When 15 seconds on your phone can become a thing

By Michelle Adams-Thomas | Manor Ink

TikTok is the popular app that first skyrocketed with users after the Chinese social media platform Musical.ly was shut down by its owner ByteDance. They replaced it with TikTok, and the app has become a source of entertainment and self-promotion for billions of people around the world.

TikTok users can access a nearly unlimited variety of creativity on the app. Its algorithm can suggest videos that often give light to certain people or ideas, creating trends. So let’s explore some of my favorite trends promoted on TikTok in 2022!

No. 5: Last but not least, the “Betty (Get Money)” trend. This fad was inspired by the song “Betty (Get Money)” by Yung Gravy, a popular artist among the younger generation. Yung Gravy joked to his fans in July about how he loves older women. The comment went viral and people started showing their attractive moms to Gravy by tagging and using his song on TikTok videos. In the videos’ comments, Yung Gravy would state how he found the women attractive.

No. 4: Coming up second to last is the “Not so bad” trend. This trend started when TikTok user zotov did an instrumental cover video of the song “Thank You” by Dido. The trend itself had people rubbing their thumb and index finger together, pretending to play the violin that’s heard in the clip. A caption describing some unpleasant incident appears on the screen, and the violin gesture conveys the creator’s feeling that the incident is “not so bad.”

No.3: The third top trend are the “Guilty” videos. This trend uses a clip of Kim Kardashian saying, “Eww, this is so cringe, guilty.” The videos have captions expressing things that are a little weird or foolish, and creators express their disdain by lipsyncing to Kardashian’s quote.

No. 2: Next, we have the “As It Was” trend. “As It Was” is a song that was created last May by Harry Styles. The song not only is the most popular selection on his new album “Harry’s House,” it was also trending on Tiktok as far back as April. The trend used his song’s lyrics, “You know it’s not the same as it was,” to show blow ups and changes that have happened to people over the span of the last few years.

No. 1: Coming at the top of the list is the “Third of December” trend. Popular artist Conon Gray’s song “Heather” came out in September of 2020. The song is about being replaced in a relationship by someone else. One line of the song states, “I still remember the third of December, me in your sweater/You said it looked better on me than it did you/Only if you knew how much I liked you.” Since the song came out, every December 3 TikTok creators upload videos using the tune clip and saying whether or not they’ve received a sweater from their partner. Very romantic! I look forward to this one trend, now TikTok tradition, every year.