one thing that fascinates me about tiktok is the deconstructionist way of seeing/hearing it implicitly encourages

the app’s creation tools make it easy to take the sound from someone else’s video and use it in your own

a user-generated sound can easily go viral, detached from the video it originally belonged to, if lots of other creators use it

this means that when you’re watching a video on tiktok, you’re not just taking it in as a whole – you’re deconstructing it in your mind, thinking about the sound separately from the visuals, trying to figure out how you might re-appropriate it for a new video/meme

it’s common to see comments that say something like “this sound is gonna blow up” even if the video’s visuals are not that interesting

similar to when you see a picture that‘s almost asking to become a meme template. like Trump holding a blank whiteboard, or something

for people who create a lot of content, the tiktok mode of hearing seeps into everyday life

all the sounds in your environment become fodder for future videos. it’s a different way of perceiving, like tfw you gain the ability to hear the individual instruments in a song https://twitter.com/mandalaeyes/status/1246137911302651904

thank you algorithm gods for gracing my TL with this textbook example