Like social media giant, Facebook, the newly introduced TikTok app is doing its share of rounds for everyday Papua New Guinean’s and has gained momentum as it did widely around the world and is fast becoming one of the main entertainment options for teens and adults alike.
This app is not foreign to Papua New Guineans who use it and have become familiar with it creating accounts to follow trends, edit photos, using filters and effects and following either educational, inspirational, food, humorous or other content pages that are available.
But here’s the catch; weighing in on the pros and cons, we might ask what type of content is suitable to be posted on TikTok or if we Papua New Guineans are using the application in an acceptable manner and not abusing it. When does it become a violation of the laws, and if the application is regulated for its users.
TikTok is a video-sharing social networking application service owned by Chinese company ByteDance and the social media platform makes a variety of short-form videos, from genres like dance, comedy, and education with a duration from 15 seconds to one minute.
Papua New Guineans shared their experiences and what they thought of the app and if we are abusing this social media site.
27 year old Hussein Lowah said we Papua New Guineans just follow what the rest of the world is doing on TikTok. But the difference is our strong cultural beliefs and what our people choose to accept and engage in on this App. It all comes down to our mentality as Papua New Guineans and how we define the abuse of TikTok.
“TikTok is a social media platform and we Papua New Guineans should use it to express and promote our culture by doing unique things that depict our culture and the type of people we are, basically using this platform at a proper and acceptable way will only create less problems”, added Hussein.
24 year old Chantika Haru, who has over 81, 000 thousand (81.4K) followers on TikTok said that she wanted to stay off the App for a while but out of literal boredom because half the time she was in quarantine, she found it a good way to pass time, plus having previously an account on TikTok, there were a lot more educational content then just dancing.
“In my opinion I think the application itself is not the problem, Papua New Guineans just have this ‘monkey see monkey do’ type of mindset without fully understanding the repercussions of what they’re putting out there for the world to see”, said Chantika.
19 year old Joshua Lester based in Brisbane, Australia said he wouldn’t call it abuse for some content Papua New Guineans upload but he would call it “cringe.”
“There can be all kinds of content on TikTok but it all comes down to the target audience and what you are looking at to do with your content”, added Joshua.
But look on the bright side, we’ve had some of our local Papua New Guinean songs that went viral with users all over the Pacific (even the globe) had their fair take on the dance trend. Songs like ‘Koko’ by JayRex Suisui, ‘Iko Iko’ by Justin Wellington and now trending ‘Tambu Lewa’ by Tintin Reu Feat Uncle Dee and ‘Eastside’ by Tonton Malele featuring DJ Dirty Fingers.
To be a part of this social media platform, we must know the content and the message we are trying to get across to their followers since TikTok itself is an app that is used around by millions around the globe and what content you upload gets viewed by someone out there.