 Well, today I'm very excited to delve into the fascinating world of TikTok. Now, if you have the app on your phone, we all know how addicting the app can be. To further discuss the advantages and disadvantages of TikTok's trends, I will be talking to a few BU students to get some direct insight. I mean, we've all heard of TikTok and the craziness of it all. Every time exam season comes around, all I hear from my friends is, I delete a TikTok to stop their incessant doom scrolling. I'm a victim too. I could spend hours on that app. And I think a lot of it comes from the fact that there are so many trends that are now set on TikTok. The clean girl aesthetic by Sophia Ritchie Grange, or the 75 heart by literally all the influencers and celebrities. Girl dinner for college students. I mean, the list goes on and on. So many of which have managed to create ample motivation and so many of which are just worrying. Here to talk to me is Trace Decini, Rani Gaushik, and Trisha Ruckert from BU. So how much time would you guys say you'll spend on TikTok and how does it make you feel overall? We'll start with Rani. I would say I spend quite a couple of hours every day on TikTok. It's usually like what I do when I come home from class, just scroll for a bit. And it is definitely the last thing I do before I go to bed. And for the most part, it's cool. I like that the videos are short. I don't have to pay attention for a long time. And yeah, it's always something new and interesting. So I definitely spend an ungodly amount of time on TikTok. I've set those limits on the time limits on my phone for TikTok, but I always click ignore for today. And that's, I'm always going to tell myself, oh, it's the last time I'm going to do that. I've been telling myself that for half a year. And like Rani said, it is the last thing I do when I go to bed. And it makes me feel horrible because as someone with ADHD, that quite literally just captures my attention and holds it for like four hours. And I've wasted the whole day. And then now I'm procrastinating. But yeah, that being said, I'm still going to go on TikTok tonight. Trace then spoke about why TikTok is so addicting. Because it's like, it's free content. Like quite literally any personality, any type of person can publish content on there. And I think that freedom of content is just so entertaining because you can just come across anything. And it's just really fun. And I get to contribute. I get to take part in like all of these trends. And I get to appreciate other people's trends and everything like that. Here's what Trisha had to say. I probably spend max two hours a day on TikTok. I try to be strict about it. But it is so engaging. And it really will pull you in from the moment you're on there. And you can just get lost in hundreds of videos and not even keep track of time. So what are your guys' favorite TikTok trends at the moment? That's really hard. I feel like I really love Get Ready With Me's. I know that's like a classic. It's been going around for a while. But I have to say specifically, I'm an Alex Erlsten. So her Get Ready With Me's will never get old. Especially like now that she's doing all these red carpets, like she was at the Grammys. So yeah, that's probably my favorite. And how do you think that like impacts your like daily life? All those trends like the Get Ready With Me, do you feel like it impacts you like positively and negatively? I would say I'm definitely influenced. Like it might be small things like oh like a skincare product that she's using or like you know a top that she like links in her bio. It's like I'll always like not like buy it but I'll always check it out. So it's definitely on my radar. I remember like that's the purpose of Get Ready With Me's. But I always like internally I'm like oh like I'm not going to be influenced by that kind of stuff. But I am. Let's just say Trace's favorite trend was something that's been a trend for years. Mine's not really a trend but I am obsessed with those types of videos of like oh um come with me for a day as a private chef for like billionaires in the Hamptons. And I am obsessed with those videos and it's just so fun seeing what like people like that and like the upper class you know. The top 0.001% of the world to eat in the Hamptons and it's just so fun and it makes me feel so bad because that's not me and I can't eat their food but it also makes me work harder in life because I want that and I'm striving for that and I want to become that. Do you feel like things like that would like impact you know other people who've probably gone before don't have like the motivation to get to that life like negatively? I definitely think it does. I think it when you especially because it's um video content I think it's sort of exacerbates like the wealth disparity um because like you can so clearly see the gap and food quality just honestly lifestyle having a private chef is already in itself a luxury um so having that on video especially on TikTok where it's so short but it's so accessible it's to so many people definitely makes it clear how much