I tried TikTok for the first time this week, and it was exhilarating.
I’m more of a watcher when it comes to TikTok – my ForYou page is filled with beauty routine videos, fashion week news, and of course, I am on BookTok. I also get the occasional John and Hank Green (does anyone remember the original Vloggers? They were called the VlogBrothers) videos about how odd science really is. It’s really a blend of anything and everything. You get to see memes, short videos, snippets of movies, trailers for shows, behind-the-scenes from so many different places, and much, much more. However, it can often get addicting – and that has happened to me so many times now. I would scroll on the app for hours at times, and then forget that the outside world even existed for that amount of time. Has that ever happened to you?
But then I actually made one, and it was a great experience.
I had just received my order of make up I had ordered from Sephora, and I was about to rip open the box, when I thought, “why not make a video about this on TikTok?” I had seen numerous videos of beauty bloggers talk about their new Sephora haul, so it was only right for me to follow their footsteps and make one of my own! But I couldn’t just make one out of the blue. I needed lighting, decent clothing, a good amount of natural lighting, some make up on, and a quiet place. To set all of this up took me about half an hour, and I was itching to see what my order looked like! Then I finally made my video… and I hated it. It took me an hour of re-tries to finally get a video I was satisfied with, and that didn’t have weird noises in the background, or my face didn’t look off, or I didn’t sound odd. Phew! So much for a 3 minute video. But I was doing it for content (isn’t that what all influencers say?)
I posted it. And then came the anticipation – is everyone going to hate it? Am I going to get trolled? Will people make fun of me? it’s surprising how our mind starts to work when you really put yourself out there on the internet.But no hate comments came my way, no snide remarks either. In fact, one of the brands whose product I had posted about actually commented on my video. I was so happy! This video had turned into a success. Will I go back and immediately make another video? I don’t think so. It took so much time and energy. But I think another video is due soon. (Fun Fact: If you click on the icon below, you can view the video I made!)
Would you put yourself out there on TikTok or any other social media platform if it’s related to a topic you’re passionate about?