Ghost TikTok Trend

About

The Ghost TikTok Trend is a social game where TikTokers draw over people who are not in their lives anymore to make them look like ghost people, keeping them anonymous. It started in early 2022 when videos and photographs of people were covered by black-and-white ghost line drawings.

Origin

On January 11th, 2022, TikToker^[1] v1crb posted a video that used Yung Lean's song "Agony" and showed videos from her past of vital memories with people not a part of her life anymore. It's unclear whether this was due to death or a falling-out. Over the course of seven months, the video received roughly 1.6 million plays and 449,500 likes (shown below).

Spread

On January 30th, 2022, TikToker^[2] buscany2 uploaded a similar video but only comprised of photos, wherein, she drew over the lost people in her life. She wrote in the video's description, "ghost trend but w people that arent in my life anymore🙃," and over the course of six months, it received roughly 91,600 plays and 8,900 likes (shown below, left). On January 31st, 2022, TikToker^[3] reaprater posted a TikTok comprised of videos, also calling it, "The ghost trend of ppl I'm not close with anymore & miss," and earning roughly 1 million plays and 191,700 likes in six months (shown below, right).

The trend continued into mid-2022 as the videos gained more engagement. They mostly used photographs rather than videos due to the ease of drawing over a photograph on apps like Snapchat or Photoshop. For instance, on March 30th, 2022, TikToker^[4] madisontang posted a video that received roughly 3.6 million plays and 825,100 likes in five months (shown below, left). On July 26th, 2022, TikToker^[5] dariavodka added to the trend with a video that received roughly 1 million plays and 265,700 likes in six days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References