It's Been One Heck Of A Week On TikTok

Over the last week on TikTok, randonauts found human remains, an anthropomorphized Burlington Coat Factory launched a new trend and TikTokers messed with their relationships.

Months ago it became clear that the Summer of 2020 was going to be an enormous sh*tshow and if TikTok is any indication it's just going to get weirder. This scorcher of a week brought the usual basic dance trends and DIY videos to the platform, along with dimension hoppers and those who pretend to be Aldi supermarkets while screaming at their friends "take me with you!"

Randonauts Take Over

Looking for an ingenious or disturbing way to entertain yourself while social distancing? Become a randonaut. Those who have joined this growing community participate in location scouting determined by coordinates selected by random number generating techniques in order to find personal life synchronicities with an intention in mind. For TikTokers, this typically translates to driving around in a car and screaming about a variety of perceived coincidences.

This week, TikTokers uploaded thousands of short videos about their randonauting trips. Some were sweet, some were spooky and one, in particular, was downright horrible. A group of teens were guided by the Randonautica app to a suitcase filled with human remains. Did this deter future TikTok randonauts? Of course, it didn't. We will definitely be seeing more of these throughout the summer.

Black Lives Matter

Following the Death of George Floyd, Gen Z has flooded the #ForYou page with videos supporting protestors, exposing racial injustice and celebrating Black lives and this week is no different. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, created by three Brooklyn women during the protests following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2013, is alive and well on the platform. Last month, TikTokers created the #ImBlackMovement to spread awareness for Black Creators on the app and this month Black TikTokers and allies are continuing to raise awareness in unique ways.

Don't Leave Me! Take Me With You!

Meanwhile, TikTokers have been working on their puns as well. A very silly trend called Don't Leave Me / Take Me With You started by a Nigerian comedian @Josh2Funny on Instagram had TikTokers in stitches and creating their own variations of the original video. These dad-joke-level videos typically feature one person making a wordplay joke with a prop then running away while the person filming yells "Don't leave me!" and "Take me with you!" Believe me, it's a lot funnier than it sounds.

You Could Have Been Nicer To Me Today

This quarantine has significant others on edge! If spending every waking moment inside with your partner wasn't enough, now we've added TikTok trends to challenge the stability of relationships. Many TikTokers have been, recording their partners reacting to them doing ridiculous things like walking into the room naked or straight-up wacking them with a bag. This week, there was the Nicer To Me Today Challenge where a TikToker films their unsuspecting partner reacting to the statement "I feel like you could have been nicer to me today." It's messed up.

The Alt and Retail Corner of TikTok

There's an "alternative" space on TikTok were people create absurd content with seemingly no rhyme or reason. It's a confusing space but it's a unified space typically marked by the hashtag #AltTikTok, deep-fried images and ear rape sound clips. This week, Retail TikTok was birthed. Parody TikTok accounts and ironic videos that anthropomorphizing retail chain stores with emoji eyes and lips are becoming a large subgenre of Alt TikTok. The ironic mess of videos was started after a Burlington Coat Factory parody TikTok account began uploading memes but kept with the theme of the store brand. It's strange, but it truly fits in with the Summer 2020 vibe.