Point of view
Copying the latest dance crazes in public and spending hours building obstacle courses for her cats, our columnist realised that her TikTok addiction had to stop
There are many excellent things that have started to happen to me as I get older. Discovering anti-chafing shorts (life-changing), shoving handkerchiefs up the sleeves of every jumper I wear and being happy to admit that I’d rather stay in and watch a documentary about trains than spend time at a nightclub. But my absolute favourite thing that’s happened is that I find myself saying, without any guilt at all, ‘Sorry, it’s not for me.’ Free from the peer pressure of youth, unconstrained by what anyone may think, as I hurtle towards my 50s, I firmly believe it’s fine to try something and then proclaim that I don’t like it.
Take paddleboarding. My friends who love it keep trying to get me to accompany them on a day out on the water. The thing is that I have tried it and I can honestly say that I hated it. The best part of my boarding adventure was when I had to ask a stranger to help me take my wetsuit off. I can confidently say to my pals that they may adore it, but it’s definitely not for me.
I had a similar epiphany with TikTok. Even if you haven’t been on it, you’ll probably have heard about it because, quite frankly, it’s everywhere. You may also have heard a snippet of a tune or seen a dance move that lots of people seem to know but you’ve no idea where from. The answer is that it’s probably from TikTok. In very simple terms, it’s an app on which people can make or share videos. But what started as a platform for young people has quickly turned into something that’s used by people of all ages.
I joined TikTok primarily out of boredom during the first lockdown in March 2020. I wanted something to take my mind off what was happening and couldn’t believe just how much there was to enjoy. I found myself particularly entranced by the dance routines. Usually lasting less than a minute, the best ones took snippets of songs (some old and some new) and combined them with easy-to-follow choreography. I’d spend hours in my kitchen trying to master whatever new-found craze had surfaced, listening to Taylor Swift or Boney M, determined to look as cool as the people on the internet. I even went so far as to buy a ring light, which influencers use to make
