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Vielen Dank. Wir melden uns. #socialmediamanager #meeting #bewerbungstipps

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@dlfnova
Vielen Dank. Wir melden uns. #socialmediamanager #meeting #bewerbungstipps
♬ Originalton - Deutschlandfunk Nova

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Krawall Klara / Rechtsexremistische Memes

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Krawall Klara / Rechtsexremistische Memes

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Let me know wenn ihr mehr über rechte Radikalisierungstaktiken wissen wollt && Quellen wie immer in der Bio!  #deutschland #meme #politiktok #feminismus

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@krawallklara
Let me know wenn ihr mehr über rechte Radikalisierungstaktiken wissen wollt && Quellen wie immer in der Bio! #deutschland #meme #politiktok #feminismus
♬ Originalton - krawallklara

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@emmanuelmacron

♬ son original - Emmanuel Macron

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What's Poppin? With Davis! (@whatspoppinshow) TikTok | Watch What's Poppin? With Davis!'s Newest TikTok Videos

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What's Poppin? With Davis! (@whatspoppinshow) on TikTok | 128M Likes. 1.9M Fans. Annoying strangers every day ✨ 📧 whatspoppin@fallenmedia.com

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This story is part of a group of stories called

Akili Moree loves a good mystery. Nothing triggers his curiosity more than the social media presence of celebrities, influencers, and major brands. What, he wonders, are these posts and their aesthetics trying to subtly (or not so subtly) convey? What do these online personas reveal? Under the username @cozyakili, Moree, a Northwestern University junior, has cultivated a budding reputation on TikTok as a shrewd commentator on culture and celebrity.

One of Moree's most-viewed videos explores the notion of " poverty cosplay," or wealthy people's adoption of working-class aesthetics and attitudes. He points to Kim Kardashian's post of Ye and her son Saint in a dark, sparsely decorated apartment; Timothée Chalamet's photo of a Cup Noodles meal; and Golden Goose's new-but-dirty shoe design as examples.

These TikToks are akin to an informal crash course on Instagram semiotics. They typically abide by an analogous visual format: screenshots of posts from recognizable figures, overlaid with a line of bold sans-serif text and Moree's talking head. It's his ability to concisely define enigmatic online phenomena, from " casual Instagram" to " vibe shifts, " that captivates viewers. Moree tries to offer what he calls "an objective opinion" in his videos, while fully acknowledging that the notion of objectivity is contrary to personal opinion.

This style of commentary is gaining prominence among TikTok creators - influencers, trend forecasters, armchair media pundits, and celebrity analysts, to name a few. These "analysis creators" are a marked departure from the earliest days of the app when content was short, simple, and straightforward. Dance challenges, theatrical lip-syncs, and quippy comedy bits were once all condensed into 15-second clips. There was literally no time for theorizing. As TikTok allowed users to upload lengthier videos (now up to 10 minutes long), its algorithmic preferences have also shifted.

"We're starting to see a distinction between the creators who know how to edit and keep their audience engaged, versus those who got lucky off of TikTok's algorithm," said Alessandro Bogliari, CEO of the Influencer Marketing Factory, an agency that connects brands to creators. "It used to be that you just had to dance or lip-sync really well for 30 seconds. That's no longer enough."

My For You page has of late become a conveyor belt of analysis and commentary videos seeking to summarize, predict, or investigate the zeitgeist. They are a fraction of the length of YouTube video essays but constructed with a similar critical and intellectual bent. These ideas are not always groundbreaking or original, and the quippy and digestible presentation style is uniquely suitable for an audience with a limited attention span. This content is not limited to TikTok, of course. Analysis creators have expanded to podcasts, newsletters, and even video essays. Consider it the opposite of pathos-posting, or posting solely based on the emotional resonance of a topic. Instead, these formulated theories are crafted with a careful analytical approach and delivered with some removed authority from the subject matter.

Take, for example, the West Elm Caleb debacle in late January that led to a viral blitz of social media outrage. The incident involved a 25-year-old man named Caleb, who was accused by various TikTok users of serially dating multiple women in New York City - which, mind you, is not a crime, but a romantically dubious and shady endeavor. While many people hopped on the Caleb cancellation train, some saw the opportunity to provide level-headed commentary on the unfolding mess. Rayne Fisher-Quann, a 20-year-old culture critic and writer, outlined the viral condemnation of Caleb and its feminist implications in a 2,000-word newsletter, while documenting her brainstorm and writing process via TikTok.

This type of meta-commentary allows creators to engage with - and reap the benefits of - online discourse without setting off opinion-laden landmines. The ideological crux of such content is logic (or the guise of it, at least) and evidence-based observation, rather than unfiltered hot takes. Depending on the topic at hand, creators also don't have to divulge much detail about their personal lives or moral beliefs. It instead becomes an avenue to demonstrate one's intellectual authenticity or observational authority. It is an unofficial pipeline to thought-influencing that has given rise to a cottage industry of informal TikTok commentators and influencer-like analysts. The platform's interface already encourages this participatory exchange, wherein users riff off existing theories and observations to form their own conclusions.

"When you're on TikTok, you don't want to see news anchors or expert sources explaining a situation," said Sam Ayele, an internet meme researcher and PhD student at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca in Italy. "You want to hear different opinions from sources you can trust and relate to. I think TikTok users like to live vicariously through the perspectives and experiences of others."

Many factors may have contributed to this pivot: an adverse reaction to the mindless doom-scroll, the urge to make sense of current events, and the ever-increasing, muddied pace of the news cycle and online discourse that powers the attention economy. Ayele points to the drama-laden breakdown of beauty YouTube as a case study for this shift in audience interest, which coincided with the rise of skin care influencer Hyram Yarbro, whose approach is entertaining, relatively noncontroversial, and informational.

"I think TikTok users like to live vicariously through the perspectives and experiences of others"

Social norms have also shifted. Compulsive, self-entitled posting sprees are now more widely frowned upon, even as a coping mechanism to global disaster and tragedy. (See: a recent Atlantic article with the headline "You Don't Need To Post About Every Tragedy.") Audiences seem to expect a value-add to what they consume - content that doesn't singularly revolve around the creator, but engages with and elucidates the world writ large.

Analysis videos satisfy that itch on an intellectual and potentially neurological level. Humans' brains, some more so than others, have a tendency to derive meaning or see connections and patterns in events where there may be none. We are, as Katy Waldman has written in Slate, "keen to organize jumbled sensory inputs into meaningful data."

As the public grows more attuned to the kayfabe of celebrity and fame, pop culture and media commentators have naturally thrived in this space. "There is a seductive quality to making connections about things, especially with topics or celebrities that people already care about," said MJ Corey, the psychotherapist behind Kardashian Kolloquium, a digital compendium on the Kardashians. "Making connections feels really good. It can give you a dopamine rush."

Corey began synthesizing her Kardashian-related research and observations on Instagram in 2018. She maintains that she was never a fan, but became an engrossed observer of the show and the family's uncanny behaviors. When she joined TikTok in 2021, her accounts started to gain a shocking amount of traction. Her timing coincided with the Kardashians' heightened media activity, stemming from the show's final season and the divorce proceedings between Kim and Kanye West.

"People want to find meaning in the runoff that mass media throws at us, and this trend of intellectual analysis is important," Corey said. "bell hooks taught us that with her cultural criticism. On the other hand, I've noticed that analysis can masquerade as a seemingly more moral or righteous way to engage with pop culture."

"People want to find meaning in the runoff that mass media throws at us"

When discussing pop culture, fashion, or social media, the stakes seem much lower for entry and even error. Some creators attempt to detach themselves from their analyses while limiting how much they share about their offline lives. "It's a means of cultivating a personal brand without having to go the typical influencer route with sharing your outfit or meals of the day," said Biz Sherbert, a writer and host of Nymphet Alumni, a podcast that analyzes internet-based aesthetics. For Sherbert, who has created fashion TikToks as @bimbotheory, the format allowed her to identify and riff on trends without centering her personality or style.

These topics have also long been disregarded as frivolous and feminized, and assumed to have less direct bearing on people's lives than, say, politics or personal finance. To that end, the application of academic language and highbrow concepts helps elevate the pop culture discourse, imbuing it with seemingly greater significance.

Corey often references published academic studies, media theory, and criticism to validate her assertions, like works by Jean Baudrillard, Marshall McLuhan, and other contemporary researchers and critics. Her goal, she said, "is to proceed with intellectual integrity" and prioritize a research-oriented approach. "It can be empowering and fun to reclaim academic language, but it's important to recognize that certain words have context, history, and meaning," Corey said. "We should be wary of undermining that cultural authority."

With more creators producing this type of content, Corey has seen more "camp interpretations of theory," wherein users and creators are casually deploying academic phrases in all sorts of contexts, even fashioning their own buzzwords. These terms aren't always academic; some are borrowed from advertisers, marketers, and even therapists (which is uniquely concerning).

"There's something very attractive about these exotic-sounding terms that creators use when talking about pop culture," Sherbert said. "These words are fun and smart to toss around. They add to that visual picture in your head of an idea or a trend."

Phrases like " hyperreality" and " domestic cozy" offer textual specificity to vague, previously nameless phenomena that users have experienced or witnessed online. This practice is more common among consumer-oriented trend forecasters and fashion analysts, who are in the habit of identifying new fads and styles. Still, Corey is wary of the potential for over-interpretation - the tendency to inject meaning or narrative into events where there are none. Creators are constantly under pressure to churn out content, and that impulse can beget theories that are not well-researched, thoughtfully produced, or factual.

"There is a fine line between critical thinking and conspiratorial thinking," Corey said. "I try to be mindful of that." In reality, it's more of a slippery slope, as certain analytical skills or traits are often deployed to give backbone to unsubstantiated theories and opinions. This sort of thinking is common within fandoms and insular online communities who blindly "stan," or support, certain figures. Taylor Swift fans, for example, are notorious for concocting theories about hidden messages and clues in her lyrics, music videos, and promotional materials, but these conspiratorial observations are rarely considered nefarious.

Moree thinks that's an important distinction. "There is actual misinformation that can cause direct violence against a group of people, or lead people to do or believe things that are unhealthy or harmful," he said. "With celebrities, most of the things I discuss are my own personal theories, even though I try to back them up with facts or evidence. Sometimes I'm wrong, and I'm not afraid to admit that."

