Tik Tok madness!

With the pandemic taking centre stage, in every corner of the globe, and folks being confined to the four walls of their homes, due to the lockdowns, the TikTok craze (or, is it madness!) has cropped up. And, that prompted me to publish the following article, sent by one of our frequent contributors – Sumedi Rathnayake.

Yes, we did publish some of her articles in the past – ‘Tips to capture his heart,’ ‘The bad side of Salman Khan,’ and ‘Amazing Thailand.’

And, this is her story about the current TikTok craze…

“I’m a TikTok fan but I don’t fancy some of the TikTok videos that we see on Facebook.

“The people, in those videos, portrait themselves in such absurd and foolish ways that I’m surprised that they don’t feel shy when they see themselves in their TikTok videos– like Being Silly, Silly/Sexual Dancing, Being a Kid, Silly Jokes, Crying, Lip-Synch, Offering Silly Advice, etc.

Seeing such silly stuff, one begins to wonder about human sanity in general. Or, is it that the Covid-19 blues have got into them!

There are also those people (Sri Lankans, too) who want to look hot and they believe that by sexualising themselves in their TikTok videos, they can gain attention.

For many, TikTok is everything, but they must remember that anything in excess can be harmful to the mind.

According to experts, as with any social network, TikTok is also plagued by imagery, messages and trends that could cause real harm to users’ mental health, including:

* Content that promotes unhealthy lifestyles and unrealistic body image

* Negative or cruel comments from other users

* Dependence on online validation from other users

* Personal information being unwittingly passed on

If TikTok is done for purely entertainment purposes, it’s fine, and I have seen people making some awesome videos on TikTok, and it’s certainly a good source of entertainment.

So let’s have TikTok videos, for entertainment, and NOT stupid, or vulgar.