Is TikT0k Harming Therians?

Don't mind the 0 instead of an o in the title. I'm typing this on a school chrome book, and it might flag the page if it has a social media app in the title. I should be okay inside of the post though.

Introduction

So my friend @PeterTheGhost just posted about disabled therians and quadrobics, and I thought I would touch on that a bit with a question of my own. Is Tiktok hurting the therian community?

I discovered therianthropy along side Peter (he actually introduced me to it), and since we were young kids new to the community, we were exposed to the Tiktok quadrobics side of things. We still watched Therian Territory and PD, so we weren't too far down the Tiktok rabbit hole. But since we already both did quadrobics, we decided to give Tiktok a try. We made an account, doing quads and wearing masks. I realized that quadrobics did very little to connect me to my theriotype, and was a very exhausting sport.

So I stopped filming all together and got on TG and youtube. Therian Tiktok, in my experience, was not a fun place.


Just a warning, this post is long. Sorry if I made typos/grammatical errors, let me know if you see any so I can fix them!

What happens on therian Tiktok?

I'll shorten this to some basic points just so that I don't end up spending an hour typing this, since there is a lot to say.

Therians on that app are almost purely spiritual. Many claim that the definition of therianthropy is "A strong spiritual connection to an animal", or "someone who was an animal in a past life". pshycological therianthropy is overlooked and sparsely mentioned.

Many people make videos about their past lives and the "things that happened". In quotations because it's going to become increasingly obvious that they're making it up. many claim to die in gruesome ways like being chased off a cliff by hunters, falling off cliffs, drowning after being chased by hunters, you get the picture. There are hunting techniques where people chase animals off of cliffs, but not every arctic fox is going to be chased off a snowy cliff into a lake by a pack of hunting dogs.

There is so much misinformation spread on spirituality, and people often come to the conclusion that they are therians because of their "strong connection to animals", and then after identifying as a therian, they will start having flashbacks and shifts. Some also claim therianthropy to be a belief, religion, or spiritual practice like witchcraft.


There is a common phrase on the app. "you don't need gear or quads to be a therian", though so many push the narrative that you do. A tiktocker in their early 20's (who mainly posts fursuiting videos) claimed that they were called a fake therian by a younger group of kids (around 9-13) because they didn't do quads.

Nearly every single therian tiktocker does quads, and says it's a "great way to connect with theriotypes and relive dysphoria". Adding on to the age thing, most therians on the app are between 9-16, so there aren't very many adults that get popular on there. mostly just young quadrobisists.

Yeah dysphoria. That's everywhere too. I'm not trying to dismiss any therians who actually experience dysphoria, but yet again, nearly every single kid on that app has very severe species dysphoria. Many say "you don't want to be a therian, we have it so hard" or "it's such a pain living with these memories, I just want to go back". It's not a minority, it's the vast majority, at least out of the one's I've met.

Back to the point of fake therians, a post floated around saying something along the lines of "I'm so tired of fake therians. You're not a winged wolf or horned cat, stop trying to be special and realize that therians struggle every day". Plenty don't actually know what otherkin is, fewer know of Otherhearted.

There are a lot more problems there, these are just the worst I could think of.

The good side

despite the rant about the not so good things I've seen, there are a few creators that actually do good with their time. A tiktoker (who I believe their username is winding roots, or something with roots in it) doesn't post quadrobics content at all, and instead makes general therian content.
There are also some accounts dedicated to educating about therianthropy, the different types of shifts, etc. Even if some of these kids realize they aren't therians, they will at least be open minded to the community. Many people are kind and open minded, and although rarely post their experiences, are willing to share them.

Some of my mutuals while I was on the app knew they were just a typical tiktok therian, but wore gear and did quads for fun, and were open about it and educated others. Overall, just people minding their own business and having fun.


OKAY LONG POST OVER
now the final question, is tiktok hurting therians/the therian community? I would argue yes, but anyone and anything can improve. A boost in education and less misinformation could do wonders for the community. But I would like to hear other's thoughts on the subject.

Sorry if I sounded harsh towards these kids, my own experience compared to the contrast with this site makes me view many of these people in a negative light.
And again, sorry for any grammar mistakes.

Yes, you explained all this amazingly. I dont think we can like, make these kids stop trying to create drama by calling non quadrobicists "fake therians" but maybe make more informational, dicussion type content on their and to hopefully gain traction on it.

Gear and quads are such a new thing. You didn’t really hear much about them prior to 2015 or so. It is strange to me, like a parallel world. I have tried to get into TikTok, but the app doesn’t make much sense to me and the young folks aren’t making content I find useful — not even sure how quads would help a bear, we eat berries and other stuff that can’t run away when possible. Moving wastes energy.

I think tiktok simplifies therianthropy way to much. The therian community is full of diverse individuals that have their own diverse experiences, some even being very deep and personal, but the tiktok side essentialy just boils it down to who has the coolest theriotype and who has the most tragic backstory. It feels like they're creating their own characters at this point which is fine of course, but it doesen't feel right to see them call themselves therians just because they like to roleplay as those characters or have some kind of connection with them. I hope that one day the trend dies down or that these kids will learn what therianthropy really is.

