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Why You Can’t Look Away From TikTok

Experts weigh in on the app’s killer algorithm and more

Claire Lee, a stay-at-home mom based outside Chicago, downloaded TikTok “out of boredom” a few weeks into the coronavirus lockdown. She loved it way more than she expected.

“Every time I open it I marvel at the sheer number of brilliant, creative people out there,” she says. “It‘s been a bright spot for me during such a dark time for all of us.”

By all accounts, the pandemic has sent TikTok’s growth into overdrive: Downloads in Apple’s App Store grew 154% from the same time last year. A recent survey found that kids in the U.S., U.K., and Spain use social apps, including YouTube, twice as much in 2020 as they did four years ago — a trend driven primarily by TikTok adoption. Children and teens now use TikTok almost as much as they watch YouTube.

What explains the appeal? Why is a social media app that doesn’t even really seem to feature much social networking suddenly so popular, especially among young people? I talked to over a dozen internet communication experts and TikTok fans, and though there was a wide variety of answers, the bulk of them comes down to one thing: TikTok understands its users better than any other major social network seems to. Instagram…