Analysis creators straddle the boundaries of an expert figure with the bedside manner of a trusted friend. Their work is a lo-fi performance of knowingness that has newfound relevance in an oversaturated media environment. Some of the best creators are informational synthesizers, able "to stylishly cut through an infinite and rambling internet freighted with big ideas," as Safy-Hallan Farah wrote in TechCrunch, turning "this abundance of information into something generative rather than overwhelming."

This ability can be commercially beneficial, especially for creators who are established in a subculture or niche. For example, Luke Meagher of Haute le Mode, who is known for his well-informed and highly opinionated high-fashion roasts, was sponsored by Valentino last July to create a TikTok explainer on its haute couture collection. Meagher, whose main platform is YouTube, often presents his opinions alongside tidbits of fashion history, so the informative nature of the Valentino ad didn't seem as jarring.

Still, an inherent tension remains. Detachment from the subject at hand becomes nearly impossible when a creator's face is superimposed onto the corner of a video. The creator, as a result, is perceived as a personality, no matter how objective they try to appear. Moree says he wants to sound as "nonjudgmental and precise as possible" with his tone and words, and uses the common "we" so as to not alienate his viewers. Corey withholds any personal opinions she might have about the Kardashians from her audience, and attempts to maintain a journalistic-like neutrality toward the family. But not all creators abide by Moree's and Corey's self-imposed ethics: Some videos are word-for-word recitations of published articles without clear citations or neatly paraphrased summaries of Wikipedia entries.

"We're starting to see creators copy this style of content without doing in-depth research or fact checks," said Bogliari, the Influencer Marketing Factory CEO. "Even though they are coming across as more objective, the impulse is still there for creators to feed into the discourse. Ultimately, it becomes just another trend."

Such is the mimetic nature of TikTok, which replicates a once-novel thing over and over until it devolves into a farcical fad. There is no shortage of events for users to opine about online when "the entire universe comes to unfold arbitrarily on your domestic screen," to quote Baudrillard. And so, any engaged user can easily don the hat of an amateur commentator to profess their ideas and interpretations. As more people hop onto the commentary bandwagon, analysis videos might soon follow the tired trajectory of all TikTok trends. The space could become saturated by all kinds of creators, clamoring to be heard above the noise. "Speech is free perhaps," wrote Baudrillard, "but I am less free than before."

We claim to dread the discourse, but we still tune in anyway. Maybe all that can be done, to maintain a modicum of sanity on the internet, is to derive meaning from this never-ending content mill. What that meaning is will be up for analysis.

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The hottest trend on TikTok? In-depth analysis.

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This story is part of a group of stories called Akili Moree loves a good mystery. Nothing triggers his curiosity more than the social media presence of celebrities, influencers, and major brands. What, he wonders, are these posts and their aesthetics trying to subtly (or not so subtly) convey?

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bimbotheory (@bimbotheory) TikTok | Watch bimbotheory's Newest TikTok Videos

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bimbotheory (@bimbotheory) on TikTok | 963.1K Likes. 41K Fans. fashion theory for the people Watch the latest video from bimbotheory (@bimbotheory).

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internet princess (@raynecorp) TikTok | Watch internet princess's Newest TikTok Videos

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internet princess (@raynecorp) on TikTok | 9.8M Likes. 211.5K Fans. lobotomy bait writer/essayist, bringing blogging back, read my substack

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Guardian Australia (@guardianaustralia) offiziell bei TikTok | Schau dir die neuesten TikTok-Videos von Guardian Australia an

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Guardian Australia (@guardianaustralia) bei TikTok | 6.4M Likes. 169.1K Fans. Fearless, independent news, Aus style! Live news👉theguardian.com/au Bio links👇

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planetmoney (@planetmoney) Official TikTok | Watch planetmoney’s Newest TikTok Videos

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planetmoney (@planetmoney) on TikTok | 12.2M Likes. 681K Fans. you can help support us with a Planet Money+ paid subscription! n.pr/pm-sub

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Mary McGillivray (@_theiconoclass) Official TikTok | Watch Mary McGillivray's Newest TikTok Videos

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Mary McGillivray (@_theiconoclass) on TikTok | 9.3M Likes. 395.6K Fans. talking about images 📍Cambridge, UK

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Abbie Richards 🚫⛳️ (@tofology) Official TikTok | Watch Abbie Richards 🚫⛳️'s Newest TikTok Videos

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Abbie Richards 🚫⛳️ (@tofology) on TikTok | 5.5M Likes. 534.6K Fans. TikTok disinformation and extremism researcher ✨newest study in my linktree✨

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Wir waren undercover bei #Amazon and this is what happened 💔 #AmazonCrime #boycottblackfriday #GreenFriday #BlackFriday #CyberMonday

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@greenpeace.de
Wir waren undercover bei #Amazon and this is what happened 💔 #AmazonCrime #boycottblackfriday #GreenFriday #BlackFriday #CyberMonday
♬ A refreshing song reminiscent of the plateau - Heaven's Bell

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TikTok officiel de Emmanuel Macron (@emmanuelmacron) | Regarde les dernières vidéos TikTok de Emmanuel Macron

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Emmanuel Macron (@emmanuelmacron) sur TikTok | 18.8M j'aime. 2.8M fans. Président de la République française.

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You watch TikToks - - You fast forward through Stories

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This article is part of a series of articles covering produced in collaboration with the Arts & Culture MA concentration at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
* * *

Tara Meagher, a 22-year-old film student, wanted a quarantine pet, but didn't have room for a dog in her small Los Angeles apartment. So she settled for two tree frogs, Sativa and Indica, now the stars of her viral TikTok videos. "I always see them in weird positions in their tank, doing weird things," Meagher said in an interview. "They make me laugh every day." In August, she shared the humor with some seven million viewers, posing Sativa and Indica inside a Victorian dollhouse while playing Dolly Parton's "9 to 5."

Though endangered in real life, frogs might be the internet's most invasive species. Memes from Kermit the frog sipping tea to the pixelated, unicycle-riding frog "Dat Boi" have proliferated on Reddit, Tumblr, and Twitter. Most infamously, the bright green cartoon Pepe the frog spread like a digital plague as a symbol of the far right. But in their most recent online habitat, TikTok, frogs have transcended Pepe's toxic connotations, emerging with cheerful, queer associations instead. For these amphibians, identity is a slippery thing. Maybe that's what makes them such enduring subjects in human culture, from ancient Egyptian fertility gods to latent fairytale princes. As symbols of transformation, frogs are never just one thing. On the internet, they're not even just frogs.

Pepe, who is probably still the best-known internet frog specimen, underwent his own dramatic transformation around 2015. Illustrator Matt Furie originally introduced his bug-eyed, anthropomorphic frog in 2005 as the innocent protagonist of the stoner comic Boys Club. When fans first uploaded the image to online message boards in 2009, Furie didn't object, and when Pepe became a hugely popular meme with his catchphrase "feels good, man," he didn't assert copyright. Then his frog grew warts.

Still from Feels Good Man produced by Ready Fictions and directed by Arthur Jones (image courtesy of Ready Fictions)

"When Pepe became toxic, it was a reaction to social media bringing the general public into the internet," Arthur Jones, who directed the recent Pepe documentary Feels Good Man, said in an interview. As Pepe's popularity crossed over from hardcore internet users to mainstream "normies" and even celebrities, his early fans cruelly asserted their dominance. They re-drew Pepe in Nazi uniform or bombing the Twin Towers, making him politically pestilential. "Pepe images became tools for trolling people on social media, where you could say something that was really offensive, really bigoted, really angry, really threatening - and then you could always step away and be like, 'it's this dumb silly cartoon frog, why are you so triggered by it,'" said Jones. In 2016 and 2017, hate-spewing Twitter users added frog emojis to their bios as a kind of code. The green frog became a swastika with plausible deniability.

The contrast between white nationalist frog Twitter and today's #frogtiktok, then, is almost total. "The negative baggage surrounding Pepe just doesn't exist on TikTok," said Jones. Rather than a dark corner, #frogtiktok is one of Tiktok's most lighthearted and affirming spaces. "There's not just one TikTok - there are hundreds," said Landon Etheridge, 21, whose slow-motion videos of frogs jumping through blades of grass have mesmerized almost a million viewers. Many users divide the app between #straightitktok, its mainstream world of dance and lip-synching videos, and #alttiktok, its weirder in-crowd. "You have to be part of this woke community to find #frogtiktok," Etheridge said. That community is sizable: More than 300 million people have watched videos with the #frogtiktok hashtag.

And that space is queer. In a video posted this summer, Thaddeus Shafer, an actor and comedian who often posts videos as "your nonbinary uncle," explored the intersection between #frogtiktok and #gaytiktok "We all start off here, at straight TikTok," Shafer explains. "Eventually we find gay TikTok, which either puts us in gay boy TikTok, or lesbian TikTok." That inevitably leads to #thirsttraptiktok, #cottagecoretiktok, #stonerwitchtiktok, and #gothtiktok - through a secret passageway to #nonbinarytiktok, and finally, says Shafer, through a portal to "the promised land, #frogtiktok."

The overlap is obvious, but still mysterious, to many of its practitioners. "I don't really know why there's that association," said @thefrogfather, a 20-year-old visual arts student. "It might just be because I'm also LGBT, so those are the people I interact with, that's the content I see.... I draw queer viewers to me."

"I didn't [originally] know that frog TikTok had a gay lean, but I'm happy it does," said Meagher, who calls herself a "lesbian frog dad" on TikTok and has posed Sativa and Indica with a pride flag behind them. "I think that, if I do have a platform that like 50,000 people think is funny enough that they want to see more of, I think it's important for people to know that I'm gay. I want to be putting out stuff that also represents people, even if it is just in the stupid world of #frogtiktok."

Frogs are amorphous by their very nature, and their meanings are necessarily hard to fix. They morph from tadpoles to tetrapods as if evolving before our eyes, then lead double lives on land and water, breathing through their lungs and their skin. That duality could speak to a common queer experience, the way LGBT people must often walk between worlds, while a frog's arc of transformation could stand in for a "coming out" narrative of self-discovery and affirmation. But that same double-nature and queer unfixability that make frogs a legibly queer icon of TikTok also made frogs a useful symbol for the alt-right, who exploited its inherent capacity for double-meaning.

