Social media is no longer the same as it used to be. There was a time when social media was about staying connected, sharing pictures, and scrolling through all over feed. Then how did it all change? When TikTok came into the social media market, the real reel started, and then the way people used to explore social media changed. People’s behaviour got influenced by TikTok in reality, as tiktok just didn’t join the race but it also changed the track entirely.

Why is every platform trying to be TikTok?

Nowadays every major platform is trying to chase that same formula which attracted huge audience base in tiktok’s case – Algorithm was TikTok’s very big super power. It always judged user behaviour, swipes, replays and interactions to track your interest, people didn’t need to follow the type of content they used to like as everything was simply monitored by the tiktok’s algorithm. Personalisation and ‘for you page’ made everything so customised and made scroll so relatable. Tiktok made us the feel like it almost read our moods.. which simply attracted more viewers. All these things taught other platforms too that people like relatable content, they are not bothered about whose content is, but they just want to be entertained.

Attention to Retention

For any social media platform, attention is the real currency and tiktok used it tactics to attract the attention of viewers. Lets look at this now, how tiktok cracked the code? Basically, tiktok started to focus on short format content, which was addictive for viewers as every next second viewers got something new , funny, relatable, engaging, shocking or satisfying.
Result: people keep scrolling.

Other social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube couldn’t afford to ignore it. They also used short form videos to attract viewers attention to compete and to stand out in the competition. For these major platforms the best thing want is the watch time so they try every bit to keep audience in their platform.

Culture and Trends

The way TikTok captured trends and everyday brands hitting the trends , viral songs and viral reels, it’s how global culture began there, and every other platform wanted to give that same exposure to their audience.

The Unavoidable Evolution and Conclusion

Tiktok didn’t only focused on the trends and came up with the addictive short format but created whole new digital language for people.
However other platforms also couldn’t avoid that new change and evolution beginning with TikTok.

Each one of them are actually trying that same way as they know endless scroll keeps the world hooked which hook audience in the app too.
Therefore, social media is a new meet-up point for every generation and tiktok introduced the tactics to hold their attention which was later adopted by other platforms too.