So after 48 hours, my daughter’s Tik Tok has 400,000 views and 90,000 likes

She’s 13, and I’m sort of really impressed.

She’s wearing a rainbow outfit (think Mork from Ork... suspenders and all) doing a quick dance to a popular song.

She’s getting tons of positive comments, and I think a lot of people might think she is gay, which she has a transgender friend, but she does not seem to be wired that way.

Wife has no clue, and I’m really impressed she wanted to talk about it over dinner.

I know this is dicey, but my wife and I have raised a very confident kid. People, of course, have said negative things to her and she could give two shits. We did talk about reporting people who cross a line, but, shit, she might be up to 500,000 by time she goes to sleep tonight at 11.

 

Crazy what blows up on there. I have posted a few, nothing really caught on. One of my coworkers posts some kind of bizarre videos. One recently caught fire to the time of 84.4K views. It was about a replacement for a ratty pair of shoes. That was probably 10X the views for her other videos combined.

 

The viral phenomenon would be a really interesting thing to study, from a cultural scientist's point of view. What exactly is the trigger mechanism that makes a particular piece of content go viral?

Turner Sports hired a social media team at one point in an attempt to quantify what posts might go viral, and they had no more success over the long term than a gambler playing 21 at a casino. Sure, anything with Tiger Woods or a hole-in-one was pretty easy to post, but Jordan Spieth signing golf balls handed to him by kids under a fence at Whistling Straits was far and away the top post of the PGA Championship weekend that year, and I just happened to find the picture unusual and put a catchy caption on it.

To steal from William Goldman, anybody who tells you they know what's going to trend before it happens is selling something.

 

I’m thinking song, tags and topic get the ball started. I’m also guessing her clothes are unique and got attention as well.

 

This video upped her followers by 5,000 at this point. That’s nowhere near anything needed and she is not eager to do another one soon. She does maybe one a month, so doing this professionally is not something she strives for.

She did noticed a verified account liked it and a gotcha is starting to be made, and those two things really excited her.

At 10 last night she saw up to 430,000 views and 100,000 likes.

 

Was that her first post or one of her first posts?

Tiktok basically throws new users a bone and makes one of their first videos go viral, with the idea being that helps hook you into the platform.

 

This is news to my and several of my friends' first few TikToks.

 

I'd heard they do from multiple people. Couldn't find an article in a search, but here's a Reddit thread, FWIW.

 

OK, I can buy that guy's reasoning -- not that it makes it go viral but that it boosts your first video. My most viewed video is my 11th by far, but it is also one I duetted with perhaps the most popular TikTok video at the time.

 

Good on Scoutlet for not giving a damn what other people think. I'm still a little envious of people who can carry that attitude through life. Kudos to Scout and Mrs. Scout for raising a confident kid! <3

There are social science inquiries going on. One of my former classmates has a graduate assistant who is in some sort of ACM/Cooperative thing with the people who did studies on Second Life, The Well, Table Talk, and a few other communities from the previous e-generation. I asked Faith for her impressions, and she said it was a spectator sport for her. She gets more excited over Sahlins/Harris/other old-school-type studies about diet and adaptation. Sorry I can't add more. One thing that delights me is these virtual environments are called "ecologies."

 

Instilling confidence into your daughter is great, but I hope you're also relaying the potential dangers of her going "viral:" stalkers, simps, creeps, and people wanting to take monetary advantage of her if she continues to create popular content.