Since the Anti-Defamation League declared Pepe a hate symbol in 2016, Furie has fought to reclaim his character, launching a #savepepecampaign in an attempt to overwhelm negative memes with positive ones. It's been a losing battle for years, but lately with some major victories. He hastarted fighting back in court: Last year, Furie settled a suit with far-right commentator Alex Jones to stop him from using Pepe on posters. This spring, Furie was encouraged to see protestors in Hong Kong use Pepe as a symbol of free speech, reappropriating him once more. The progressive world of #frogtiktok might offer another reason for hope. As Furie says in Feels Good, Man "The positive notion of Pepe is that he can change again." Frogs always do.

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On Twitter, Frogs Were Mostly Nazis, On TikTok, They're Often Queer

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How frogs, more recently seen as a symbol of hate on Twitter, are being queered by TikTok users.

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@judnyk
Ach jo
♬ original sound - Bamboon

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https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/alex-jones-gay-frogs-rant

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Alexander Emerick Jones (* 11. Februar 1974 in Dallas) ist ein US-amerikanischer rechter Radiomoderator, Unternehmer und Verschwörungstheoretiker. Per Online-Marketing vertreibt er Produkte, die zum Teil im Zusammenhang mit den von ihm verbreiteten Verschwörungstheorien stehen. Ab August 2018 wurden seine Kanäle auf mehreren sozialen Plattformen dauerhaft gesperrt.

Jones wuchs in Rockwall, einem Vorort von Dallas, auf. Sein Vater ist Zahnarzt. Nach seinem Abschluss an der Anderson High School im Nordwesten Austins 1993 besuchte er kurz das Austin Community College. Er begann seine Karriere in Austin mit einem Live-Anrufformat im Kabel-TV. Im Jahr 1996 wechselte Jones zum Sender KJFK mit einer Show namens The Final Edition. 1998 veröffentlichte er seinen ersten Film America Destroyed By Design.

Jones war mit Kelly Jones verheiratet, von der er seit 2015 geschieden ist. Dieser Ehe entstammen drei Kinder. 2017 erstritt sich Kelly das Aufenthaltsbestimmungsrecht und nahm die Kinder zu sich.

Im Jahr 1998 suchte Jones Unterstützer für die Errichtung einer Gedenkstätte für Bundesbeamte und Sektenmitglieder, die während der Erstürmung des Hauptquartiers der Sekte Branch Davidians durch die Bundesbehörde ATF in der Nähe von Waco, Texas, getötet worden waren. Diese Bemühungen ließ Jones oft in seine Show einfließen, in der er dann behauptete, dass Koresh und seine Anhänger „friedliche Menschen" gewesen seien, die im Auftrag der Generalbundesanwältin der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, Janet Reno, vom ATF bei der Waco-Belagerung ermordet worden seien. 1999 wurde Jones, zusammen mit Shannon Burke, von den Lesern des Austin Chronicle zum besten Radiomoderator von Austin gewählt. Noch im selben Jahr wurde Jones von KJFK entlassen. Der Betriebsleiter des Senders sagte, dass Jones entlassen wurde, weil seine Ansichten es dem Sender schwer gemacht hätten, die Show der Werbeindustrie zu verkaufen, und weil Jones sich geweigert habe, sein tendenziöses Themenspektrum zu erweitern. Im Frühjahr 2000 war Jones einer der sieben republikanischen Kandidaten für das Repräsentantenhaus von Texas im Wahlkreis 48. Jones erklärte, er würde ein „innenpolitischer Wachhund" sein. Er verwarf seine Kampagne und zog seine Kandidatur im März zurück, als die ersten Umfrageergebnisse darauf hindeuteten, dass er nur geringe Gewinnchancen hatte.

2001 und 2006 wirkte er in zwei Spielfilmen des Regisseurs Richard Linklater als Schauspieler mit. In Waking Life und in A Scanner Darkly - Der dunkle Schirm spielte er wütende Redner, die ihre Ansprachen mit Megafonen in die Straßen brüllen.

Wiederholt geriet Jones in Konflikt mit den Behörden. Am 8. Juni 2006, auf dem Weg zu Dreharbeiten über ein Treffen der Bilderberg-Gruppe in Ottawa, wurde er am Flughafen Ottawa von den kanadischen Behörden festgenommen und ergebnislos verhört und durchsucht. Am 8. September 2007 wurde er in New York City festgenommen, weil er an einer Kreuzung ohne Genehmigung ein Megaphon benutzt hatte.

Zusammen mit Anführern anderer radikaler Gruppen nahm er am 6. Januar 2021 in Washington an dem Sturm auf das Kapitol teil.

Medienunternehmer und Onlinehändler

Jones betreibt eine tägliche Radiosendung, die Website infowars.com sowie den Internet-basierten Fernsehsender prisonplanet.com. Etwa ein Viertel seiner Sendezeit benutzt er für Werbung für DVDs, die er produziert und im Eigenvertrieb vermarktet, sowie insbesondere seine Merchandising-Produkte: Jones vertreibt unter anderem Schusswaffen, Kosmetikprodukte, Potenzpillen und Nahrungsergänzungsmittel; die Einnahmen aus diesem Geschäft machen über zwei Drittel der Gesamteinnahmen seiner Firma aus. Darüber hinaus hat er Medikamente im Angebot, die angeblich das selbstständige Denken fördern oder vor der feminisierenden Wirkung bestimmter Gifte schützen sollen, die seiner Meinung nach von Verschwörern innerhalb der US-Regierung absichtlich freigesetzt werden. Dieses Geschäftsmodell, irrationale Ängste zu schüren und zugleich vermeintliche Gegenmittel zu verkaufen, ist vielfach kritisiert worden. Der amerikanische Politikwissenschaftler Michael Barkun bezeichnet Jones als den „führenden amerikanischen Verschwörungsunternehmer der Gegenwart", der deutsche Amerikanist Michael Butter nennt ihn den „kommerziell erfolgreichsten Verschwörungstheoretiker [...] vermutlich der ganzen Welt".

Die Alex Jones Show wird landesweit vom Genesis Communications Network auf mehr als 60 Mittelwellen- und Ultrakurzwellen-Radiosendern in den Vereinigten Staaten sowie vom Kurzwellendienst WWCR Nashville ausgestrahlt. Seit 2010 kann er auch beim Fernsehsender Russia Today (RT) regelmäßig seine Meinungen verbreiten.

Unter anderem behauptete er regelmäßig, globale Eliten würden eine diktatorische Neue Weltordnung errichten, die US-Regierung sei an den Terroranschlägen vom 11. September 2001 beteiligt gewesen und Barack Obama sei kein geborener US-Bürger, weshalb er von Rechts wegen das Präsidentenamt nicht hätte ausüben dürfen. Außerdem leugnet er die globale Erwärmung und verbreitet Falschinformationen zur COVID-19-Pandemie.

Kündigung von Plattformen in den sozialen Medien und anderen Diensten

Im Juli 2018 sperrte Facebook Jones' persönlichen Account für 30 Tage wegen wiederholter Verstöße gegen die Gemeinschaftsrichtlinien und drohte damit, seine Seite vollständig zu löschen. Jones hatte bis August 2018 einen YouTube-Kanal mit 2,4 Millionen Abonnenten. YouTube löschte im Juli 2018 vier seiner Videos wegen Hassrede und Gefährdung von Kindern. Dies war bereits die zweite Löschung, im Fall einer dritten war eine dauerhafte Sperre des Kanals vorgesehen. Zu dieser kam es Anfang August 2018, nachdem auch Apple fünf von sechs Podcasts mit Texten von Jones aus iTunes entfernt hatte. Nun entfernten neben Facebook und Youtube auch Spotify, Pinterest und Youporn seine Inhalte von ihren Seiten und sperrten seine Accounts mit der Begründung, Jones habe in menschenverachtender Sprache Gewalt verherrlicht und Immigranten, Transgender und Muslime verächtlich gemacht. Das Vorgehen der übrigen Internetkonzerne bezeichnete Jones als „ Zensur". Twitter hatte sich den Sperrungen zunächst nicht angeschlossen. Am 15. August 2018 sperrte auch Twitter Jones' Konto für eine Woche, weil er zu Gewalt angestachelt und damit gegen Unternehmensrichtlinien verstoßen habe. Im September 2018 erfolgte schließlich die dauerhafte Sperre für alle Konten mit Bezug zu Alex Jones und Infowars. Ende September 2018 beendete PayPal die Zusammenarbeit mit Alex Jones.

Jones wird als populistisch, rechtsgerichtet oder rechtsaußen bezeichnet. Er selbst versteht sich als libertär oder paläokonservativ. Er unterstützte 2012 den Präsidentschaftswahlkampf des republikanischen Politikers Ron Paul. Er betont die Notwendigkeit zum Erhalt der in der amerikanischen Verfassung verankerten Rechte wie Meinungsfreiheit oder das Recht auf Waffenbesitz. Diese Werte drohten seiner Meinung nach mit dem USA PATRIOT Act vom Oktober 2001 und dessen Verschärfung im Patriot Act II ausgehöhlt zu werden. Das Massaker an der Sandy Hook Elementary School, bei dem zwanzig Kinder starben, sei in Wahrheit von der damaligen Regierung mit Hilfe von Schauspielern vorgetäuscht worden, um das Recht auf Waffenbesitz einschränken zu können. Diese Behauptungen trugen Jones im Frühjahr 2018 Anzeigen wegen Verleumdung ( defamation) ein - Eltern von sechs in Sandy Hook getöteten Kinder reichten Klage ein. Jones erklärte dazu, er habe „nur die PR und die Debatte über Sandy Hook kritisiert, aber doch recht schnell geglaubt, dass der Massenmord tatsächlich stattgefunden habe, auch wenn dies in der Öffentlichkeit angezweifelt werde". Er wurde in Connecticut wegen seiner Aussagen verurteilt, der Oberste Gerichtshof der Vereinigten Staaten bestätigte das Urteil aus Connecticut im Juni 2021.

