What is Tiktok and Tiktok Challenges?
Tiktok is a short video hosting service created by a Chinese company called ‘Bytedance.’ In China, it is known as ‘Douyin.’ Tiktok, the favorite social media app, took the world by storm shortly after its release in 2016. It included videos of different genres like pranks, dancing, singing, stunts, etc. The short video format helped increase Tiktok and Tiktok’s challenges and success.
The short Video Format grabbed the attention of many-
What sets it apart from Youtube and other video streaming services is its short-form video format. Initially, the length of the videos was limited to 15 seconds, and later it kept increasing with time as the company saw fit. TikTok’s popularity reached heights with its number of downloads.
The video length increased to 60 seconds, then to 3 minutes last July, and now the maximum video length on Tiktok can be 10 minutes.
Short attention span-
As we can see in today’s world, the attention span of the younger generation keeps decreasing, hooking them on to a video or a song. You got to make those 15 seconds catchy enough to grab them, or they’ll move on to another video and keep scrolling until they find something more interesting.
More short video features-
This short video format blew up so much that even other social platforms introduced short video features in their apps. Now we have ‘Reels’ for Instagram and ‘Shorts’ from Youtube.
This copying is not new, as these social media apps see the potential in what’s blowing up in the current market and try to create their versions of the same thing. As you can set your videos to music or different audio clips in an exactly similar manner as Tiktok.
Installing Tiktok-
On android-
The steps are pretty simple, and You first have to go to your Play store.
Then you need to type in Tiktok in the search box, or you can look it up in the app library.
When you find the app click on it and select download or install.
On iOS-
The steps are similar to Android. Go to your Apple app store.
Type Tiktok in the search bar or scroll through the app’s library.
And click on the app icon and select download. And voila! You’re all set to make your very own Tiktok video.
How to make a Tiktok video?
Creating a Tiktok account–
First of all, you need to sign up and make an account. If you’re a new user, you need to sign up.
Then it will ask you different ways in which you can sign up to choose a suitable option.
You may also use a phone number or email id and password to log in.
Then you need to enter your birth date and verify your age. And select next.
Enter your sign-in details like your mobile number or mail id, and you should receive a code to confirm.
After that, type in your chosen user name and click on save.
The app will also ask about your preferences, so you can choose the kind of content you want to watch and click on save. And you’re done.
Shooting a Tiktok challenge or video-
To create a Tiktok challenge or video, open the Tiktok app and click on the plus icon on your home page.
This will open up your camera and show you all the features you can use in your video.
Hold the big red circled button to start your video and hold it until you’ve recorded your clip, then release the button.
You can control the speed of your video to make it faster or slower. Or edit the length of the clip or even stitch together different clips. And give it different effects.
Adding sound to a Tiktok challenge or video-
Adding sound-
After creating a video, tap on ‘Sounds’ to add music to your Tiktok challenge or video.
Tiktok has a really big library with different genres to add music from.
Click on the song or track you want to add to your Tiktok challenge or video.
Tap on the volume tab to adjust the volume of your music and the original audio.
Adding Effects-
After creating your video and adding music, the next step is to add effects.
Below your video, beside ‘Sound,’ you may see ‘Effects,’ so tap on that.
There are numerous effects given, and you can choose anyone.
You can trim your video or add transition effects between different video clips.
Or add stickers and texts.
Adding duets or reactions-
This step is not necessary, but you can also add a duet along with your videos or add a video clip, and besides that, add your clip reacting to it.
There should be a ‘Share’ icon given beside any Tiktok video on the right side at last.
That should make a pop-up appear from the bottom with numerous sharing options.
If you have enabled duets and reaction videos, then you may be able to see an icon named ‘Duet.’
Tap on that, allowing you to add to already existing videos.
You can choose from the other existing videos and add your comments and effects.
Posting a Tiktok challenge or video-
After you’re finished making your video, tap on ‘Next.’
You give your video a caption or a description here.
Add hashtags or mentions.
You can also choose whether to share your post with the public, private or visible to friends only.
Lastly, tap on ‘Post,’ which should publish your video.
Here’s a tutorial to help you create a TikTok challenge or videos- https://youtu.be/yViR5iNh5Is
What are Tiktok challenges?
Ever since social media apps have existed, hashtags and trends have always been going around that catch the heat quickly and die down just as fast. When these challenges get popular, every person on that app, or Tiktok, seems to follow that trend. So we see everyone from celebrities and politicians to influencers doing that certain challenge.
The videos often included a hashtag and a popular song or beat. Or it may also include a particular type of dance move. Lip syncing, dancing, bottle flipping, etc., are all included in this category. You could also see challenges that required you to perform a certain action.
This is again not anything alien to the social media peeps, as we had seen several famous challenges being performed even before short video apps such as Tiktok existed. Like the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge,’ which had the whole world dumping buckets filled with icy cold water over their heads.
The danger-
But challenges like these are less likely to harm someone or others and can be passed off as innocent jokes. But then there were some challenges which were a little riskier but gained so much popularity that everybody, and I mean everybody, was willing to do it, like the ‘KiKi’ challenge, made popular by the Canadian singer ‘Drake’ through his song ‘In my feelings.
The famous line of “Kiki, do you love me” had the whole globe grooving and the challenge included getting out of your still moving car, keeping the door open, and shooting your video by dancing to the song and moving beside your moving car.
This challenge caused injuries, some severe and some small. As people tried to rush out of a moving car, they often tripped and fell face first. Or sometimes, the open gate in a moving car got hit with something on the road. Challenges like these could harm someone and the environment around them.
The hashtag for a cause-
Sometimes these challenges also go viral for a worthwhile cause. In recent times the ‘Black Lives Matter or the BLM Movement is a prime example of this when thousands of people came together to raise a voice against racism and the injustice suffered by the African American or the African ancestry communities around the world. Now instead of posting dances on a groovy beat, people posted examples from their own life and how they suffered discrimination in their day-to-day lives.
The popular the better-
The more popular these Tiktok challenges get, the more opportunities people get to showcase their talents behind the comfort of a screen or use their social media presence as voices against the injustices. All in all, there are good and bad sides to all social media apps, but at the end of the day, if it doesn’t suit your palette, you can scroll down to the next one.
Conclusion-
Whether you’re into Animal Lives Matter or the open a bottle cap by kicking it with your leg challenge, the world has undoubtedly fallen into the frenzy of Tiktok challenges beyond anyone’s understanding.
So you, as a relevant social media user, could either go with the flow of the trends or create something new on your own. Or you could sit on your couch and bear witness to this world by simply scrolling your thumb up or down, however, you like.
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