TikTok is quickly becoming one of the most influential apps in pop culture history. It has the power to bring together crowds of thousands, to sway elections, to promote popular music, and to send masses to Target for the latest trendy find. It's an app so powerful that the previous president attempted to get it banned after teens started messing with his rallies, claiming tickets online and never showing.

Appealing to the goldfish-like attention spans of Generation Z, TikTok allows users to create videos no longer than three minutes — and also sucks you in until you've been swiping for hours..

Yet many are still unaware of just how powerful TikTok has become.

"TikTok has been everything," Queer creator Josh Jacobs said as we talked about the impact the app has had on his career, which he began as an artist on Etsy four years ago. "I am an artist, and I've always loved art," he said. "My identity as a Queer person leaked into my artwork... and those turned into designs and prints."

However, Jacobs began to struggle to make sales, especially from his rural Utah home. Dissatisfied with his day job, he made the life-changing decision to quit and focus entirely on his struggling Etsy shop. "The first few months after I quit my job, it was really kinda scary. I was just scraping by."

Jacobs said that he began promoting his work on all social media platforms, from Twitter to Facebook to Instagram, but it wasn't until he joined TikTok that business really began to take off. One of his videos on the app went viral, and now he's gaining new followers every day and his business is thriving.

"Because of TikTok, I've been getting more attention to my stores, so I've been doing a lot better... In January I had 10,000 followers, and now I have 62,000 followers, which is pretty cool."

"Before TikTok, my sales were very low," he added. Now, every time I make a video that goes viral, [it means] immediate sales from my Etsy shop. Even if my videos aren't about art, people still go to my profile, click the link, and find out about my shop, and it has led to more sales. Most of my success on Redbubble and Etsy has been because of TikTok."

Jacobs' videos have continued to thrive since he launched a new clothing line on Redbubble. It features irreverent Pride merchandise, which he encourages members of the LGBTQ community to consider buying instead of pandering corporate merch.

"I think that a lot of queer culture is irreverent," Jacobs explained. "And Pride... started out as a riot, as a protest, and it always has been. In modern-day rainbow capitalism... a lot of corporate designs are very family friendly. And so it's almost like I'm queering it even further and taking all these family- friendly designs and saying, 'No, Pride is not supposed to be a family-friendly event. It's about expression, people being able to be open about their sexuality and gender and not being ashamed to hide anything.' So making irreverent, funny designs I think is a way to show that."

If Jacobs' videos are any indication, members of the LGBTQ community agree with him: Pride is a riot, and irreverent is in.



TikToxic

Like Jacobs, Julia Hughes joined TikTok four years ago. "In 2018 I was leaving Austin, Texas, and I had just started getting on TikTok, because I missed Vine and I was not doing as well on Instagram, because Instagram is very hashtag based," Hughes explained.

"I started doing it, and people started sending me money, because I volunteer a lot, so I started volunteering more, and I realized that I could make these historical videos I like making and seeing. I started making that content, and now I'm getting 2,000 new followers a day."

Hughes now makes videos promoting Seattle's historical architecture. "When people think of Seattle, they think of the Space Needle; they don't think of the neo-Mayan banks and buildings, or the German-American banks that were built in the 1920s."

She has found her niche showcasing Seattle's unique culture to vast audiences around the world, but she has also found the darker side to TikTok.

"I have had random strangers follow me and come to my home. I have had people call hotels I stay in and put the information on TikTok, where it will go viral. I sometimes open the app and have hundreds of thousands of people telling me to off myself, that I'm a terrible person. I've had my family called, their schools and jobs," Hughes said.

Not only has she been the recipient of such hostility but she said she has also witnessed the app silence and oppress minority friends. Many have noted that the app is known for being against minorities who speak out against the government and any kind of sex work.

"There are severe guidelines, and they change regularly," Hughes said. "One of my friends — her name is Hawk, she is also a lesbian — she had 1.4 million followers, and they removed her account for sexual content, but all she did was dance."

The app is also known for silencing members of the LGBTQ community. "Absolutely they suppress them. My viewership went down when I started talking about my sexuality. You can see it. You can literally scroll down and see it," said Hughes.

Despite losing viewership for discussing her sexuality, Hughes, like Jacobs, is still a member of the Creator Fund, an elite side of TikTok that provides monetary incentives for creators to continue producing content. "They pay you per viewership, and also you have the opportunity to have brand partnerships," Hughes said.

TikTok for good

Despite the apparent downsides of the novel app, TikTok still has the power to function for good. Maybe it is the larger sense of community that has been drawing Seattle-based creators to the app.

Hughes is the type of person who dedicates herself to her community. As she put it, "Community is kind of all we have here. That's kind of the Seattle thing."

"It's definitely a deep connection. There are people that have been following me since 2018. They have my phone number, we Facetime, it's very real friendships, and community." She elaborated, "I just moved into my new apartment and made an Amazon wishlist, and overnight, everything was bought.

"The power of the community is great, but that hate, it can turn on you like that. The power of speech on that app is incredible, but at the same time, some people use it for the wrong reasons."

The power of TikTok's community is also working to help small businesses, many of whom have been struggling over the last year. Hughes uses her voice to help bring attention to some of those businesses. "I've been finding older business owners, especially older trans people... We don't have a lot of older trans people to tell their stories, so finding those stories... and giving those people those voices they never had, it's so huge."

TikTok also has the power to unite, as Hughes said: "TikTok has this amazing megaphone way of saying, 'Everyone meet here!' We just saw it happen... [with a party] at Alki Beach. Hundreds of people showed up to the party, and it was all because of TikTok."

In a year during which we were starved for connection, TikTok filled a need, and now, it is continuing to provide a space for members of the LGBTQ community to come together and share information, products, and inside jokes.

And most importantly, it is a platform for activists to speak out on. "I'm seeing the gay community stand up and be activists more than I ever have before. It's always the LGBTQ ocmmunity that reaches out first, that's doing something," Hughes said.

Whether TikTok has led to more good than bad is up for debate, but one thing is for sure, it's having an impact. Whether it's here to stay is an open question.

Jacobs' TikTok is @queer_josh; his Etsy and Redbubble accounts are under artjoshua. His website is artjoshua.com. Hughes' TikTok is @hellcathysteria.