Verschwörungstheorien

Jones ist, wie der Schweizer Journalist Roger Schawinski feststellt, „Anhänger aller gängigen Verschwörungstheorien". Zumeist verbreitet er, die demokratisch gewählten Regierungen der USA seien in Wahrheit nur Aushängeschilder und Strohmänner für die wahren Machteliten von Geschäftsleuten, die im Verborgenen daran arbeiten würden, eine „ Neue Weltordnung" zu etablieren. Der Politikwissenschaftler Michael Barkun sieht in dieser immer wiederkehrenden Grundannahme, nichts sei, wie es scheine, und hinter allem stecke eine bedrohliche, geheime Realität, einen typischen Zug von Verschwörungstheorien. In den Interpretationsrahmen dieser „Superverschwörungstheorie" kann Jones, wie Michael Butter schreibt, leicht alle möglichen Ereignisse integrieren, sodass ihm nie der Stoff für seine Sendungen ausgeht. Jones behauptet, die Verschwörer würden regelmäßig unliebsame Mitwisser ermorden lassen, auch er selbst habe zahlreiche Morddrohungen erhalten. Die Frage des BBC-Journalisten David Aaronovitch, warum er denn überhaupt noch am Leben sei („Wenn sie Sie töten wollten, würden sie Sie nicht bedrohen"), ließ er unbeantwortet.

Jones' Elitenkritik an der demokratisch nicht legitimierten Wirtschaftsmacht der Wall Street, der europäischen Finanzwelt und der globalisierten Wirtschaft geht wiederholt nahtlos über in eher religiös oder sittlich begründete Vorwürfe, wenn er denselben Eliten unterstellt, unchristliche, „ kanaanitische" Rituale, sexuelle Ausschweifungen und widernatürliche Praktiken bis hin zu Opferungen von Kindern zu begehen. In diesem Zusammenhang äußerte er sich in Interviews zum Franklin-Cover-Up-Skandal von 1989/1990. Dabei ging es um Vorwürfe des Kindesmissbrauchs mit teilweise satanisch-rituellem Hintergrund gegen US-Politiker, die aber nie nachgewiesen werden konnten. Jones stellte eigene Recherchen über die angebliche Verwendung freimaurerischer Symbole in Washington, D.C., den Bohemian Grove und über die Mitgliedschaft sowohl von Präsident George W. Bush als auch von dessen Herausforderer im Wahlkampf 2004, John Kerry, im Geheimbund Skull & Bones der Yale University an. Auch hier sieht er Anzeichen für eine satanistische Weltverschwörung gegen die USA. Diese Vorstellungen wurzeln nach Ansicht des Sozialpsychologen Jovan Byford in einer sozialkonservativen Agenda und in der Vorstellungswelt des mittelalterlichen Antijudaismus mit seinen Ritualmordvorwürfen. Im Jahr 2002 ließ sich ein 37-jähriger US-Bürger durch Jones' wüste Behauptungen dazu motivieren, schwerbewaffnet auf das Gelände des Bohemian Grove einzudringen, um die rituelle Gewalt zu beenden, die dort angeblich gang und gäbe sei. Die Polizei konnte ihn rechtzeitig festnehmen.

Jones behauptet zudem, Osama bin Laden sei nicht am 2. Mai 2011 getötet worden, sondern bereits lange vorher tot gewesen. Man habe ihn jedoch tiefgefroren, um zu einem geeigneten Zeitpunkt seine Erschießung melden zu können. Jones nimmt für sich in Anspruch, im Juli 2001 die Anschläge vom 11. September 2001 prognostiziert zu haben. Tatsächlich hatte er vor einer Wiederholung des Bombenanschlags von 1993 im Auftrag der Regierung gewarnt. 2011 erklärte er, bereits 2009 den Bankrott der amerikanischen Wirtschaft richtig vorausgesagt zu haben, der jedoch bislang nicht eintrat. Laut dem amerikanischen Religionswissenschaftler David G. Robertson sind Jones' diverse Prophezeiungen seit 1995 im Wesentlichen dieselben geblieben.

Jones ist erklärter Klimaleugner. Die globale Erwärmung hält er für einen Mythos, der von den globalen Eliten erfunden worden sei, um neue Steuern einführen zu können.

Jones gehört zu den prominentesten Vertretern der -Bewegung, die die Legitimität von Obamas Präsidentschaft anzweifelt, da dieser in Wahrheit ein in Kenia geborener Moslem sei. Inspiriert von diesen Verdächtigungen versuchte im November 2011 der psychisch kranke Oscar Ortega, nachdem er Jones' Film The Obama Deception gesehen hatte, den Präsidenten zu erschießen, den er für den Antichrist hielt. Das Attentat scheiterte.

Jones behauptete bis 2016, die US-Regierung bzw. die sie steuernde „Neue Weltordnung" sei im Sinne einer False Flag Operation für die Terroranschläge am 11. September 2001 verantwortlich. Er behauptete zusätzlich, er habe die Anschläge vorhergesagt, tatsächlich aber hatte er nur unspezifisch von einem „zweiten Bombenanschlag von Oklahoma City" gesprochen, den die Regierung angeblich plante. 2007 produzierte er die zweite Ausgabe des verschwörungstheoretischen Films Loose Change. Im Präsidentschaftswahlkampf 2015/16 änderte er seine Meinung zu den Anschlägen. Seitdem stellt Jones nicht mehr die eigene Regierung, sondern Muslime als die Schuldigen dar. Damit passte er sich an den von ihm unterstützten republikanischen Kandidaten Donald Trump an, der behauptet hatte, er habe mit eigenen Augen gesehen, wie Araber in New Jersey den Einsturz der Zwillingstürme bejubelt hätten.

Unterstützung Trumps und Verschwörungstheorien zu Charlottesville

Im amerikanischen Präsidentschaftswahlkampf 2016 stellte sich Jones früh hinter Trump, der auch in seiner Sendung auftrat und sich als Fan zu erkennen gab. Jones begründete dies in seinen Sendungen unter anderem damit, dass Trumps demokratische Rivalin Hillary Clinton ebenso wie sein Vorgänger Obama Dämonen seien, die buchstäblich nach Schwefel röchen; hinter ihnen stünde eine internationale Verschwörung, vor der nur Trump die USA beschützen könne. Jones verbreitete in diesem Zusammenhang auch die Gerüchte über den so genannten Pizzagate-Skandal. Danach sei es im Keller der Washingtoner Pizzeria Comet Ping Pong zu massenhaftem sexuellem Kindesmissbrauch gekommen, auch die Präsidentschaftskandidatin Clinton sei darin verwickelt. Wieder ließ sich einer seiner Hörer dadurch motivieren, schwer bewaffnet den angeblichen Ort der Verbrechen zu stürmen. Keine von Jones' Behauptungen erwies sich als wahr. Nach der Wahl wurde er nach eigenen Angaben von Trump persönlich angerufen, der ihm für seine Hilfe im Wahlkampf dankte. Am 24. März 2017 erklärte Jones auf seiner Website, was er über Comet Ping Pong behauptet hatte, habe auf einem „unzutreffenden Narrativ" beruht, und entschuldigte sich bei Inhaber und Angestellten.

Nach dem Rechtsradikalen-Aufmarsch in Charlottesville im August 2017 äußerte er, jüdische Schauspieler wären als Ku-Klux-Klan-Demonstranten verkleidet durch die Stadt marschiert, um Zusammenstöße zu provozieren. Nachdem ein rassistisch motivierter Attentäter im August 2019 in El Paso (Texas) 22 Menschen erschossen hatte, mutmaßte Jones auf infowars.com, da das Massaker ja nur den „liberalen Eliten" nutze, könne wohl der „ Deep state " dahinter stecken.

Jones verbreitet Falschinformationen zur COVID-19-Pandemie. So bestreitet er die Existenz des neuartigen Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, das die Pandemie auslöste. Dies sei ein „Schwindel". Im März 2020 hatte er noch versichert, eine von ihm vertriebene Zahnpasta wirke zuverlässig als Virostatikum gegen alle SARS-Corona-Viren („kills the whole SARS-corona family at point-blank range"). Letitia James, Attorney General des Staates New York untersagte ihm, diese Behauptungen zu wiederholen.

Am 14. November 2020 trat er in Washington beim Million MAGA March auf, einer Großdemonstration von Trump-Anhängern, die den Sieg Joe Bidens bei der Präsidentschaftswahl in den Vereinigten Staaten 2020 für das Ergebnis von Wahlfälschungen halten. Jones kündigte eine „zweite amerikanische Revolution" an, um Trump zu einer weiteren Amtszeit zu verhelfen: „Keine Sorge, Mr. Präsident. Die Kavallerie ist auf dem Weg."

Jones ist ein entschiedener Impfgegner und lehnt jede Impfung gegen das Coronavirus strikt ab. An dieser Ansicht hielt er auch dann noch fest, als Trump im August 2021 erneut öffentlich eine Impfung empfahl und darauf hinwies, dass er selbst (schon im Januar) geimpft worden sei.

Methoden, Stil und Kritik

Jones pflegt einen forschen Stil und ist bekannt für seine emotional geladenen Reden und sein generell leidenschaftliches Temperament, was ihm, zusammen mit seinen Positionen, den Vorwurf fehlender Seriosität eingebracht hat. Seine Kritiker betrachten ihn als reinen Verschwörungstheoretiker, der sich systematisch reißerischer Übertreibungen, Verzerrungen und Angstmache bediene, um ein entsprechendes Publikum zu erreichen und hiervon finanziell zu profitieren. Der Journalist Nick Abbe rechnet Jones zum Umfeld der John Birch Society und versucht am Beispiel von „Alex Jones [aufzuzeigen], der in den USA ein prominentes und umstrittenes Mitglied der ‚truther' ist, [...], wie Informationen - aus zwielichtigen Quellen [z. T. rechtsextremen], lanciert aus einem politisch fragwürdigen Umfeld - gefiltert werden." Von verschiedener Seite wurde Jones' Webseiten vorgeworfen, Fake News zu verbreiten.

Die Frage, inwieweit Jones an die von ihm verbreiteten Verschwörungstheorien selber glaubt, wurde im April 2017 im Zusammenhang mit einem Prozess um das Sorgerecht für seine drei Kinder öffentlich diskutiert. Jones' Ex-Frau argumentierte vor Gericht, seine Wutausbrüche vor der Kamera, seine haltlosen Verdächtigungen und seine Verharmlosung von Trumps sexistischen Äußerungen machten ihn als Erzieher ungeeignet. Jones' Anwälte erwiderten, er sei ein „Aktionskünstler", er spiele in seinen Sendungen nur satirisch zugespitzt eine Rolle, von der man nicht auf sein Alltagsverhalten schließen dürfe. In einem Video auf infowars.com dementierte er diese Argumentation und versicherte sein Publikum seiner vollkommenen Authentizität: „Ich glaube 110-prozentig an das, wofür ich stehe." Seiner Popularität tat diese Widersprüchlichkeit indes keinen Abbruch.

