TikTok Patterns
I chose TikTok as my social media platform to look at the back end, algorithmic, and machine process that makes up the structure of TikTok and to determine the content I see in this platform. To conduct my research, I watched TikTok from Saturday, October 22 through Tuesday, October 30 for one hour each day. In my four days of watching TikToks, I noticed patterns in the content on my “for you page.” In this essay, I have divided the patterns into five topics: games, sports, comedy, trends, and ads.
The first topic is games. I was given three live videos to watch on my “for you page” during my research. They were Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Snake. I received three live videos of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign on my “for you page” and they were all from different men.
I received two live videos from two different guys playing Call of Duty: Warzone. One of the live Warzone videos I clicked on to watch was from a guy whose username is tcTekk.
I received three live videos of Snake on my “for you page” and they were all different guys. I only watched one live video because the persons snake was almost as large as the board. I watched to see if anything special happened when he got to that point. Spoiler alert: nothing exciting happened. One pattern that I noticed is that if you spent more time watching a live video, or if you clicked on a live video to be a part of the chat, then that video will come up more than once on your “for you page.” Another pattern I noticed is that I only got live videos that TikTok knew I was interested in or I got live videos that were similar to ones I was interested in. I was not that interested in the Campaign mode, but it was on my “for you page” because I was interested in Warzone.
The second topic is sports. My first sports video I saw was a video from a guy who does “how certain athletes act in class.”
Next, a South Carolina Gamecock football video came up even though I do not follow Carolina’s page. I do not even like Carolina. The next video was from someone I follow; his username is trevorfahnstorm and he posts baseball videos. This post was about the Yankees winning the division but losing to the Astros.
Next, there was a series of photos to swipe through about gameday in South Carolina.
The next video was from batboys baseball. A batboy interviewed a baseball player and asked them random questions. It is strange that I saw the batboy interview with Kyle Schwarber because his baseball team is about to play in the World Series starting tonight. After that, I saw a reaction video of the Detroit Lions vs Dallas Cowboys who played earlier today on Sunday, October 23rd.
One pattern I noticed is TikTok knew to show me recent TikToks such as the World Series video, the batboy interview with Kyle Schwarber, and the reaction video to the Lions vs Cowboys. Another pattern I noticed is TikTok showed me sports videos that I may be interested in, like the South Carolina football video or the series of SC gameday photos to swipe. TikTok got the state right but the team wrong.
The third topic is comedy. I received two TikToks from two different Dave Chapelle comedy specials on Netflix. These are long TikToks, but I still watch them anyways because they are hilarious, and I love Dave Chappelle. I usually save them to my favorites so I can go back later and rewatch them.
I also received a Family Feud video. They are also long videos, but I watch the entire video because they are funny. I also received a video from brothers that I follow. They showed different dances to do at weddings. These videos are so popular that they have an 18-episode playlist just of these videos.
My next comedy video was a video from barstool sports. It was someone studying for the medical exam while watching Greys Anatomy. I did not like the video, but I saved the video to my favorites to watch again later.
One pattern I noticed is TikTok has been giving me the longer Dave Chapelle videos and Family Feud videos because it knew I had shown previous interest in these videos and it knew that since I am interested, I will watch the entire video.
The fourth topic is trends. My first TikTok trend was a teenager in class dressed as Jeffery Dahmer doing the drunk dance that he does in episode three of Monster: A Jeffery Dahmer Story. This was a big trend because after this Netflix show was released, everyone was doing his dance. However, this trend died down because it was only popular when the show on Netflix was popular. I also got trends of cute girls doing trending TikTok dances. One dance is the “p-e to the t-t-y dance.” I clicked on the audio because I wanted to see other videos from this trend. I ended up watching this trend longer than I should have.
Then, I watched a video of a guy interviewing college girls about their craziest experiences.
One pattern I noticed is TikTok tried to show me trends that are happening now. I say “try” because TikTok showed me the petty trend as it is popular, but it got the timing of the Jeffery Dahmer trend off. Another pattern I noticed was TikTok knew to show me interview videos because I have seen trends of other people interviewing college students about their craziest experiences. Maybe TikTok knows I am a college student based off the videos I watch.
The fifth topic is ads. A very popular ad I received was an ad from 1stPhorm about collagen.
Collagen is a supplement that you mix in your drink that gives you energy and joint relief. I received this ad on my “for you page” twice. I also received another popular ad from flexpromeals. They are a company that prepares meals. I received this ad six times during my days of research. I noticed that the ad had a muscular man explaining the food packages or they included a physically fit woman unboxing the packages. On top of getting flexpromeal ads, I received ads from Vshred, which put together custom fat burning workouts. This was the first time I saw these ads even though I have had no interest in the past of these meal preps or these workouts. One pattern I noticed is TikTok showed me ads with guys who are muscular or in shape, or they showed me ads with attractive women showing off the meal product. I guess they did this because they thought if I saw these kinds of people in their ad, it would urge me to buy the product.
Work Cited
Tannerslays, MW2 Campaign (no spoilers), October 22nd, TikTok, October 22nd
tcTekk, October 25th, TikTok, October 25th
joerauth_, Clowning the kids in gym, October 22nd, TikTok, October 23rd
trevorfahnstrom, Tag a Yankess fan!, October 24th, TikTok, October 24th
chynnaaass, Only school where you can say cocks out loud and it not be weird, September 30th, TikTok, October 22nd
traphousesports, Excuse me wtf just happened, October 23rd, TikTok, October 23rd
standupvibes, October 19th, TikTok, October 22nd
thepointerbrothers, Episode 3 | Replying to loganeg77 first one is guaranteed life of the party, October 25th TikTok, October 25th
barstoolsports, Bro had a whole chart in there @Erika (via:Andreaspoly_/ig), October 21st, TikTok, October 24th
user324267190, October 23rd, TikTok, October 24th
360reidy, Episode 8, October 21st, TikTok, October 23rd
1stPhorm, I swear by this collagen!, October 22nd, TikTok, October 22nd
