It is the time of hashtags for youngsters who are hooked to their social media accounts with endless hashtags of Bangalore on TikTok like #bangaloredays with 4.8million followers, #bangalorean with 1.8million followers and so on… Many tech-savvy trends are going viral with a vengeance. Nowadays, there have been challenges like TakiTaki, Della Alli, Hoppa Lumia Lumia and others which have created a buzz on the Internet and millennials are only bothered about maximising their followers, likes and reach.
The southern state (Kerala) police had also witnessed a road block by youngsters who were busy creating their NilluNillu challenge and hence passed a legal warning against the youth from creating short videos like these.
Teenagers in the city find it amusing to enact their favourite stars’ dialogues, and get popular amongst peers. Celebrities have also used platforms like TikTok by Musically and Instagram to promote their movies or create a buzz through short videos of their upcoming songs.
Bollywood Actors like Ritiesh Deshmukh, Shraddha Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Varun Dhawan are hash-tagging their videos on these sites. I love TikTok, says Nishma Reddy, a B.com student, “It is really fun to do and I get positive vibes. I definitely get motivated by the comments, so I post regularly. #godsplan and #glamdiwali are my favourite videos and got the highest likes reaching 10k.” She adds, “It is definitely trendy among all of my friends and family. They follow it regularly.
It is a great platform to showcase your talent, claims Akash Panicker, a B.com graduate. He also mentions, “If you want to build a future in the entertainment industry, then TikTok is great, that is one of the reasons I post regularly. I have made new friends there as well. Nowadays it is getting popular among every age group. My mother also enjoys the videos and keeps passing her time.”
More the followers, the more popularity you get. Ishita Sandhir, a media student, loves attention as any other girl at this age would. She says, “I have a keen interest in the app as it sharpens my acting skills. Similarly I get an opportunity to connect to new people. It is all about creativity and humour. My #hoppalumialumia challenge was about making notorious baby faces with different expressions.”
“It is the age of ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’,” says psychologist, Subikshalakshmi G. “Social media challenges have become very regular nowadays, where youngsters are trying to be good at anything they do, but are lacking the skill. There are negative implications like everything is virtual, no evaluation, no criticism and the comments are not constructive feedback”. Youth needs to be more focused and concentrated with the growing opportunities.
— Sneha Bhagat