1998: America: Destroyed by Design

1999: Police State 2000

1999: Are You Practicing Communism? (produziert von Mike Hanson)

2000: America Wake Up or Waco

2000: The Best of Alex Jones

2000: Dark Secrets Inside Bohemian Grove

2000: Police State II: The Takeover

2001: Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports: Exposed

2001: 911 The Road to Tyranny: Special Emergency Release

2002: 911 The Road to Tyranny

2002: The Masters of Terror: Exposed

2003: Matrix of Evil

2003: Police State 3: Total Enslavement

2004: American Dictators: Documenting the Staged Election of 2004

2005: Martial Law 9-11: Rise of the Police State

2005: The Order of Death

2006: TerrorStorm: A History of Government-Sponsored Terrorism

2007: Endgame - Blueprint for Global Enslavement

2007: Endgame 1.5

2007: TerrorStorm: A History of Government-Sponsored Terrorism - Second Edition

2007: Loose Change: Final Cut by Dylan Avery (als ausführender Produzent)

2008: The 9/11 Chronicles: Part 1, Truth Rising

2008: Fabled Enemies by Jason Bermas (Produzent)

2009: DVD Arsenal: The Alex Jones Show Vols. 1-3

2009: The Obama Deception: The Mask Comes Off

2009: Fall of the Republic, Vol. 1, The Presidency of Barack H. Obama

2009: Reflections and Warnings: An Interview with Aaron Russo

2010: Police State IV: The Rise Of FEMA

2010: Invisible Empire: A New World Order Defined by Jason Bermas (Produzent)

2010: The Fall of America and the Western World by Brian Kraft (Feature)

2012: New World Order: Blueprint of Madmen

9/11: Descent Into Tyranny. Progressive Press, 2002, ISBN 1-57558-113-2.

(gemeinsam mit John Coleman): Das Komitee der 300: Die Hierarchie der Verschwörer. J.K. Fischer, Gelnhausen 2014, ISBN 3-941956-10-8

1. Scott S. Greenberger: Nine to seek Greenberg's House seat. In: Austin American-Statesman. Gannett, 4. Januar 2000, ISSN 1553-8451, S.B1 (englisch, Online [abgerufen am 22. Januar 2021] Vorschau; Volltext kostenpflichtig).

2. Laura Payton: Bilderberg-bound filmmaker held at airport. (Nicht mehr online verfügbar.) Ottawa Citizen, 8. Juni 2006, archiviert vom am 11. Juni 2006 ; abgerufen am 13. August 2007.

3. Evelyn Finger, Luisa Hommerich, Samiha Shafy, Wolfgang Thielmann: Christentum in den USA - „Jesus rettet!" In: . Nr.3/2021, Januar 2021, S.52 (Online [abgerufen am 16. Januar 2021] kostenpflichtig).

4. Veit Medick: Verschwörungstheoretiker Alex Jones - Der Mann, der Trump die Lügen ins Ohr setzt. In: Spiegel Online. 26. Februar 2017, abgerufen am 13. Juli 2020.

5. "The leading contemporary American conspiracy entrepreneur". Michael Barkun: A Culture of Conspiracy. Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. University of California Press, Berkeley 2013, S. 192.

6. Meike Laaff: Lass das mal die Journalisten machen. Der Fall eines US-Verschwörungstheoretikers zeigt das Dilemma von Internetkonzernen beim Umgang mit Falschinformationen. In: vom 9. August 2018, S. 18.

7. Alex Jones retracts false stories about Chobani in defamation settlement. In: theguardian.com, 17. Mai 2017, Zugriff am 19. August 2017.

8. Nancy L. Rosenblum und Russell Muirhead: A Lot of People Are Saying. The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2019, ISBN 978-0-691-20225-9, S. 54 (abgerufen über De Gruyter Online).

9. Associated Press in Washington: US supreme court denies Alex Jones's appeal in Sandy Hook shooting case. 5. April 2021, abgerufen am 20. Juni 2021 (englisch).

10. Geschäfte mit Gerüchten - Bloß keine einfachen Wahrheiten. In: . Nr.33, 2011 (focus.de [abgerufen am 19. Oktober 2020]).

11. Michael Butter: „Nichts ist, wie es scheint". Über Verschwörungstheorien. Suhrkamp, Berlin 2018, S. 135.

12. Ali Vitali: Infowars' Alex Jones Says Trump Made Thank You Call. In: nbcnews.com. 15. November 2016, abgerufen am 8. November 2020 (englisch).

13. "the Pizzagate narrative, as least as concerning Mr. Alefantis and Comet Ping Pong, we have subsequently determined was based upon what we now believe was an incorrect narrative." A Note to Our Listening, Viewing and Reading Audiences Concerning Pizzagate Coverage, infowars.com, 24. März 2017, zitiert nach Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones backs off 'Pizzagate' claims, Washington Post vom 24. März 2017, Zugriff am 25. März 2017.

14. Andrew Buncombe: Charlottesville: Alex Jones claims white supremacist protesters were 'just Jewish actors'. In: independent.co.uk. 15. August 2017, abgerufen am 11. August 2020 (englisch).

15. Emily Holden: Climate science deniers at forefront of downplaying coronavirus pandemic. In: theguardian.com. 25. April 2020, abgerufen am 25. April 2020 (englisch).

16. Alan Cassidy: US-Präsidentschaftswahl:Für Trumps Anhänger ist es noch lange nicht vorbei. www.sueddeutsche.de, 15. November 2020.

17. Mirko Schmid: Großkundgebung in der US-Hauptstadt: Donald Trump nach Bad in der Menge wieder siegessicher: „Die Leute werden es nicht hinnehmen". fr.de, 15. November 2020.

18. Rachel Dicker: Avoid These Fake News Sites at All Costs- In: . 14. November 2016, abgerufen am 13. Juni 2020 (englisch); Jessica Roy Want to keep fake news out of your newsfeed? College professor creates list of sites to avoid, latimes.com, 30. November 2016, Zugriff am 5. Januar 2017; Andrew Blake: Infowars' Alex Jones appeals to Trump for aid over fears of 'fake news' crackdown. In: washingtontimes.com 9. Dezember 2016, abgerufen am 30. März 2020 (englisch).

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Alexander Emerick Jones (* 11. Februar 1974 in Dallas) ist ein US-amerikanischer rechter Radiomoderator, Unternehmer und Verschwörungstheoretiker. Per Online-Marketing vertreibt er Produkte, die zum Teil im Zusammenhang mit den von ihm verbreiteten Verschwörungstheorien stehen. Ab August 2018 wurden seine Kanäle auf mehreren sozialen Plattformen dauerhaft gesperrt.

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Deep into the thoughtless hypnotism of TikTok one afternoon, I came upon an anonymous urban scene from inside a residential tower in Manchester, England. On an upper floor, beside huge windows shrouded in fog, a man was floating on his back in a gleaming pool, to the soundtrack of the plaintive Frank Ocean song "White Ferrari." The ten-second video was hashtagged #vibin. In another clip, a woman demonstrated her morning routine, with shots of rumpled linen bedsheets, navy-blue satin pajamas, and a steaming mug of matcha, along with brief glimpses of other objects: a monstera plant, a burning chunk of palo santo, a busy street outside. Altogether, they evoked a mood of calm, enlightened, prettified productivity. The video was hashtagged #vibes. "I love the vibes at night here," the caption of yet another TikTok montage read: a dim apartment lit by a pink neon sign that says "Where Love Lives," a wandering Shiba Inu, an orb lamp on top of a Picasso art book, a wall-mounted flat-screen playing the popular ambient-music YouTube channel "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to." If I had to pinpoint it, I'd say that the video's vibe was chill Gen-Z good taste, the world of a teen-ager whose parents have given up on curfews and screen-time restrictions: midnight-basement-desktop-computer vibes.

These brief flashes of seemingly normal life, compressed into short videos, are among TikTok's bread-and-butter genres, and they have taken over my algorithmically curated feed on the app. Where others might get meme dances or practical jokes, I only see chill vibes. Casually cooking a meal in a swaying sailboat on the open Atlantic Ocean is a vibe. So is slaloming down the road on a skateboard to Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" while swigging cranberry juice, as Nathan Apodaca did in a now famous TikTok. We know the meaning of the word "vibe," of course. It's a placeholder for an abstract quality that you can't pin down-an ambience ("a laid-back vibe"). It's the reason that you like or dislike something or someone (good vibes vs. bad). It's an intuition with no obvious explanation ("just a vibe I get"). Many vibes don't have specific names, but some do. Saudade, the Portuguese word for a bittersweet longing, could count as a vibe. So, too, could the Japanese iki, an attitude of casually disinterested elegance, or the German fernweh, the longing to be somewhere far away, evoked by distant vistas or unknown forests. ( Hygge, the Danish quality of contented coziness, is a vibe that has been wholly commercialized in the United States.)

In the social-media era, though, "vibe" has come to mean something more like a moment of audiovisual eloquence, a "sympathetic resonance" between a person and her environment, as Robin James, a professor of philosophy at U.N.C. Charlotte wrote in a recent newsletter. What a haiku is to language, a vibe is to sensory perception: a concise assemblage of image, sound, and movement. (#Aesthetic is sometimes used to mark vibes, but that term is predominantly visual.) A vibe can be positive, negative, beautiful, ugly, or just unique. It can even become a quality in itself: if something is vibey, it gives off an intense vibe or is particularly amenable to vibes. Vibes are a medium for feeling, the kind of abstract understanding that comes before words put a name to experience. That pre-linguistic quality makes them well suited to a social-media landscape that is increasingly prioritizing audio, video, and images over text. Through our screens, vibes are being constantly emitted and received.

The word "vibe" is short for vibration-something that resonates and echoes, suffusing a space. In the early twentieth century, the term became associated with the vibraphone, a cousin of the marimba, which uses motorized fans beneath its bars to achieve a vibier sound. At the time of its invention, in the nineteen-twenties, musicians weren't sure whether its nickname should be singular or plural, vibe or vibes-the latter eventually stuck. The instrument's sound today immediately evokes a whole range of associations: Tropicália music, the mid-twentieth century's obsession with Hawaii, shallow cosmopolitanism, and nostalgia hovering between sincere and ironic.

