Episode 4: Zahara does TikToks

Note: I happened to record this podcast as the world's coronavirus pandemic started to kick into gear. I'm now back home under the similar "shelter in place" order (or some version of it) that you are. This one seemed usefully short and easy for my first week under quarantine. Stay safe. :)

Zahara just turned 11, and this podcast is short. She's not necessarily used to answering detailed questions, hearing herself blather on (like me) and she had no preparation. She did a great job.

Zahara says folks use TikTok for dances, for art, for anything short and visual. I got onto TikTok a few months after it started, got bored with it and came back to it to keep up the young un's. It is hellishly addictive, providing just enough amusement to keep you swiping up and down. Some creators are phenomenally talented at whatever craft they're showcasing, but I agree with a creator's video I saw a while ago: TikTok is designed to give mediocre people the chance to do fairly mediocre things and maybe blow up virally from it. ("They're dances that people make up to songs, and then other people do them," she says.) In other words, amazing dancers doing dances are viral ... but so are any good-looking for high-energy Tomasina, Dick or Harriet.

There are also sad videos, where a TikTok user makes one to sing about or dance about or talk about, "like, when your dog has to go to the hospital," she says.

Zahara's account is private, only for friends, per her father. :)

Want to know more?

• TikTok is this. Tik-Tok is this. There's a big difference. Tik-Tok's dancing skills are way under par for the preteen girls on TikTok.
• TikTok has a darker side, so watch over those kids, gang.