This week I continued looking at the TikToks on sociological topics and was surprised to find no new content. It seems like the hashtags that we have selected are not frequently updated. I found more videos on activist topics, such as feminism or anti-racism, but it seems like sociology as a subject is not a common video theme.
A big part of “activist” TikToks are in the stand-up format, where the author of the video would film a person doing a stand-up show on a social justice topic. These are mostly humorous and focused on making sociological topics relatable and funny to induce a response from the audience.
From what I have gathered this week and last week, TikToks on sociological topics are largely made for audiences with no sociological background and use extremely simple non-academic language. They are usually filmed in a selfie format by sociology students or enthusiasts to educate the audiences on fundamental sociological theories. Some of them also directly target majority dominant groups that they perceive being not understanding of certain phenomena or oppressive, for example, men or white people.
My plan for next week would be to reconnect with my project partner and start pulling together some themes that we are noticing. I also want to start planning the TikToks that we are potentially going to make and brainstorm what topics we can cover.