The aesthetics of reading
It is argued that some people concern themselves with looking like a reader, rather than focusing on the reading experience itself.
The TikTok Ban, ByteDance, and the “Splinternet”
The US TikTok ban represents more than the surface level new-cold-war tension between America and China. It personifies a growing divide between both advocates and critics of a global, open…
Is TikTok Live Replacing Television?
Like all media consumption, audiences are increasingly transitioning to digital platforms, including TikTok. Watching traditional TV channels has almost stopped among younger viewers, with 90% of 18- to 24-year-olds heading…
Cringe Culture: The Intersection of Misogyny and Ableism in Fandom Spaces
In 2020, a global lockdown encouraged people to entrench themselves in online fan spaces more than ever before, aided by the internet’s most popular platform: TikTok. But fandom culture existed…
The Social Snag of Living Chronically Offline
To scroll, or not to scroll, that is the question. The dubbing of social media addiction as ‘chronically online’ *insert silly winking tongue-out emoji here* is one of the internet’s…
Underconsumption Core: Use Less, Live More
Is this the core to end all cores? Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of our burning landfill waste, TikTok’s latest ‘underconsumption core’ and satirical sister ‘overconsumption core’ have…
JoJo Si-What On Earth is Going On?
“Karma’s a bitch, you should have known better” is not quite the chorus we would have expected to hear from a Jojo Siwa single just a few years ago. Rising…
The Social Media Emergence of Neurodivergence
Neurodivergence is an umbrella term encompassing different thinking styles that influence how people respond to the world. Although conditions such as autism and ADHD are more commonly discussed, neurodiversity also…
The Future of TikTok Music
Universal Music Group has pulled all of their tracks from TikTok, meaning classics from the likes of Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and The Weeknd are no longer accessible. Since TikTok…
AI: The Future of Music?
We’ve all seen your favourite US presidents perform covers on TikTok through the use of AI. But can this technology be used to create new and original pieces of media?…
Is Tik Tok the New Tumblr?: Advocating for Mental Health, While Encouraging Mental Illness
TW: Discussion of restricted eating, eating disorders, self-injury, and mental illness Teenage life in this day and age can be defined by a number of things; vapes, existential dread, unfortunate…
The Mess We Seem To Make: Raw, Driven and Self-Aware, Crawlers Deliver an Effective Hit to the Heartstrings
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ Many people may know Crawlers as the queer-coded, alt-rock band from TikTok. However, on the release of their debut album The Mess We Seem To…
TikTok’s Dulling Down of Music
Accessibility to music is at an all-time high. The rise of streaming and the availability of music software means listening and creating music is at your fingertips. Social media platforms…
Has BookTok Saved Reading?
Having read my fair share of “BookTok” books, I will never trust book recommendations from TikTok again. TikTok was launched in 2016, but “BookTok” as a subsection only started to…