Scarcity Status versus Abundance Status (Gift Culture Part 3)

TikTok is a fascinating mix of both gift culture and flex culture. There’s certainly an element of gift culture to TikTok: people dedicate so much of their time to making content for others’ pleasure, and your fame increases by how much of that entertainment you’ve successfully ‘given away’. But at the end of the day, it’s also about being beautifu... See more

TikTok feels like such a hit to me because it’s nailed the dynamic between online scarcity and online abundance really well. It is a gift culture hybrid model: the status economy of TikTok runs on what you’re owed, and what you’ve given away. But your ability to give something valuable away in the first place often falls back on scarcity and flex c... See more

From a status standpoint, TikTok’s social status currency is outcompeting everyone else right now. On the surface, it’s because TikTok’s users are engaging in a lot of high-status, high-engagement behaviour that’s entertaining and valuable. But deep down, none of that behaviour is new. It’s TikTok’s technology, completely below the waterline, that’... See more