TikTok: the new dating app?

Tiktok, the short video creation app with fun and creative tools has hit the internet by storm as people shared their dance challenges, lip-syncs, and such.

Tiktok users are mostly millennials, and these people often post anything they want, from videos of them dancing to something deep like their perspective on social-economic issues. The platform helped these people to show their real selves, showing their quirky, fun, and creative side, to their concerns and desires. It’s one of the best ways to kill time, especially when we are on these tough times where we can’t go anywhere.

With a growing community of over 800 million users worldwide, you cannot skip the chance of meeting someone on the platform – from people looking for friends, to people doing thirsty actions, which can sometimes lead to virtual hangouts, meetups, dates, or even a relationship. With the freedom you get on TikTok, it isn’t shocking to see people using it as a way to communicate, meet, and find people in that community. You can comment on someone else’s post, and someone will notice you immediately.

People sometimes use TikTok as a place to message their friends or even a person that they admire. Some might use it also to confess their feelings to someone, that is why some people might say that TikTok is a lowkey dating app, just like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram DMs. You can’t hide the fact that it isn’t, right? Try searching “#DateMe” on TikTok and you’ll find 152 million views. Moreover, you can look for the tags “#JowaPlease” or “#JowableAko,” local phrases used by Filipinos, and you’ll see a lot of videos under those categories. Although some of the videos under these hashtags are just challenges or even jokes, most of them are people who are seeking for love and assumes that they might meet their special someone on TikTok.

I am not saying that this is a bad thing. We have our freedom to message, admire, and follow anyone. But sometimes we have to be extremely careful. After all, this is social media, a virtual socializing platform wherein it is quite hard to distinguish fake profiles from the real ones. Despite the verification process to ensure the authenticity of someone else’s identity, it doesn’t hurt to be cautious.