I don't use tiktok at all, but I've heard similar things that you've mentioned about it. It's got the same issue as many parts of the community, in that when it's primarily children, they're going to be children. Children are fluffy, and are just trying to fit in or join a fad. I'm 33 and have been in the community for over a decade now and almost every child I've seen grows out of their therianthropy. Like 80-90% of them. I don't just mean integration, I mean casting it off and even calling it cringe because it was just a hobby for them when they were dumb and impressionable kids.

And you're right, a lot of the younger side of the community, BOTH spiritual and psychological, doesn't seem to understand what therianthropy is. They don't seem to truly understand what identity is. It's not just having a connection to something or a past life. I've lived many lives as many different things but I don't have a half dozen theriotypes. I have one, the one who I still view the world as. The one who is me. Identity, and thus therianthropy/otherkin, is a state of being. I was always this way, from the time I was a toddler. Nothing has ever made that change.

So to answer your question, yes and no. It does just spur more and more kids to be trendy but at the end of the day it doesn't mean anything. Most of them will grow up and grow out of this phase, because it is a phase for them. Others will get a hold on their shit and come to better understand themselves. Only a very small percentage go of the deep end and become crazies and honestly, those sorts of people were predisposed to it to begin with.

imho. therianthropes cannot be harmed by such coverage on social networks. very soon hysterical children with denial syndrome will grow up and become ordinary people and quadrobics is forgotten as another trend.

it doesn't matter what people call therianthropy if they don't feel they belong to animals.

I got into "therian gear" because I liked the look of it. This was when I had nothing to do with therians and was just a furry liking this look. And I still do.

My mom once said she knew a lot of people with tails on their belts and spiked dog collars when she was in her Punk phase. So this isn't really all that new either I guess.

I don't think Tiktok will damage it in the long run. It's kids doing silly stuff, following a trend. Eventually they will forget about it or stumble over the actual meaning of therianthropy.

I sometimes feel like it's always doomed to sound completely silly to outsiders regardless of the way it's worded or portrayed. Without a bit of reading it sounds just chaotic.

Social media is mental poison. It has poisoned every subject matter and community out there as much as it has helped them grow and spread awareness about them. It's not going anywhere... waste of energy to fret over it.

The other thing to is that people need to get over themselves and stop trying to control other people's Therianthropy. It's just gross when I see it. It's a journey that one figures out eventually, either it gets reaffirmed or will be discarded for a person, no one hangs into it forever when it's not true for them.

What more can you do? Being theian for me is intrinsicly linked to my past lives...oops oh well too bad. My eyes just roll everytime I see someone have an issue with people who past lives play a role in their Therianthropy it's just so narcy & controlling. Secure people, who have already done their growing and self reflection aren't going to care how much anyone rants about their personal business such as their identity. Secure people also don't tend to feel the need to talk about their identity on social for external validation. You see it with LGBTQ stuff, feminist, red pill stuff etc bunch of people with identity issues seeking attention and validation online. Saying and doing more and more outlandish things for attention. So understanding that a lot of it is just a bunch if insecure and uncertain people working(or projecting) their issues out puts things in perspective.

Social media is built to be sensational, plastic, shallow to grab an audiences attention. It's also a great distraction from actually handling one's problems. Only platform that still has some degree of depth is YouTube, but even that fades due to the algorithm favoring nonsense. That's why I stopped making my own videos and grew bored of it(unrelated to Therianthropy).

In the end? I stopped using Facebook(save for recently joining a therian group haven't even opened it again), Instagram, and tried out TikTok to see all the fuss was about then deleted it a week later lol. Haven't ever used Twitter much anyway.

Now I'm not troubled by meaningless noise such as kids figuring themselves out online, pointless arguments that solve nothing, or all the other vast amount of noise people subject themselves to when they just don't have to. Of course not saying everyone should just stop using social media, but if it's something that bothers you why not just be rid of it? Because you can't really control anything about it you'd have to get these companies to change how their algorithms work and that ain't happening because the way it is now makes them money.

I would say that it has the potential to both harm and benefit therians. There might be some people on it that mock therians, but there could also be therians on it that strive to educate people about therianthropy.

I know I don’t ever write anything on TG but I just wanted to say a few things.

I am a Therian tiktok Contant Creator, and what I have to say about tiktok therians is some what a lot. I have been on tiktok since it was musicly….it’s been a while…but anyway, I was on musicly being a kid and what not before I awakened. After tiktok bought musicly, things changed big time of course, slowly but surely I saw video after video doing quadrobics with mask, tail, the whole show!
Ever since I was little I have always been kind of animal like, urges, thoughts and behaviors but my little kid self thought I was crazy or insane so I pushed it down.
Time later, I awakened as a Therian but here is the “tiktok Therian thing that’s about messed me up….

The therians I followed on tiktok at that time would talk about how their theriantype would talk to them and give them their name and just a lot of crap.

Basically when I was awakened, tiktok ISNT the best place to find information and learn. I kind of think tiktok is a really toxic app for everyone and anyone. Especially if you aren’t “perfect” or “dancing” or for god sake “normal”.

To answer the question, YES.