Many people despair at the idea that our cultural climate is influenced by the inane trends and ramblings that happen on a popular short-form video app, but like it or lump it, that is exactly the kind of culture that we are living in right now. At this crossroads, we have two choices: despair at the state of things as they are, or enjoy being taken along for the ride. 

Perhaps it is possible to do a bit of both by being somewhat critical of the grip that certain social media platforms have over us, while also enjoying some of the plentiful entertainment and distraction that they promise us. It has to be said that the average TikToker isn’t short on amusement to share with the rest of us, and much of it is transferable across the internet in the easily digestible form of that eternal classic mode of communication, the screenshot.