TikTok’s Incomplete Story

TikTok’s adoption in the United States in 2018 marked a vibe shift in American culture. In the app’s early days, everyone’s house looked terrible—piles of laundry in the background, glaring light overhead—and it was common practice to scrunch your hoodie over your face and wear a pair of sunglasses to avoid the mortification of seeing yourself online. Seven years later, the world as it appears on-screen has changed—it’s become snappier, more lush. TikTok was instrumental in this shift; it was the only big social media platform that didn’t give you a prickly misanthropic hangover after using it for too many hours, so users acclimated.