TikTok s Strange (and Wonderful) Subcultures
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By Nick Fouriezos
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Monsters, Inc. comes to mind. The app is a conveyor belt of doors, opening and closing, on some strange reality. You can quickly find yourself reeling from information overload from real estate gurus and religious evangelists, to kink lovers and fashion trendsetters. That is, dear friend, until the algorithm jumps in, deluging you in the subcultures you’ve “liked” the most a process that feels either as exhilarating as being accepted into a clique, or as claustrophobic as hotboxing in a straightjacket. Today, with the Biden administration revoking a Trump-era ban on the popular app, we look at TikTok’s emerging subcultures and how the online world we perceive is increasingly being rewritten by the app’s algorithm.