What I learnt from Tiktok?

During the pandemic, I started to follow TikTok. It was the first social media platform where I could not become a real content producer. However, it has become a good venue to follow so much stuff and popular trends I would miss otherwise. A few days ago, I thought, why not list what I have seen in the last couple of years while I was watching TikTok videos?

I follow pro-Palestine rallies all over the world. I have discovered two old pro-Palestine songs. “Rossa Palestina”  and more popular one: Leve Palestina

I had heard Sinan Ateş’s name a few days before he was assassinated while I watched promotional videos about him. I remember checking on Google to see who he was. Then, a few days later, I saw the news.

Again, I saw the gang members’ videos about the 6 Turkish gang members killed in Greece.  The rival gang was sharing victorious videos, and it took some time to understand what happened. I could say that news emerged later than these videos again. I learned so much about new gangs in Turkey that I ended up making a mapping of it.

I followed the 2020 wave of Black Lives Matter protests triggered by the killing of George Floyd on TikTok.

I followed overwhelming amount of raw video footage from 2023 Turkey earthquakes.

Worker comedy performances. (Or this one)

I may have listened to it before but Boney M and its songs such as Rasputing now are in my playing lists thanks to Tiktok.

I have learned about jumpstyle (like this), I have seen this fantastic Arabic performance but  Kurdish tiktokers soon declared that it was originally a Kurdish song.

I was once obssessed with Haka dance performances.

Alevite semahs, (or this one), interesting tariqah performances, , Jewish dance parties (!)

This Indian self-help (!) guy

HKP leader got his fame for a moment. More than his party could ever gather that much of sympathy.

This French dancing activist woman, (or here)

This Arab wedding photographer.