Still, the algorithm continued to be wonky through the week, and I began to wonder what culture might look like without TikTok. Whether you spend time on the app or not, much of the content you consume, the headlines you read, the trends you see, and even the things you buy are because of TikTok. Of course, “the zeitgeist” existed long before... See more

Overconsumption didn’t begin with social media or TikTok, but it did get a turbocharge from these platforms with a vested interest in our shopping habits. Creators, brands, and advertisers have known it for a while, but now it feels unignorable from the audience’s perspective: There are vanishingly few ways to be online that don’t involve you... See more

More than any other generation, Gen Z uses TikTok as a search engine—making social media their primary tool for researching products online.