#Tiktok is on its way out, and even if it comes back. It won't be the same. I joined back in 2018, when it was still Musically, as Gary Vaynerchuk kept talking about it over and over. I would carefully watch what platforms were out, and listen to what he said.
The things he said were true when it came to his observations. So despite my own reservations to join the "dancing and lip sync platform". I decided it was worth it as a contentcreator
I'm so glad I did.
There has not been another platform like it
Vine is the closest thing, but that connection ended once Tiktok moved to longer than 15sec videos.
Reels and Shorts are just NOT the same, and while you as a creator MIGHT syndicate your content across all three. I know I do with my podcast clips.
It is more of a matter of habit, rather than it being a viable alternative in either case. YouTube is probably the safer bet. I certainly trust my data slightly more with Google, than I do with Meta (which has been actively selling it to other countries for years). But more importantly..
The overall vibe and energy of the platform. Being in the 'meta' of all the new things in the collective social ecosystem.
Here is a quick solocast of me talking about my long experience there:
Tiktok Over the Years
At this point my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I'm going to do my best at remembering what it was like back then.
Having over 7000 videos, and 700 saved audios that I wanted to make videos out of. There has been a lot I wanted to do. More importantly there has been a lot I've seen. Just like Gary Vee, I'm an observer, and I watched the meta of the platform
2018
I joined back when it was Musically, and so the whole vibe was music, lip syncing, and dancing. Which continued ever onward throughout the lifespan of tiktok. Which is why people think of it as the dancing app.
However just because that was the start, it doesn't mean that is what the app was about. In fact it was pretty clear at the beginning even, that this platform was meant for something more.
The dancing and singing, was simply just a way for users to get comfortable MAKING VIDEOS. Then once you got better at that, then you would see users making talking head videos. Comedic ones, or even informational/educational videos.
That was the start of something big.
2019
This to me I think was the golden years of Tiktok.
It was the era where anything goes, and it was the wild west of sorts. Everyone was trying out new things. That only continued into the next year when the pandemic happened. However prior to that, in 2019, there was this beautiful coming together of sorts.
Everyone was collaborative, and you would see duets like crazy. Everyone and their mother was duetting, and if you had a crush on someone. That was the way to show them, by duetting a lot of their videos, and then if they did it back. It would show they liked you too haha. I saw people get married from this, and it was crazy.
I think around this time Stitching became a thing, and people would make reactionary content too.
This was the year that I felt more comfortable making tiktoks too.
2020
This is where Tiktok started for a lot of people. The funny thing is I felt like it was LATE. People were late to the party, and there was already like a billion users on the platform at this point.
It was funny seeing Gen X coming onto the platform, asking, "am I too old for this?". Its like no? Its just a video app, its not meant for just one generation.
Everyone was stuck at home, and this was an outlet for people to share their thoughts. More importantly to connect with other people, as it was a lonely time for everyone.
A lot of big creators got their start this year.
2021
This year is a bit fuzzy for me, as I was still ramping up my PolyCast interviews at this point. I found myself connecting with some really cool creators from Tiktok, and then interviewing them on my show.
I really wanted to make clips of my show even back then. However there wasn't any tools that could do it simply. Recast and Chopcast were still too complex for the amount of time I had. Let alone energy as a solo creator.
However one of my biggest, well not regrets cause I don't think I could have done anything different, is that I didn't make any podcast clips back then. At least 1-2 per interview or something. Because the platform was pushing podcasts like crazy back then. Especially going into 2022.
2022
Maybe this was the podcast clip year ? I'm not sure, as I know there were many other meta trends happening at this point.
This is where I think a lot of tiktokers started to separate. The platform had already been good at figuring out what communities you belonged in. Think like how reddit has "subreddits", and you would join the ones you like. Well Tiktok did that all automatically, and it was REALLY good at it.
While in prior years there were a lot of overlap, maybe cause there wasn't as much saturation? For example, if you were into Harry Potter, then you might get dungeons and dragons content too abit more.
This year was the start of those dividing lines in niches really started to widen.
2023
Most of this year I was focusing on podcast clipping thanks to OpusClip.
However I do remember really enjoying WATCHING tiktoks at this point. I'd have so many audios saved in my backlog, and I wanted to get around to making videos to them. But I didn't want to decrease the value of my podcast clips.
Thus I didn't really make much content, only really repurposed. I don't think I'm the only one either. I saw a lot of bigger podcasts finally hoping on the tiktok craze too.
2024
This is the year I think a lot of news really start popping up more on Tiktok. It got more into social activism, than the platform even did before. Maybe it was because of Gaza, I'm not sure.
However I recall seeing a lot more protests, and overall coming together on certain topics. There seemed to be more political debates on livestreams, and just more LIVEs in general. Thanks to the annoying push for live content by tiktok.
I spent a majority of the year as a creator, simply pushing out my podcast clips.
2025
I'm starting with the latest, as I think it is most fresh in mind of course. This year barely has started. The entire energy and discourse has been around the looming Ban on the app. Considering the American population on the app make up a huge chunk of the user base. As China and India had already banned the app.
The other countries sort of look to the Americans for the trends. At least that is how it feels, maybe that's the American ego there though haha.
My point is that now its getting banned, I think that the rest of the world is going to miss the interactions. Everyone is coming together right now and mourning the loss of the app. Someone said its like the last day of high school, and we're signing each other's year books.
I've been trying to rapidly go through my tiktok audios that I've saved, and trying to make as many videos as I can as one last final hurrah.
Its the end of an era.
What else am I to say?
I went through this with Vine, and this is the 3rd for 4th time we thought Tiktok was gonna get banned. I sorta made my peace a couple years ago, but now it is just simply finally happening.
We'll go through this again with flimflam or clipdrip, or whatever the next platform will be called.
As a creator you gotta be omnichannel and not too attached to one platform or another.
Dustin M. PolyInnovator
