This week in TikTok: Some wholesome family quarantine content

Hello from The Goods’ twice-weekly newsletter! For the next few Tuesdays, internet culture reporter Rebecca Jennings will be using this space to update you all on what’s been going on in the world of TikTok. Is there something you want to see more of? Less of? Different of? Email me at [email protected], and subscribe to The Goods’ newsletter here.

Here’s a quote that will probably stay with me until all of this ends and coronavirus becomes a weird, horrible shared memory: Avani Gregg, 17-year-old member of the LA-based TikToker collective Hype House, told Rolling Stone that since the pandemic, engagement on her social profiles has gone up about 25 percent. “People are just waiting for people to post,” she said. “They’re just staring at their phones all day and just waiting.”

This has been one of the defining activities of quarantine, at least for me: staring at my phone and waiting for someone to show me something funny, or something pretty, or something that offers at least one moment of distraction. Not that this isn’t a defining activity of my life even when there isn’t the threat of a terrifying global disease, but that particular feeling is a big part of how I’ll remember this period of time. I suspect it’s the same for others.

While Spotify streams are down, TikTok appears to have benefited from a nationwide boredom boom, according to some (unconfirmed) numbers. Even anecdotally, people on my Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook feeds who never seemed to have any interest in it before are discovering TikTok (two of them have already gone viral, yes I am jealous), while others are now realizing they might be too into it. Cautioned Lena Yannella, Duke University class of 2022, in her school newspaper, “So you’ve regressed into a vegetative state watching TikTok in bed as you pretend not to hear your mother calling.”

There is even a TikTok anthem for boredom, recorded by Detroit-based musician Curtis Roach via an Instagram video of himself rapping, “Bored in the house and I’m in the house bored” earlier this month that has since gone viral. Last week, after making a TikTok to the sound, the rapper Tyga turned it into a full-length song, which sort of bangs. At the very least, it’s topical in a way that doesn’t feel massively depressing.

Here’s what else has been going on in the world of TikTok:

TikTok in the news

• Multiple brands have now attempted to make viral coronavirus dances (including Vox!): Procter & Gamble hired Charli D’Amelio to promote its #DistanceDance, which reminds viewers to stay home, while Elf Cosmetics updated its “Eyes Lips Face” song to include lyrics “Y’all need to lather up” and “Don’t touch your face.” Really, though, any existing TikTok dance challenge will encourage people to stay home anyway. Those things take forever to learn!
• Here’s some totally not-coronavirus-related tea: There’s more drama in the Hype House. After 20-year-old founding member Daisy Keech moved out over a trademark dispute, she released a YouTube video this weekend explaining why she’s suing fellow founders Thomas Petrou and Chase Hudson. Thomas’s ex-girlfriend then filmed a TikTok with Daisy, on which Thomas commented, “Disgusting.” Also, Daisy is possibly dating Brody Jenner now. This, plus there’s rumors that Charli and Chase are broken up! I just spent an hour of my day researching this!
• I am a meanie skeptic, so I think that a certain viral TikTok “quarantine cutie” story is neither real nor cute. A lot of people disagree, so I’d be remiss if I deprived you of this theoretically very sweet “date” that two people in Bushwick went on while living across the street from one another, the primary goal of which seemed to be going viral on TikTok.

Meme watch

Families are making tons of quarantine TikToks together, and it’s adorable. It’s also largely thanks to the Blinding Lights challenge, a group dance to The Weeknd song of the same name that — crucially — takes about 30 seconds to learn, making it easy enough to teach reluctant parents. BuzzFeed has a roundup of the best videos, though the funniest by far is from longtime family creators the McFarlands, who finally hopped on the challenge after everyone begged them to.

Celebrities, the thirstiest people on TikTok, are also bringing their kids into their TikTok content. Jessica Alba and her little ones promoted Honest Beauty skincare; J. Lo, A Rod, and company did the Something New challenge; and Mark Wahlberg’s poor child tried to teach him a TikTok dance.

This week I’ve seen families do Tiger King cosplay, make jingles about walking around a suburban neighborhood, and a girl whose brother has turned her family dinners into elaborate performance art. But if you hate heartwarming things, there’s this extremely dark TikTok that one family made about what life will be like one year from now.

One Last Thing

It’s been a long time since I got sternly “spoken to” by a teacher, so this TikTok of a boy breathing loudly into his computer microphone during online school and then getting a “warning” for disrupting the class really hits the spot. Stay safe this week!