By Raymond Tran

Editor in Chief

   “TikTok is one of the new up and rising apps that almost anyone can relate to,” sophomore Hanna Wong, president of Gabrielino High School’s TikTok Club, announced. “I created this club because TikTok is my passion and I find that many other people at our school also enjoy [it].”

   TikTok is a free social media platform that centers around making and sharing short videos. Creators have a multitude of tools at their disposal such as face and image filters as well as special video transitions. Users also have the ability to search for sounds to score their videos, using songs, movie clips, and original audio.

   The app encourages people to participate in challenges, attempt popular dances, and produce comedic videos.

   According to Business of Apps, an online newspaper, users spend an average of 52 minutes a day on TikTok. As of January, 41 percent of all users are between the ages of 16 and 24.

  On Oct. 8, Gabrielino’s ASB hosted TikTok Tuesday as a part of its Homecoming spirit week. On this day, students were encouraged to dress like TikTok personas that have been developed on the app, such as an “E-Boy” or “VCSO Girl.” 

   “We wanted to do spirit week days that would yield maximum participation from the student body,” Senior Class President Kayla Villalobos, senior, explained. “We did a theme relevant to the teen culture right now and, in all honesty, that was the spirit day that most people dressed up.”

   Over the past year, TikTok has grown exponentially, reaching one billion monthly active users in June, according to Sherisse Pham at CNN. 

   TikTok is fast growing and has “surpassed Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat in monthly installs for the first time in September,” stated Sarah Perez, writer for TechCrunch, a news outlet centered around the tech industry. The New York Times even published an article about how “TikTok is rewriting the world.”

   “It brings a lot of people together,” Wong explained. “I have gotten closer with people that I never thought I would, but because of TikTok we have bonded and created memories.”

   According to Navneet Alang, writer for The Week, TikTok is popular amongst the younger generation because the videos are short and concise, which appeals to the short attention span of teenagers. 

    “We can all relate to it and it’s just fun to recreate and capture these moments,” secretary of the TikTok Club, Kelly Hy, sophomore, said with a smile. “It’s just a bigger platform for us to share our creative minds in a different way.” 

   Since its release in September 2016, the app has garnered worldwide attention, being available in over 140 countries and holding a spot in the top 25 apps in 100 of those countries as stated by AppTrace, an online tracking system of the app economy. 

   Despite already being popular across the globe, TikTok is projected to grow even more, according to The New York Times.