"Vibe" as slang, referring to an aura or feeling, emerged in the sixties, in California, and gave the word its enduring hippie associations. The underground paper Berkeley Barb made frequent use of it as early as 1965. The following year, the Beach Boys hit "Good Vibrations" exposed the slang to broader audiences. The song is about nigh-subconscious connection, being on the same wavelength: "I'm picking up good vibrations / She's giving me excitations." (There are no actual vibraphones on the track, but it does feature the equally vibey electro-theremin.) In a similar vein, the young writer Bibi Wein described vibes as "spirits touching" in " The Runaway Generation," her 1970 investigation of rebellious American youth. But soon enough the word was being applied to just about anything. In 1973, the journal Cultures observed that "a roomful of people, a city or even a political campaign has its own set of vibrations."

Like many trends that begin on the cultural vanguard, the word lost some of its potency as it was taken up by the mainstream. ("Vibes," the word, "has no meaning for me," the choreographer Trisha Brown said in the Performing Arts Journal in 1976.) Though we might often refer to an "eighties vibe" today-recalling the intersection, say, of shiny fabric, big hair, and smoke machines-the eighties and nineties were not particularly vibe-obsessed decades. Perhaps those decades were too rigid, too dominated by the pursuit of capital, to be resonant or receptive. ( Vibe magazine, founded in 1993, presented a commodified view of hip-hop culture.) But during those decades vibes became a subject of philosophical fascination. In an article for the journal Thesis Eleven, from 1993, the German philosopher Gernot Böhme identified "atmosphere" as the basis for a new aesthetics of perception, a kind of over-all feeling that has much in common with vibe. Heidegger had used "mood" to describe the quality of being in the world, and Walter Benjamin had identified "aura" as the feeling inspired by the presence of a unique work of art, say, a painting. But Böhme saw much more mundane things-cosmetics, advertising, interior decoration-exuding their own kind of atmosphere, comprising an "aesthetics of everyday life."

The political theorist Jane Bennett had a similar epiphany while gazing at a pile of trash in the gutter one sunny morning, an experience she recounted in her 2010 book " Vibrant Matter." The discarded objects seemed suddenly invested with meaning: "the glove, the rat, the pollen, the bottle cap, and the stick started to shimmer and spark," she wrote, forming a tableau "with the street, with the weather that morning, with me." In other words, the entire moment had a vibe, greater than the sum of its parts and inextricable from each of them. Bennett argued that capitalism had encouraged us to ignore such vibes: a consumerist society, in which things are constantly thrown away and replaced, "conceals the vitality of matter."

In some ways, the rise of digital life allowed for a vibe revival. Online, we could collect and curate vibes. As with tracking rare species of birds, spotting a vibe-and recording it-became an end goal in itself. The musician Ezra Koenig did so, back in 2005, on a blog he called Internet Vibes: "BRITISH/RAIN/GREY VIBES," "late 90's Radiohead/global anxiety/airports/bleak technological future," and "FRESH/CLEAN" like a Morton Williams supermarket. That was before the advent of camera phones, which allowed us to capture vibes in the real world, and before the rise of Instagram, which might have been social media's first native platform for vibes. There you could compose a mood in images, communicating an over-all personality. The overhead life-style-tableaux shot that became the dominant Instagram cliché presented a vibe: the arid cool of sunlight, marble, and cappuccino. Instead of Bennett's resonant pile of trash, however, these assemblages were often used to sell something-if not a specific product, then the "brand" of the influencers posting them. Robin James describes this phenomenon as "vibe-capitalism." If tightly associated with a product or company, a vibe can become a kind of free-floating commercial, including or alienating audiences based on their tastes. Think of the association of healthy-yet-intoxicating Californian bohemianism with the clothing brand Reformation or of turbocharged techno-masculinity with Tesla cars.

Whereas Instagram's main form is the composed tableau, captured in a single still image or unedited video, TikTok's is the collection of real-world observations, strung together in a filmic montage. (Though last year Instagram added a new feature, Reels, in an attempt to compete.) TikTok's technology makes it easy to crop video clips and set them to evocative popular songs: instant vibes. Its "For You" feed curates a mélange of content algorithmically, based on each user's patterns of engagement. The result is a platform that runs on vignettes, superficial flashes of discrete sensation. As Vinca Kruk and Daniel van der Velden, the Amsterdam-based founders of the avant-garde film-and-design collective Metahaven, put it to me, "TikTok provides a rebuke to the truism that people want narratives." The man I saw paddling in his Manchester-skyscraper lap pool is not trying to explain or sell anything-he is simply vibing, and the rest of us are just watching, consuming that state of harmony without expecting anything more from it. The other day, I messaged that man on TikTok to ask about the video (which he now has set to private). His name is Nigel Kabvina, and he's a twenty-five-year-old bartender. "I was thinking about the feeling of trying to unwind," he told me. "The song brings me back to a time before adulting stress and responsibility."

Vibes were made for the Internet not just because they're audiovisual but because, like all memes, they are participatory. Anyone can assemble her own version. They're not scarce or limited-edition. Replication doesn't cheapen them. On social media, users not only curate vibes but generate new ones. "Cursed," for instance, is an Internet vibe that signifies "increasingly generalized feelings of anxiety and malaise," as Jia Tolentino has written, evoked by disquieting images of things where they don't belong-say, a Chuck E. Cheese automaton left decaying in a dump, gracefully " vibing " despite its circumstances. The more recent "cringe" is a secondhand embarrassment or shame that can also be consumed proactively as content, like a horror movie. On TikTok, some of the aesthetic mood boards that began on Tumblr in the twenty-tens have become tribal as vibes: cottagecore, a twee-leaning return to nature (herbal tinctures, patterned frocks), and dark academia, a riff on Goth culture by way of Scottish boarding school (foreboding castles, heavy tweeds). Users mold and document their non-virtual lives in the image of these labels. The vibe moves from the Internet into the physical world and back again, a wavelength on the radar of our perceptions. (TikTok also serves up plenty of prompts to buy or shop; it's not hard to imagine prepackaged kits sold on the platform to aspiring dark academics.)

Peli Grietzer, a young literary scholar who has theorized about social-media-era vibes, told me recently that "vibes-talk is becoming more and more a native language for us all." He added a caveat: "Not sure which 'we' that is-maybe just the very online." Exhausted by the Internet of personalities and expressed individuality, constantly measured and sorted by likes, we perhaps find comfort in turning our gaze outward. There is a self-effacement that takes place in embracing this new language, a sense that you are not "the main character" of a situation, as another TikTok meme might describe it, but a replaceable observer. "No thoughts, just vibes," one online mantra goes, and after a year of constant anxiety it has a certain appeal. In a recent newsletter, the writer Mary Retta explained that she had been "vibing" throughout quarantine: "Not doing anything, and yet not doing nothing; refusing a schedule, ignoring your watch, but still filling days with intention, somehow." Vibes can be an adjustment to circumstances, an almost defensive pursuit of harmony. "To vibe is to shape time into pleasure," Retta wrote.

When I watch a morning-routine TikTok from "an herbalist and cook living in a Montana cabin," I take in the mood of December sunlight, coffee in a ceramic mug, a vegetable rice bowl, tall pine forest, with a slowed-down Sufjan Stevens soundtrack -a nice creative-residency or hipster-pioneer vibe. After absorbing a dozen such videos at a stretch, I look up from my phone and my own apartment glows with that same kind of concentrated attention, as if I were seeing it in montage, too. The objects around me are lambent with significance. I can take in the vibe of my home office: hibiscus tree, hardwood desk, noise-cancelling headphones, sixties-jazz trio, to-go coffee cup. I suddenly feel a little more at home, as if the space belonged to me in a new way, or I had found my place within it as another element of the over-all vibe, playing my part. The vibes are all around us, for the taking. You don't have to be a poet or philosopher, don't even have to post anything online. All you have to do is notice.

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Deep into the thoughtless hypnotism of TikTok one afternoon, I came upon an anonymous urban scene from inside a residential tower in Manchester, England. On an upper floor, beside huge windows shrouded in fog, a man was floating on his back in a gleaming pool, to the soundtrack of the plaintive Frank Ocean song "White Ferrari."

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How to Use the Stitch Tool on TikTok - NEW Stitch Feature!

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Creating an account

To setup a TikTok account: .

4. Choose a method to sign up.

Note: Make sure your email and phone number are valid as they are needed for log in and password recovery.
1. Download TikTok from Google Play or the App Store.
2. Open the app.
3. Go to

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Creating an account | TikTok Help Center

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To setup a TikTok account: . 4. Choose a method to sign up. Note: Make sure your email and phone number are valid as they are needed for log in and password recovery. 1. Download TikTok from Google Play or the App Store.2. Open the app.3. Go to

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5 Simple And Stunning Transitions For Beginners (Tik Tok Tutorial)

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How to Make Smooth TikTok Transitions (Easy Steps)

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TikTok Newsletter 39: Going viral. Micro-Influencers. 22.000 pieces of content 🧱https://t.co/u4ztSnbDI5 Plus: A One Minute Transition Masterclass

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A weekly newsletter for you to become fluent in TikTok. Click to read Understanding TikTok, a Substack publication with thousands of readers.

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TikTok Newsletter 39: Going viral. Micro-Influencers. 22.000 pieces of content 🧱https://t.co/u4ztSnbDI5 Plus: A One Minute Transition Masterclass https://t.co/kNm4i9B3V7

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TikTok Newsletter 39: Going viral. Micro-Influencers. 22.000 pieces of content 🧱https://t.co/u4ztSnbDI5 Plus: A One Minute Transition Masterclass pic.twitter.com/kNm4i9B3V7
— Marcus Bösch (@m_boesch) April 26, 2021

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TikTok Newsletter 39: Going viral. Micro-Influencers. 22.000 pieces of content 🧱https://t.co/u4ztSnbDI5 Plus: A One Minute Transition Masterclass https://t.co/kNm4i9B3V7

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A weekly newsletter for you to become fluent in TikTok. Click to read Understanding TikTok, a Substack publication with thousands of readers.

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TikTok Newsletter 39: Going viral. Micro-Influencers. 22.000 pieces of content 🧱https://t.co/u4ztSnbDI5 Plus: A One Minute Transition Masterclass https://t.co/kNm4i9B3V7

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TikTok Newsletter 39: Going viral. Micro-Influencers. 22.000 pieces of content 🧱https://t.co/u4ztSnbDI5 Plus: A One Minute Transition Masterclass

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A weekly newsletter for you to become fluent in TikTok. Click to read Understanding TikTok, a Substack publication with thousands of readers.