more people how much people are fortunate and like essentially just exacerbates like the wealth gap in the US or just the world yeah. Here are some of Trisha's favorite trends quite interesting to say the least. As Rani I am a die-hard stan for the get ready with me and also right now I've been into the North Sea TikToks I don't know why they just pull me in and when TikTok one thing is it shows you something that like you haven't seen before like everybody is using the platform and that's positive and negative um side step but I think right now my 4u page is filled with North Sea TikToks. Let's talk about some like specific trends now so like one of them that I've seen a lot on TikTok and a lot of people have been following is like 75 hard I feel like every single influencer has been getting into that lately like have any do you guys know anyone who's tried that do you see like it's impacted them in a certain way because the one thing about 75 hard is it's 75 days and then you're done like does that mean you go back to your lifestyle that it was before so what do you guys think about that um I think that this is one of those trends where it's like every time a new year starts there's always some sort of health kick that's on the rise because you know people want to start working out more people want to eat better um I've seen obviously people do 75 hard but I've also seen like a 30 hard so it's like you know obviously just a month I know Alex Earl did one because her thing was mainly like cutting back like on the drinking because you know she's like known for being like a party girl but then she graduated college and people were like well you shouldn't you know it's when you graduate it's alcoholism now it's not just going out um so I've definitely seen a lot of people do that but I think I mean I think it's good to like obviously take care of yourself and I think if you do something for 75 days it will become a habit so it's kind of goes without saying that after those 75 days you will sort of keep up that lifestyle or a version of it um but I think this along with girl dinner you have to be really careful at not like promoting eating disorders because I feel like that can also be really common especially on tiktok where people are like oh look at what like I'm a model in New York look at what I ate in a day and it's like you know a cup of green tea and a lemon bar and she's like and then I had a bunch of fittings and then I went to bed and it's like well you only drank a cup of green tea and had a lemon bar so yeah let's let's talk about like that a little bit more like golden oh and gold lunch I mean I definitely have participated in this trend with the beautiful charcuterie board with just salami and cheese from Trader Joe's but I'm very well aware that that's not very good for me you know what I mean and that's the thing is like I've just seen it on tiktok so much that I'm always just like scolding I'm like oh my god I I can do this like this is probably like a healthy balanced meal with some fruits but it's not so have you guys participated in golden over lunch I have definitely participated in girl dinner that's like me every day in college which is so bad but it's not really that I want to do it like the charcuterie boards okay that's because I love like charcuterie meats like I love salami cheese like that's just an excuse for me to go and eat them but like I think girl dinners it's also this is so I feel like the controversy take but it's also so bonding when you and other girls are like oh my gosh I had that for dinner and then another girl is like oh girl dinner and like they tell you what they ate because it's just like the struggle is real and it just bonds you but that being said like we need more balanced meals and I am trying to get them but it's hard but you know life gets hard sometimes you can have a girl dinner here and there sometimes at this point all four of us were on the same page we've all participated in golden oh here's what Tisha had to say I have definitely participated in girl dinner um I think it is low key it is a connection it is to have a connected like it in a way it is humorous like you see people posting maybe like a glass of wine and gum and they're just like girl dinner but life does life is very fast paced we all get caught up so from time to time it's bound to happen to wrap this all up I want to say that tiktok how much ever it is an addicting app that really sucks you in it's an app that's there to stay by that I don't mean the company tiktok is going to last forever but reels youtube shorts etc everything new that's gonna come up all apps that carry on this 10 seconds of visual and mental stimulation that has become unavoidable in my opinion we take the best parts of it and absorb that into our lives things like 75 hard should actually influence our lives permanently or things like get ready with me that helps one expand their style into something different our trends that wouldn't be this popular without the app well that's all for today thank you for listening I'm vedisha nike from be you new service