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Why the Heck am I on TikTok???

2021-10-05 · list · Hank · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: Personal essay · tags: calendar ritual, self promotion, community lore

On Pizzamas, Hank asks why he has posted several TikToks a day since May 2020 and gives five reasons beyond promoting his novel, Socks and Pizzamas: cultural interest, inspiration, his life's work understanding creators, liking attention, and helping people get curious, while saying TikTok is limited and Vlogbrothers unlike anywhere else.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Happy Pizzamas and the shirt; joining TikTok in May 2020; promoting his second novel, Socks and Pizzamas

  • ★★ Hank wishes John a happy Pizzamas and shows his shirt with little slices of pizza, John's face and the word pizza: a little warm, but perfect. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Pizzamas, John Green
  • ★★ Hank says that in May 2020 someone told him TikTok is pretty cool; very soon he was uploading several TikToks a day, and over a year later he still is. — 00:00:00 · TikTok
  • ★ Hank asks whether it is strategy, chasing dopamine, or courting Gen Z so he will be their preferred Jeopardy host in 2040, and answers: all of those things. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank joined TikTok shortly before his second novel came out and used it to promote the book, unashamed of using his social media skill for work he thinks many people should read. — 00:00:00 · A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, social media, TikTok

00:00:49 — Five reasons Hank is on TikTok

  • ★★ Hank also uses TikTok to promote the Awesome Socks Club and Pizzamas shirts, both of which help build the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone. — 00:00:49 · Awesome Socks Club, Pizzamas, Maternal Center of Excellence, Sierra Leone, TikTok
  • ★★ Reason one: TikTok is culturally interesting; Hank loves subcultures, and TikTok is great at tiny subcultures, especially colliding ones like Skyrim urban planning berries-and-cream videos. — 00:00:49 · Berries and cream, TikTok
  • ★★★ Hank is interested in how communities behave and grow when given great tools; TikTok is a great tool, terrifying too, but still fascinating and fun. — 00:01:18 · TikTok
  • ★★ Reason two: TikTok is inspiring; its creation tools are good, and more importantly it is a very creative community begging you to make content for it. — 00:01:18 · TikTok
  • ★★ Hank says TikTok's discovery system is better than other platforms at lifting good content that would go unnoticed; not certainly, but with a higher chance, and great work inspires more. — 00:01:18 · recommender system, TikTok
  • ★★★ Reason three: understanding internet creators, how creative people survive, why they make things and how they make a living, has been his life's work, through DFTBA, VidCon and Complexly. — 00:01:47 · DFTBA Records, VidCon, Complexly
  • ★★ Hank is not ready to let something as important as TikTok happen outside his notice. — 00:02:16 · TikTok
  • ★★ Reason four: honestly, Hank likes the attention and immediate positive feedback on what he makes, because he is human, and this human in particular. — 00:02:16
  • ★★★ Reason five: Hank loves seeing people get curious about their world; TikTok reaches people he otherwise can't, and he loves being there when they first meet the universe's weirder ways. — 00:02:16 · curiosity, TikTok

00:03:01 — TikTok's limits and potential harm; Vlogbrothers unlike any other place; the music interrupts

  • ★★★ Hank recognizes TikTok is a very limited tool at the very beginning of its existence, with a long way to go before we understand what it is and all the harm it can do. — 00:03:01 · TikTok
  • ★★★ Hank says TikTok doesn't scratch the itches YouTube does, especially Vlogbrothers, which is unlike any other place on the internet, and that is not just nostalgia for 2007. — 00:03:01 · YouTube, Vlogbrothers, TikTok
  • ★★ Mid-sentence about Vlogbrothers, Hank is interrupted by music: 'why is there music playing?', the Pizzamas joke that leads into his dance break. (playful) — 00:03:01 · Pizzamas

00:03:48 — Pizzamas dance break and sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★ In a comment Hank says the music joke is one he uses only once a year, and it is nice that people like it. — creator comment
  • ★★ The description says Hank doesn't claim a healthy relationship with any of this, but the world changes so fast he wants to stay aware of it, at least for now; ignoring it won't help. — video description · TikTok
  • ★★ The description says Pizzamas products are on sale only during Pizzamas and never again, with all proceeds going to charity. — video description · Pizzamas

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: curiosity · TikTok

Also: Projects: Awesome Socks Club · Complexly · DFTBA Records · Pizzamas · VidCon

Works: A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor · Jeopardy! · The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Organizations: Maternal Center of Excellence · YouTube

Groups: Generation Z

Concepts: creator economy · dopamine · nostalgia · recommender system · social media · subculture · urban planning

Places: Sierra Leone

Memes: Berries and cream

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