6 months of TikTok experience. Pre-established and addressed
questionnaires may be sent through social media channels such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and
Facebook. Focus group sessions may be conducted using Zoom in order to digitalize the
process for audience mobilization. One researcher guides the discussion while noting cynical
or skeptical remarks in the group chat. Investigating TikTok’s influence on challenging social
and youth complicacies can lead to internal diversification of digital social media reception
and use. In-depth interviews concentrated on influencers' perspectives, examined TikTok’s
role in sexual recruitment and exploitation of minors. A comparative analysis of social media
user practices may be analyzed, focusing on TikTok adoption motivations.
Previous research may aid in determining framework construction objectives and establishing
study outlines. Reception and use theories may be applied in order to assess TikTok’s part in
teenage development via interviews examining varied degrees of TikTok engagement.
TikTok’s role in the sexualization debate, focusing on content circulation, social media
environment, and user reactions, may also be examined using online ethnography. The social
media landscape is changing, and further research may focus on understanding this transition.
TikTok is at the forefront of this shift, leading the way and indicating the way for a growing
number of platforms.
5.1. Methodologies and Data Collection
Future investigation into TikTok’s burgeoning role necessitates robust methodologies and a
comprehensive data collection framework. This multifaceted approach should encompass
quantitative analysis through surveys and website metrics, qualitative exploration via
interviews and focus groups, and mixed-methods analysis. Tracing TikTok’s ascension,
cross-platform comparisons offer an assessment of its rapid usability growth while
demographic surveys illuminate its audience and visitor motivators. Content analysis of
TikTok and rival platforms bridges the content types and target audiences across the social
media landscape. Thematic analysis of interviews with TikTok influencers would expand on
preceding content inquiries by illuminating the construction of platform identity, peer
interactions, and audience engagement approaches.
The TikTok audience, marketing firms, and social media researchers would gather insights on
TikTok’s user motivations and comparative analysis with other platforms. Furthermore, the
scrutiny of core social media dynamics prompts TikTok-to-TikTok interaction inquiry. As
TikTok becomes an inextricable part of daily life and societal discourse, tapping into first-
hand user experiences can shed light on the emergence of a new social media paradigm, in
which past and present media traditions converge in unprecedented ways. Additionally, the
utility of TikTok for expansive content diffusion merits further investigation. Finally, it is
hoped that adopting TikTok’s video format as a digital research tool could inspire innovative
insights and fresh perspectives.
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