The Ethnography Of Social Media: Mapping Tik Tok Culture In Serbia

Abstract

In 2020, when the whole world found itself locked under the threat of a pandemic caused by the emergence of a new coronavirus, and when almost everything stagnated, TikTok became one of the growing phenomena. This controversial application by the Chinese company ByteDance, based on creating and sharing short videos that can be both witty and sarcastic, can depict routines, everyday life, or present trend dances, has become the most downloaded application and the global quarantine entertainment, and so far, its popularity has not declined. However, despite the global popularity, one mentions TikTok in the public discourse in a negative context, as an application associated with a non-transparent algorithm, endangered privacy, or with risks and a destructive impact on the behavior and mental health of young people. At the same time, while it is widely spread among the young, for the older generations that have not had the opportunity to encounter TikTok, so they are still unsure about what it represents and what is happening on it, the application is a sort of a black box. Having all of that in mind, and by relying on the theoretical interpretation, this paper aims at providing a close look at the application and its analysis, as well as the potentials and limits that are associated with it. More precisely, based on a month-long observation and ethnographic research, the paper is an attempt at giving answers to the questions about the nature of TikTok, its place in the new media universe, users, topics, movements, and questions that are presented in this social media, and finally, what this content can say to us about the world we are living in and its reach. In addition, the paper shall engage in the deliberation of the methodological challenges of the ethnographic research of social media and the Internet.

2020. godine, kada se ceo svet našao pod pretnjom pandemije izazvane pojavom novog korona virusa i kada je gotovo sve stagniralo, TikTok je postao jedan od rastućih fenomena. Ova kontroverzna aplikacija kineske kompanije ByteDance, zasnovana na kreiranju i deljenju kratkih video snimaka koji mogu biti i duhoviti i sarkastični, mogu oslikavati rutinu, svakodnevni život ili predstavljaju trendovske plesove, postala je najčešće preuzimana aplikacija i globalna karantinska zabava, a njegova popularnost ne opada ni danas. Međutim, uprkos planetarnoj popularnosti, TikTok se u javnom diskursu najčešće pominje u negativnom kontekstu, kao aplikacija koja se povezuje sa netransparentnim algoritmom, ugroženom privatnošću, ili sa rizicima i destruktivnim uticajem na ponašanje i mentalno zdravlje mladih. Istovremeno, dok je široko rasprostranjen među mladima, za pripadnike starijih generacija koji nisu imale priliku da se susretnu sa njim, i još uvek nisu sigurni šta on predstavlja, TikTok je svojevrsna crna kutija. Imajući sve to u vidu, i oslanjajući se na teorijsku interpretaciju, ovaj rad ima za cilj da pruži pogled izbliza i analizira samu aplikaciju, kao i njene potencijale i ograničenja. Bliže, na osnovu višemesečnog posmatranja i etnografskog istraživanja, rad će nastojati da odgovori na pitanja o prirodi TikToka, njegovom mestu u novom medijskom univerzumu, korisnicima, temama, pokretima i pitanjima koja se postavljaju na njemu, kao i šta nam ovaj sadržaj može reći o svetu u kome živimo. Pored toga, rad će se baviti razmatranjem metodoloških izazova etnografskog istraživanja društvenih medija i interneta.