Original article
Shelter in Place, Connect Online: Trending TikTok Content During the Early Days of the U.S. COVID-19 Pandemic

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.02.012Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

In the U.S., TikTok surged in popularity as the COVID-19 virus spread nationally. TikTok posts may both reflect and shape young people's perceptions of the pandemic. This mixed methods study applied a uses and gratifications framework to a systematic analysis of trending TikToks related to COVID-19, with attention to changes over a 2-month period.

Methods

Analyses are based on an original data set of 2,675 TikToks (529 unique videos across 68 COVID-relevant hashtags) viewed over 2,840,347,014 times. TikToks were tracked daily for 65 days after the beginning of U.S. stay-at-home orders (March 17 to May 20, 2020). A thematic analysis used 28 content codes and nine codes related to subject(s) to examine content patterns. Chi-square tests facilitated analyses of changes over time.

Results

Trending TikToks related to COVID-19 most often featured details of everyday circumstances and/or relatable commentary on Pandemic Life. These posts were similarly prevalent in Months 1 and 2. Health-Promoting TikToks outnumbered those exhibiting Risky or Concerning Health Practices (58:13) and were more common in Month 1. Advertisements and sponsored campaigns also shaped trending COVID-relevant content during the study period.

Conclusions

On TikTok, public health information appears to coexist with an abundance of commentary about everyday life during the pandemic. Posts arguably reflect documented social media use goals such as information seeking/sharing, archiving, and self-expression. Yet, TikToks during the pandemic period perhaps most often connect to another previously undocumented use goal: a digital search for common humanity in seeing difficult experiences as part of a larger human experience.

Section snippets

TikTok

TikTok was the most downloaded app during the first quarter of 2020, with 315 million downloads from January to the end of March [3]. Globally, 49% of teens have used the app [4], and 70% of TikTok users are teens [3]. The platform features user-generated content in the form of videos up to 1 minute long. These videos can be layered with text, hashtags, images, effects, memes, and music. The app is often known for its skit videos, dancing, and lip syncing [5], although it is also used for many

Data collection

For 65 days, Author 1 tracked top TikToks on trending COVID-relevant hashtags (n = 2,675 total TikToks; 529 distinct TikToks). Data collection spanned March 17 to May 20, 2020. The week of March 17 marked widespread dismissals from in-person schooling across the U.S.: by the end of the week, 43 states in the U.S. (as well as Washington D.C. and most U.S. territories) had ordered or recommended school closures [22]. The aim was to identify and track trending TikTok content related to the

What was featured

Posts most frequently featured commentary on and/documentation of circumstances related to Pandemic Life (n = 344, 65.03%). Pandemic Life TikToks were similarly prevalent in Months 1 and 2, although as described below, subthemes within the Pandemic Life category shifted. Trending TikToks also explicitly promoted public health messages and/or information sharing (Health-Promoting Practices; n = 58, 10.96%). Others, in contrast, featured Risky or Concerning Health Practices (n = 13, 2.46%); these

Discussion

The objective of this study was to document trending TikTok content during and related to a major public health event: the COVID-19 pandemic. The results build on prior preliminary studies of trending COVID-related TikToks [2,15], replicating key findings while providing a fuller picture of relevant content over an extended period.

Commentary about Pandemic Life—documented as the largest category of observed posts in both this study and Ostrovsky and Chen's study—comprised more than half of each

Conclusion

The global COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by heightened, compensatory use of social media apps because of social distancing and shelter-in-place orders. Data reveal that on TikTok, a platform heavily used by teens, public health information coexists with copious casual commentary and showcasing of everyday life during the pandemic. The prominence of this documentation suggests uses of social media for connection and common humanity during a novel time of distancing and isolation. In

Author Biographical Notes

Z.S.U. is a high school senior in New York. She conducted her first study of youth social media use at age 16 years. A year later, when her school closed due to COVID-19, she began tracking TikTok posts about the pandemic. Her project evolved to an original study (under mentorship of Drs. E. Weinstein and C. James) later submitted for national science talent competitions. She is an aspiring social scientist, a New York Civil Liberties Union Student ambassador, and a nationally ranked squash

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Carrie James for her feedback on this article and prior guidance on study design and analyses.

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    Conflicts of interest: The authors do not have any conflicts of interest to report.

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