Growth of "Awakenings" of Therians recently because of TikTok / Instagram

honestly I think the reason there's so many new "therians" is because people have used therianthropy as a way to promote something. I get wanting to be yourself, or wanting to sell your cool masks, but because people on social media are so shallow they can't see past one small association they've made therianthropy seem like something it isn't. And then of course it's literal children hearing about it and thinking "ooh i get to be an animal and its silly".

I personally think that children younger than 12 do not have the emotional capacity to identify as therian. They don't have the complexity, nor the understanding of the world around them to then understand some of the deeper meanings behind the therian identity

(2024-09-02 0:00)grays Wrote:  I get wanting to be yourself, or wanting to sell your cool masks, but because people on social media are so shallow they can't see past one small association they've made therianthropy seem like something it isn't. And then of course it's literal children hearing about it and thinking "ooh i get to be an animal and its silly".

^^^
This is why I don't get on therian tiktok. Tiktok is great purely for entertainment purposes but it doesn't foster in-depth conversations about things. It's designed to feed content to peoples' brains in short clips at a fast pace to maximize "interaction" (likes) and dopamine hits- this way the company makes more money. The vast majority of people who happen to scroll across therian content in their feed aren't going to engage in in-depth thinking or self-reflection. They're just there for that dopamine hit. So of course they're going to see one person's expression of their therianthropy and not dig deeper into it.
Not everybody deep dives into all the interesting topics they find on the internet.

Also, tiktok is made to cycle the types of videos you haven't scrolled past back into your feed. So if a kid happens across therian content on their feed, the algorithm is likely to keep showing them more. That could possibly lead to young people becoming more misinformed about what therianthropy is.

(2024-09-02 1:27)Glory Wrote:  

(2024-09-02 0:00)grays Wrote:  I get wanting to be yourself, or wanting to sell your cool masks, but because people on social media are so shallow they can't see past one small association they've made therianthropy seem like something it isn't. And then of course it's literal children hearing about it and thinking "ooh i get to be an animal and its silly".

^^^
This is why I don't get on therian tiktok. Tiktok is great purely for entertainment purposes but it doesn't foster in-depth conversations about things. It's designed to feed content to peoples' brains in short clips at a fast pace to maximize "interaction" (likes) and dopamine hits- this way the company makes more money. The vast majority of people who happen to scroll across therian content in their feed aren't going to engage in in-depth thinking or self-reflection. They're just there for that dopamine hit. So of course they're going to see one person's expression of their therianthropy and not dig deeper into it.
Not everybody deep dives into all the interesting topics they find on the internet.

Also, tiktok is made to cycle the types of videos you haven't scrolled past back into your feed. So if a kid happens across therian content on their feed, the algorithm is likely to keep showing them more. That could possibly lead to young people becoming more misinformed about what therianthropy is.

Exactly. Tiktok is going to be the death of intellectual conversation and in depth thinking, and this hurts niche communities like ours.

Wow, I didn't expect this post to be so active !

I appreciate reading all of your replies ^_^

I am on there and am apart of it but I do the videos for fun and info. I also make sure to inform every person I see that calls themselves a therian what it really is cause the definition has been so messed on there.

the amount of misinformation on tiktok is honestly putting actually newly awakened therian to shame. I don't think quads or gear are very linked to it, and I honestly think that its less of a problem than some people act like it is, but its still really upsetting.

I think to some extent, it is an aesthetic at the moment. I recently got together with an old friend, whom I have known since elementary school (we're both in our 30's now), and she really surprised me when she said her kid was in to therian stuff. I was like "whoa, you know what therians are!?" I didn't mention anything about being one, or my experiences in the community, but instead asked what animal her daughter was. I was initially thinking and expecting the community to be more like how it was when I first found it. She replied that her daughter was just really into wearing tails and making masks. So maybe her daughter is a therian, maybe she isn't, it doesn't really matter. However, it's mainstream enough now that my friend is aware of the community.

Seriously, why can't people just admit that they WANT to be Therian? What's the point of acting and lying to everyone else and yourself? Just make it clear that you know you are human and that you are a Quadrobist or Otherpaw. The fundamental difference is that you can CHOOSE to be Otherpaw, you can CHOOSE to be a Quadrobist, but you can't CHOOSE to be a Therian.

Even I respect this difference. I don't fake-claim being Therian just because I want to be 'mainstream' and 'accepted in a community' although I've seriously wanted to. Instead, I was honest and I was still kindly accepted into this community.

There's no shame in being different from the mainstream culture, and Therianthropy certainly should not be a mainstream culture just because people find it really cool. Those who base their life around being socially-accepted and get all their energy from other people's attention are seriously miserable. That is one thing I never understood and never will.

But the really problematic thing is that there's literally no way to day that someone isn't a Therian. It's all in someone's mind, there's nothing physical or tangible that can be used as proof.

So anyways, those were some of my really jumbled-up thoughts about fake-claiming Therianthropy and following this mainstream TikTok and Insta aesthetic. I don't think my paragraphs were well organized but I hope my main ideas and arguments were well expressed.

I was in a discussion akin to this on the werelist recently. There, they'd been called "fourth wave" therians. I had a bit to say on the topic, and I still do. Below is my original reply from the werelist, edited a bit for clarity.

Quote: In all the conversations around the state of the community, I feel that we are forgetting to look at the state of the internet as a whole. When I look at what forms of connection are easily available, it's no wonder that the community has become what it is.

Fourth wave [tiktok] therians exist mostly on youtube, instagram, and tiktok. While nuance and the like can be absent in any form of communication, these platforms simply aren't built for it at all. Short-form content thrives off of quick clicks and rapid swiping. You can post all the introspection on those sites you want, but unless it generates easy ad revenue, it might as well not exist at all. This leads to all the posts and conversations that get shared to be ankle-deep at best, ergo that's what the uninformed and uninitiated make the community out to be. You may have the occasional account that gets attention for sharing real experiences, but it's a rarity. We know that social media is predatory and that children are very susceptible to it. There aren't a ton of stand-alone websites like this anymore because of how pervasive algorithm-based platforms have become.

Short-form content has rotted brains to the point where long-form content such as forums and essays cant hold attention. Then it bleeds over into other platforms like Reddit. I could easily write forever about how this probably has a lot to do with capitalism and anti-intellectualism.

Do people need to be aware of the community they're joining before they join it? Absolutely. Should we encourage positive change? Of course. There are a lot of issues that come with children and other uninformed folks joining the community en mass and there always has been. I just think we should be more aware that the environment and framework that these new communities are forming under are inherently hostile to the nuanced conversations that create good community. Growth should always be encouraged, but sometimes the soil you're planted in is pretty nasty.

I find it shallow and a bit dishonest to blame children for the issues within the new community. Most of the time, they are completely unaware that a much deeper and richer community lurks right under the surface, and tiktoks endless desire for ad revenue and attention isn't going to spur them onto these deeper conversations, it's just going to keep them on the app.

Ultimately, I think the hype will die out in time. The community will adapt, and those who turned out to be "real" will stick around and contribute. Best thing we can do is gently educate and not shame them.