Social Implications of Adolescents Engaging with Racist Trends on TikTok

This article examines a racist TikTok trend titled “How’s My Form” in order to understand the possible motivations behind adolescent users and their engagement with the social networking platform, TikTok. Guided by uses and gratifications theory, the social implications of adolescent engagement with such trends are explored alongside notions of accountability. In doing so, the efficacy of current media literacy education is questioned in order to determine whether standards are keeping pace with technologically driven social changes. The role progressions of recent adolescent generations from passive consumers to active producers on social media will also be considered.