How Chasing ‘That Authentic TikTok Look’ Could Be the Gateway Drug to Genuine #Socialchange

Image credit: Clay Banks via Unsplash

“Just be you!” That’s TikTok’s sacred mantra. ‘Authentic expression’ is the name of its game. In a world of insta-perfection, TikTok is lo-fi, spontaneous and real. But if everyone is being lo-fi, spontaneous and real, how can you tell who’s authentically ‘authentic’ from who are just copying the ‘lo-fi, spontaneous reality’ look to get likes and follows?

Picture the problem. You see through the try-hard fashionistas to be authentically #Normcore. But everyone else bundles onto the beige bandwagon and suddenly you’re the thing you were rejecting. So you move on to critique people’s ‘perfect me’ presentations by opening up your vulnerability with #CryingGirl. But then crying vogues and you can’t scroll for crocodile tears. So you turn your back on approval-seeking and embrace your #Toxic dark side. Until #Toxic traits become a thing and everyone is claiming one.

It’s ever been thus. Trend setters in every field are constantly racing to keep ahead of the chasing pack. TikTok just makes it clear that #Authenticity is a trend just like everything else. It always has been. Prog Rock excesses begat Punk’s raw nihilism which begat the New Romantic’s sophistication… Each inflection point reflects a critique of the past and an attempt to find an new, authentic form of expression for the future. 

TikTok’s innovation lies in its pace of change. Authentic expression in the past required a greater lifestyle commitment - you wore the clothes, listened to the music, went to the club, etc… The trend hung around, got lived-in and had time to deepen into ‘subculture’ before the ‘new new’ blew it away. TikTok is turbo-charging the pace of the #Authenticity trend cycle. And in doing so, it’s making the conversation more self-referential. Punk was born of late-’70s economic decline and political instability as Britain came to the end of the ‘post war consensus’. The New Romantics gave voice to the Yuppie materialism and optimism of boom time mid-’80s. #Authenticity doesn’t have time to absorb, digest and reflect as much of the wider cultural context. New pushes reflexively against old. Old is rejected purely on account of it becoming too popular and therefore by definition slipping from ‘authentic’ to ‘bandwagon’.

While this dynamic may seem superficial for lacking ‘lived depth’, the engine of this ongoing cultural revolution has the potential to be more subversive. In the ‘attention economy’, Twitter’s currency is ‘conflict’. Twitter’s economic logic manifests in an algorithm and culture that surfaces antagonism and divisiveness as the path to maximise attention. TikTok’s currency is ‘authentic expression’. TikTok’s economic logic manifests in an algorithm and culture that suppresses trends once they become the mainstream and surfaces alternative trends from the margins until they become the new normal. On the face of it, TikTok is in a state of perpetual war against entrenched privilege on behalf of minorities. Viva la revolution.

So how does this actually play out? How does ‘authentic expression’ fight the gravitational pull and power of mainstream approval? On sign-up your TikTok feed is filled with good-looking girls in skimpy outfits. No judgement per se, just to say ‘authentic expression’ here means a sexy new dance rather than a new take on sexuality. And it’s all clearly intended to gain approval from conventional male tastes. No challenge to the patriarchy.

‘Vulnerability’ trends such as #NoMakeUp, #CryingGirl, #Toxic are intended to push back on unrealistic ‘perfectionist’ standards, especially for women. There is definite power in this ‘authentic expression’ making visible things which have previously been taboo. It gives people permission to say the unsayable or at least see it being said and therefore normalised i.e. how bad they’re feeling #CryingCirl or opening up about their bad sides #Toxic. However once these trends become mainstream and therefore potentially effective in challenging dominant ways of thinking, they are all too easily subverted by convention e.g. vulnerability becomes humbragging where gorgeous women post gorgeous #NoMakeUp TikToks with self-deprecating captions that only serve to make ‘normal’ women feel even worse that their ‘best’ can’t compete with others’ ‘worst’. 

There is a lot more to say about this, but most of what passes for ‘authentic expression’ on TikTok is simply changing the wrapping on mainstream values. Conventionally attractive white men and women are hoovering up the lion’s share of likes. After all, TikTok is about mass-market entertainment rather than revolution. Ultimately the algorithm chases approvals and the establishment always has numbers on its side. 

Is this to give up on TikTok’s potential to deliver meaningful change? No, we just need to see ‘authentic expression’ through a creator rather than an audience lens. TikTok is ‘the last sunny corner of the internet’ because the celebration of ‘authentic expression’ creates a culture that is supportive of people’s efforts to ‘be creative’ - it encourages people to give it a go. And the process of ‘doing different’, starting new trends and seeing them become mainstream - however limited in ambition - is proof positive that we have agency. It shows us we can make ‘change’ happen. These cultural foundations to TikTok are not present in other social media platforms. TikTok itself may have limited impact in social transformation, but it could be the gateway drug to trying.