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College and University TikTok Directory - Josie Ahlquist

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Hi! My name is Dr. Josie Ahlquist and I love to explore how the field of higher education is using social media. I specifically explored TikTok in the popular article, TikTok is Going to College.

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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Gt22ssjwbNYGIkYMw01bb1oDjwMcNRFTX_HooxZxIMs/edit#gid=0

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https://www.marcus-boesch.de/elite-alt/

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https://www.tiktok.com/@kristina.bcv/video/6882363285933395202

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https://www.tiktok.com/@_theiconoclass/video/6900289656546544898

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Zaik https://www.tiktok.com/@zai1k_/video/7041724661679262981?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Lil Yachty https://www.tiktok.com/@lilyachty/video/7049564228285500719?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Alle https://www.tiktok.com/music/WYD-Now-Open-Verse-Challenge-7034625577755642630

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#duet with @sadie.jean I like this one better hehe

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@lillianhepler
#duet with @sadie.jean I like this one better hehe
♬ WYD Now Open Verse Challenge - Sadie Jean

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https://www.tiktok.com/@tylerdaclaire/video/6907270571361357057

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https://www.tiktok.com/@judnyk/video/6919189915595050245

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https://twitter.com/m_boesch/status/1301383877571813377

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https://www.tiktok.com/@nqtqsha/video/6911670463437589761

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Further into the fog i fall https://t.co/XvI5Apapwq

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Further into the fog i fall pic.twitter.com/XvI5Apapwq
— Understanding TikTok (@tiktoktactics) December 20, 2021

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Further into the fog i fall https://t.co/XvI5Apapwq

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Further into the fog i fall https://t.co/XvI5Apapwq

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https://twitter.com/emmaspacelynn/status/1312952644193996800

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1 https://www.tiktok.com/@itsjamiebiotch/video/6937859155399101702?lang=en

2

https://www.tiktok.com/@johnmayer/video/6938147300422241541

3

https://www.tiktok.com/@cameronsandersonuk/video/6941486356799458565

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https://www.tiktok.com/@natsingssongs/video/6943014565328342278

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https://www.tiktok.com/@janineundschatzi/video/6958475931656948998

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https://www.tiktok.com/@paulwetz/video/6976662763213016326

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https://www.tiktok.com/@aditotoro/video/6977326915346599173?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en

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https://www.tiktok.com/@ikramikramabbas91/video/6986653627704265986

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https://twitter.com/fuuckdupmind/status/1430961274494595078

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https://twitter.com/Zack3O12/status/1432337048682344450

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https://www.tiktok.com/@miekefraatz/video/6954288941302369542?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

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https://www.tiktok.com/@thealgorythm/video/6998218140719140101?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

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https://www.tiktok.com/@ehrenmannriusderechte/video/7002980319024450821?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

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https://twitter.com/GenePark/status/1405585510492483586

Part 2 https://www.tiktok.com/@brentlyg/video/6980738028390190342?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en

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https://twitter.com/tiktoktactics/status/1433758882778734621

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https://www.tiktok.com/@vicareich/video/6974799925024541958?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

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https://www.tiktok.com/@duhastdiewahl/video/6989976855671622917?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

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https://newsroom.tiktok.com/de-de/tiktok-stellt-in-app-informationsseite-zur-bundestagswahl-zur-verfuegung

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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13yIKz_RdUe1IAExjJKiPlgzkD-T0ZXRbEnU2nIkDJFU/edit#gid=0

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Deutsche Politik auf Tik Tok - Eine Sammlung von Martin Fuchs @wahl_beobachter

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https://www.tiktok.com/@flobieder/video/7002122089142455558?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

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Beispiel https://www.tiktok.com/@kauflanddeutschland/video/6988910566698093830?is_from_webapp=v1&lang=de-DE

Tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF9YgIBhpsE

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https://blog.hubspot.de/marketing/tik-tok

https://www.pocket-lint.com/de-de/software/news/149869-beste-tiktok-tipps-und-tricks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lhs0g17las

TikTok mit Premiere Pro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPTR4I4hWKc

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Erfahren Sie hier, wie Sie die TikTok App benutzen, Videos suchen, Challenges finden und Ihr erstes eigenes TikTok-Video erstellen und veröffentlichen.

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https://www.tiktok.com/@markus.blume/video/6920564116629228802?lang=de-DE&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

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https://www.tiktok.com/@katie.and.the.snoots/video/6998683577802116357?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESPgo8NFkUnL8apbMWFA1b1JY9xge7iDISBmfnD%2BEFSyUMseELAfXlS1Dn0jlKJnGltm6CdXrd8dD%2BcEZKcdQDGgA%3D&checksum=c162995f9c855d75d9444e8674c6930102d5e7265b58102e8d13899248fbdcd8&language=de&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAee9k14XtpF2_jXFXdIIp3WIEDkxUqfOBKxC0BCngsxLFpMSLyeFO7nlUqO4Zg4-X&share_app_id=1233&share_item_id=6998683577802116357&share_link_id=6553F574-930C-45BC-B61A-E3DB8692EE10&source=h5_m&timestamp=1630227196&tt_from=copy&u_code=d225c5ikg30c8k&user_id=6598436775848280070&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=copy&_r=1

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https://www.tiktok.com/@nehumanesociety/video/6997875300189179142?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESPgo8rqA%2Bd0mPWsc%2BtKpYb%2BiE2Z5XYjVaA9xe2KOXkf0NvqKMTmaT9oqX3hffoznPw8OMLYjC1Gy9JUcj8E9TGgA%3D&checksum=320f1a113e7df88b35ca54182f3b57d78840cebac2e2bed22ac63e635dc90219&language=de&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAee9k14XtpF2_jXFXdIIp3WIEDkxUqfOBKxC0BCngsxLFpMSLyeFO7nlUqO4Zg4-X&share_app_id=1233&share_item_id=6997875300189179142&share_link_id=A8245A55-95D1-465B-A609-612B5D0C05E9&source=h5_m&timestamp=1630227175&tt_from=copy&u_code=d225c5ikg30c8k&user_id=6598436775848280070&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=copy&_r=1

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https://www.tiktok.com/@doggie.shelter.love/video/6950431444023921925?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESPgo8LWfUpNMjUNl%2Fg%2Fdh8rikeM%2FYoWkTN87HHk2fKkG0I4hft%2BHtVRQGlK0ic2J6EpnPQuOeP3gTmAEBZWL0GgA%3D&checksum=e7e3d740f2674ad399eb7bb295807913230d038a699e4434fe29ca426ba67de6&language=de&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAee9k14XtpF2_jXFXdIIp3WIEDkxUqfOBKxC0BCngsxLFpMSLyeFO7nlUqO4Zg4-X&share_app_id=1233&share_item_id=6950431444023921925&share_link_id=5EA8A4BF-3BA5-421F-8A45-B84554290072&source=h5_m&timestamp=1630227152&tt_from=copy&u_code=d225c5ikg30c8k&user_id=6598436775848280070&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=copy&_r=1

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https://www.tiktok.com/@katie.and.the.snoots/video/6889579299725184262?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESPgo8p%2BKYIYEFWr%2BfGKq%2FfYnryYQSz0NTWl6YuUEDzTZf20PZFOXDZmGIeIT7YiS5%2BAC1ZlNaK9eVltaPmhCiGgA%3D&checksum=cf1954709650464f841535b0dbf3bf01d0fc0749ec7bd87be309469df932abc3&language=de&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAee9k14XtpF2_jXFXdIIp3WIEDkxUqfOBKxC0BCngsxLFpMSLyeFO7nlUqO4Zg4-X&share_app_id=1233&share_item_id=6889579299725184262&share_link_id=7A6FB52A-F24D-4290-A3DA-478A2DBEB82E&source=h5_m&timestamp=1630227125&tt_from=copy&u_code=d225c5ikg30c8k&user_id=6598436775848280070&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=copy&_r=1

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https://www.tiktok.com/@texasbeeworks?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

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https://www.tiktok.com/@l.thomas2020?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

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https://www.tiktok.com/@vet.crew?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

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https://www.tiktok.com/@i_am_insane_cherry/video/6990641180669185281

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Beggin' vs. animals 😄 #animals #beggin #insanecherry #edit

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@i_am_insane_cherry
Beggin' vs. animals 😄 #animals #beggin #insanecherry #edit
♬ оригинальный звук - Insane Cherry

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Dog vs. horse. #equestrian #dog #horse #skating #viral #foryou #fy #fyp #sunset #sun #beauty #animals #outdoors #iphone #trending #fürdich #love #f

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@vandiego.rico
Dog vs. horse. #equestrian #dog #horse #skating #viral #foryou #fy #fyp #sunset #sun #beauty #animals #outdoors #iphone #trending #fürdich #love #f
♬ Beautiful (feat. Camila Cabello) - Bazzi

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Understanding TikTok | Marcus Bösch | Substack

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A newsletter for you to become fluent in TikTok. Click to read Understanding TikTok, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

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Seen a funny video on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter recently? Chances are it's from TikTok. You're consuming TikTok content, but out of its natural habitat.

No matter whether people are talking about Pool Cleaning TikTok, Sea Shanty TikTok, or Musical Theatre TikTok the focus is usually on the video content, and rightly so. The creators. The memes. The sounds that are remixed and reimagined.

Missed in the discussion: what happens in the TikTok comments.

The social aspect of any platform is what makes it feel distinct. Instagram's Reels rip-off aims to clone TikTok in nearly every way. But the same video cross-posted from TikTok to Reels doesn't bring the same community with it, nor the duets, the video-replies, or the comments. It feels hollow.

Here's a rundown of the 'emoji comment memes' (for want of a better phrase) that you'll find on TikTok today, and likely on a social media platform of your choice tomorrow.

This might also serve as a guide, preventing you using emojis 'like a boomer' when joining TikTok.

Writing the lesson of the video, using ✍️ Writing Hand in place of spaces. If a skin-tone is chosen, it's for self-representation. ✍️Lesson✍️Pen✍️ is only writen in the first person.

Watched a video about how to get people to talk to you on your first day?

Lesson from a flight attendant on how passengers can help their job?

Male dolphins and their troubling behavior?

Introducing mysterious grades for your boyfriend?

✍️Lesson✍️Pen✍️ can be summarized as:

"I watched this video, and here is my amusing and/or serious take on what I learned"

It's a simple format, and works in many scenarios.

✍️🔄 Sub-type: Wrong Lesson Pen

As with all memes, these mutate into variations over time.

Wrong Lesson Pen is the same as the ✍️Lesson✍️Pen✍️ but requires identifying the point of the TikTok, and using the same facts to come to a different conclusion.

Learned some facts in a video about how you can't have herd immunity from the common cold because of all the variants? Bring on the Wrong Lesson Pen:

✍️❄️🔄✍️🌴 Sub-sub-type: Right Lesson, Wrong Location Pen

The TikTok For You Page specializes in delivering content that you'll like. A key factor in this is showing videos to people in your geographical area. This often means it will be relevant.

As a video or creator grows in popularity, videos are shown globally. Sometimes this results in niche TikToks that are only useful in their original location but now being shown to millions in a very wide audience.

✍️Wrong✍️Location✍️Pen✍️ would like to point out that we're finding this content very interesting, even if it couldn't be less useful or relevant where we are.

Detailed instructions about checking the depth of ice:

A video about outback living:

It's relatable, because niche TikToks can be interesting as a glimpse into a different world. Content we wouldn't have chosen to watch, but have decided to because it was served by the almighty algorithm.

✍️Wrong✍️Location✍️Pen✍️ lets the creator know you liked it, despite it being absolutely useless to you.

🔈Alternative👏Lesson🔊Pens🔇

This is related to the Lesson Pen, but uses a different emoji to convey the point. Many will be aware of (and possibly annoyed by) the 👏clapping👏hands👏to👏make👏a👏statement👏 format on Twitter.

I regretfully report that this format is alive and well on TikTok.

Rarely used sincerely on TikTok, the clapping hands is usually found written comedically, more than for activism like its origins.

On TikTok it's basically a ✍️Lesson✍️Pen✍️ but converted into 👏Clapping👏Hands👏Pen👏 to convey the lesson, in a more active format.

We also have 🔈Speaker🔉Voice🔉 to get your message across to the creator of the video. Again, sincerity is the enemy here. These are meant to be funny, and even by me explaining them here, I'm being too literal and ruining the fun.

🐶💬 Author Voice Pen

Do you know Bunny? The sheepadoodle that presses buttons to communicate in a human-like manner. She's adorable, and the buttons themselves are a meme that spreads beyond the TikTok account for her progress.

@what_about_bunny
Fairly consistently receiving time responses to "when" questions. #doggyanthem #dogsoftiktok #bunnythedog #fypシ #talkingdog
♬ original sound - I am Bunny

Of note: for Bunny to ask a question, one button says hmm with a raised inflection reminiscent of the end of every Australian sentence. Bunny doesn't ask why, she simply ends her sentence with a press of the "hmm?" button.

All these use the dog face emoji to imitate the voice of Bunny. No it doesn't look like her, but it does the job.

Building on Author Voice is what I like to call the 🤪Emoji🎢Rollercoaster☄️. It's telling a story, but with so many emojis interspersed, we experience a sense of emotional overload.

🤪Emoji🎢Rollercoaster☄️ has origins in explicit texts and tweets that use an emoji every 2-3 words, often with a request to share the message. Eve Peyser calls them Dirty Chain Texts, and they're not new. Here's an example from 2015:

The concept of conveying mood using emojis in an exaggerated fashion works well in TikTok comments or anywhere that it's assumed the audience is in on the joke. You're not sending these to your boss.

In the instance of a TikTok comments, the shared audience is everyone that just watched the same video. 🤪Emoji🎢Rollercoaster☄️ uses an emoji at every opportunity; tracking and conveying every shift in vocal range or facial expression and choosing the emoji which mostly closely matches its vibe.

Every sentence is a ride, only relenting when it's over.

Being familiar with Dirty Chain Texts should mean 🤪Emoji🎢Rollercoaster☄️ feels natural. Random emojis like the 🧱 Brick or 🤖 Robot feel like they belong, even when they don't. Choosing the exact emojis to convey that tone is an art.

As opposed to emoji beat gestures, this style of comment tends to use at least one word for every emoji, instead of sending a string of emojis to convey a mood. Instead of sending 🥰😘 (your thoughts on the video), you're sending your take on what the palm tree protaganist feels:

🤪Emoji🎢Rollercoaster☄️ is often used for mocking. It takes the point being made, but makes it sound absurd.

It's digitally putting on a silly voice to quote your sibling in a story retelling that gets a laugh every time, usually to their detriment.

It doesn't always have to be absurd. Some Emoji Rollercoaster Comments really seem to tap into the exact intonation of the video. It's got me wondering if transcripts could use emojis to convey tone with the message.

It looks juvenile, but try telling me you're not getting more from this comment than the plain text.

Once you see this type of visual voice inflection, it's hard to not imagine the emojis are genuinely conveying the voice you just heard.

If you recall this clip of Australian politician Bob Katter:

The comments on TikTok reposts of this bring every word to life:

The beauty of the Emoji Rollercoaster is the shared experience. The friends leaving the cinema to quote their favorite lines ad-nauseam. Except instead of the cinema foyer, we rush to the comments of a viral TikTok to be like the best comment which summarizes what we heard.

Whether you call this voice inflection, mood conveyance, beat gestures, or simply emoji tone, this rollercoaster of colorful glyphs is a common and popular storytelling device in the TikTok comments.

Like the 🤪Emoji🎢Rollercoaster☄️, but conveying all the unspoken parts of the video. The action. The facial expressions. The plot.

Emoji Expression Strings are more likely to be a series of emojis, without words in between. Like 🥸🤪😇😍😫😡🤩.

Billy Eichner roaming the streets interrogating people to gift them $1 has been on my For You Page (FYP) a lot recently. These are mostly repurposed clips others have uploaded. The story told here is clear.

Describing how you can't judge a book by its cover, in emoji narrative form:

This method of expression works for audio, too. Various screaming and yelling? You got it.

The sequence of emojis conveys more than words could.

A whole story in eight pictures. Don't make me say how many words a picture tells. I won't do it, but you get it.

An Emoji Expression String is just as likely to be found accompanying world events as a quirky lipsync.

How might the scene of an Aerobics teacher unintentionally filming her class in front of a coup in Myanmar be described? Like this of course.

This could be its own entire article, but a few select emojis have taken up the mantle left by the lack of bold or italics formatting.

Much of this has been seen on Twitter in recent years, too.

A leading contender: ✨ Sparkles as emphasis. Got something to say, but need it to have that extra emphasis? Sparkle it.

Sparkles can be combined with SpOnGEbOb teXt for even more emphasis:

Or use both ✍️Lesson✍️Pen✍️ and ✨Emoji ✨Emphasis✨ for the ultimate way to convey your thoughts:

Like most platforms these days, TikTok comments will rise up higher if they have more likes. This is generally a decent way to filter out low value comments, but it can also create a perverse incentive to game the comment section for unrelated purposes.

Rise Up games create a story and ask that you like the comment to assist.

These don't add much value to the platform, but do go indicate where an emoji such as 🐕 Dog stands out more than a text-only comment might.

TikTok recently added a text-to-voice feature. You type the text, and TikTok reads it out. For retelling a story this is often used with each emoji providing a quick way to identify the people in the story, like a script where each character reads its lines.

Given emojis aren't infinitely customizable like Bitmoji, Memoji or other emoji avatars, people have to get creative.

In this example, a friend with a receding hairline has been recreated by putting a bald man on top of another man.

People on TikTok are wondering how this is done to an emoji in the comments:

🤡̵̛͔͍̱͙̥͔̯͖̥͙̲͆ͬ̊̑̔̂
- Jeremy Burge (@jeremyburge) May 11, 2020

Getting attention for being interesting is hard. What's easier? Copying and pasting some Unicode characters which combine on top of each other to look like a glitch of sorts.

It won't win you friends, but someone might like your comment.

Other Unicode emoji 'hacks' can be popular on any text-only platform, as they can stand out more than your run of the mill text and emojis.

Like words, emoji meanings can change over time, and in different communities. This applies online as much as it does IRL.

While not TikTok-exclusive, some emerging emoji meanings commonly found on TikTok include:

TikTok emoji formats are summarized here.

Some other NSFW emoji meanings found both TikTok, Snapchat and more include:

Of these, only cake = ass seems to originate on TikTok, and largely hasn't left the platform, at least in my observations. Others are more solidified on TikTok, but are equally likely to appear in group chats, or other platforms where there are sufficient folks born in the past few decades.

NSFW emoji meanings are here.

It's common wisdom on TikTok that the laughing crying emoji is for boomers. And by boomers I mean anyone over the age of 35.

For many commenters, 💀 has replaced 😂 as the acceptable way to laugh. 💀 Skull says this was so funny I have died from laughter, therefore 💀 = "I'm dead".

This is an acceptable way to show you found something funny, compared to 😂 Face with Tears of Joy (an OG emoji that's been on the iPhone for over a decade) or its newer alternative 🤣 Rolling on the Floor Laughing (approved in 2016) which is often tarred with the some unfunny brush.

There are a whole series of custom emotes available on TikTok to expand your range. These are often seen as less cringey. Perhaps because they aren't seen as over-used due to their platform exclusivity.

TikTok emojis are inserted using shortcodes such as [complacent] or [cry], and only work on TikTok. These used to be selectable in the TikTok interface, but now they're almost hidden, like a secret set of emojis that only the regulars know.

Of these, a popular entry is [wronged] which takes on a similar meaning to the emoji sequence of 🥺👉👈. A shy, nervous combination desiring acceptance.

Not only has 🥺 Pleading Face shot up to become the third most popular emoji on Twitter, it's also very on trend on TikTok. At least it is for now, until it gets written about too much, like this very article.

For those wanting to laugh using 😂 Face with Tears of Joy but avoid being outed as too old for TikTok, try 😆 which is known as 😆 Grinning Squinting Face in Unicode parlance.

Or avoid the need to show laughter in the comments at all. Make a joke in return, or simply hit that like button. This is TikTok not Facebook, Grandpa.

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Seen a funny video on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter recently? Chances are it's from TikTok. You're consuming TikTok content, but out of its natural habitat. No matter whether people are talking about Pool Cleaning TikTok, Sea Shanty TikTok, or Musical Theatre TikTok the focus is usually on the video content,