Is TikT0k Harming Therians?

There’s good and bad with everything, and many things have the potential to harm if wielded incorrectly. That said — Tiktok’s format & appeal to those lowest of attention spans is easily abused.

I don’t think every single therian from Tiktok is a faker or a bad person or whatever. I think there are those who have a relatively healthy relationship with therianthropy, and then there are those who have a sincere but misguided one, and then there are people who are not therian at all. I like to think many of these folk are just stuck in the limbo of Option 2; not tangibly, maliciously doing harm to the community, but spreading rapid & dangerous misinformation along the way.

Most people on Tiktok aren’t shifting, they’re LARPing. They’re doing quadrobics because it looks cool, not because it’s a respected practice that they understand, or a way of truly getting in touch with their theriotype. Same with their ‘therian gear.’ They’re caught up in the aesthetic of it. Does this make them Not Therian? No, I don’t think so. But it means they have a very poor grasp on what being therian actually means.

If it wasn’t tiktok, I believe it would have blown up in the public eye eventually. Terms meant for ‘fringe’ groups like our own community are misused and appropriated by the internet … a lot, especially by the younger generations. I know this happens, but have no idea how to combat it, other than to be patient, educate, and attempt to approach with kindness where I feel I’ll be positively received.

I think you address some excellent points in your post. I do believe to some extent the Tiktok community is harming therians. What with the incorrect terms, perspective and portrayal some of these individuals are engaging in does I think to some extent hurt the therian community. Whether it is because they don't understand how to express themselves just yet or whether they have been misled by other false information online. While Tiktok can be a fun place to explore and get a few laughs in I think the overall conception of therianthropy is being harmed by the tiktok community.

I also don't think it automatically deems them a faker but I do question some of the behaviors and activities many of the tiktok therian community engages in. Especially the quadrobics and shifting. What I am seeing is not actually shifting and is what Indoraptor put nicely 'Larping'

Therians get A lot of hate on tiktok. I was one of them but then I quit. I got hate every single post.it is super harmful to therians, But things on tiktok are also plainly wrong. Those people need to do some reaserch.

I think that there are some people trying to poison the community with misinformation but there are also a bunch of kids just misinformed in thinking they are real therians, which they aren’t and they start making this kind of videos because they think you are supposed to.
So yes I think TikTok is harming therians in one way or another

Absolutely! I love the way you explained this. While TikTok can be a place to share real information, I honestly think it’s doing more harm than good. I see so many people in YouTube “Therian TikTok Compilation” comment sections spreading misinformation. Don’t get me started on how many times little kids have commented something like “Guys I think I’m a therian please help. When I was in 1st grade I liked to act like an animal and I also feel really connected to wolves.” And then in the replies will be “Welcome to being a therian! You’re totally one” or “Do you feel like you were an animal in your past life cause that’s what a therian is” and whatnot. And so many “How do I become a therian” comments. It’s so annoying and I always feel the need to correct them, which is just exhausting

TikTok is definitely harming the therian community. Don't get me wrong, I love Opal(the first quadrobist on TikTok) from the TikTok account 5tinky.cat and their content is just AMAZING but I feel like they accidently hurt to community to now have this reputation that all therians are animals in their past lives, do quadrobics, make masks and etc, etc.

I think that everyone thinks being a therian is the next cool thing that gets you attention which is why so many people pretend they are one. I think a lot of people are just really really want to be a therian so they're looking for things to make themselves think they're a therian.

Also there are a lot of misconceptions about shifts, I see videos like, "I shifted on camera" and they pretend they were hallucinating their paws and tail and completely forgot what a camera was. I also see people saying that you can't control what you are doing during a shift(you always have control to some degree) It's so aggravating to see people doing this.

(2023-08-04 19:26)WanderingForests Wrote:  I also see people saying that you can't control what you are doing during a shift(you always have control to some degree) It's so aggravating to see people doing this.

I must be the exception to this "rule" because I can count on more than one occasion that my werewolf side took over, it's called dissociation which some Therians experience.

How I discovered what the term therian, Was on youtube tik tok computations about therian. And when I saw that for the first time, I was like "Huh that sounds like me." (because I was fucking LUCKY, It was an informational video about Therians, BEcause if it was one of those quad videos, and or the obviously fake past life videos, I would have thought it was a huge RP group I missed. Because I love to RP X3)

So I took it upon myself to research more about it, Because I know you can't trust most stuff on the internet. Especially from tik tok, Because, Tik tok is such a harmful, and cruel app. It's terrible Because it's just a huge ass nest to get tangled into for bullying. (I used to have tik tok and was, horribly bullied online because I used to be a furry, and my drawings weren't the best) But it can be also a good space to find others like you. But I believe there are better Apps for that.
(and tik tok is hella addictive.)

So without the tik tok competition, I doubt I would be here. (I would probably stumble onto the term sometimes though. Im pretty much the outcast of the "normal" world. So-, But who knows)

But, the question is, "Is tik tok harming Therians?" Depends. Whichever side you look at it, Because there's always good or bad. Heads and tails, etc. But the majority speak. Yeah. It's harming therians. Because of the massive misinformation. Which is just easily prey for assholes. It's not even the quads or the masks that's the bad part. (Man I even do quads sometimes, and I have masks of my theriotypes) But, they will learn someday. Ether will move on, Or learn what the actual meaning of therian is. Everyone has their own path of self-discovery!

I think any platform where the youngest members of the therian community are left to represent us all alone is a place where confusion and misinformation will fester.

Misunderstandings get spread and go without clarification, resulting in a community of people that call themselves therian but aren't. The identity tends to get sensationalized a bit by people that are quite new to it, and anything that's new and exciting and involves animals will be attractive to kids that like animals.

If it wasn't TikTok, it would probably be some other platform. The problem isn't the app itself, but misinformed people who don't understand the identity they are claiming, which is something that will exist probably forever if the therian community stays so largely unknown.

What's TikTok got to do with one's personal growth and evolution? Why nitpick on TikTok alone? There are so many who don't grasp us completely or make a fool out of themselves in other areas, as well... Let them be and don't pay any attention to them. How hard can that be?

@Alliana has a point, you know. There is such a thing like dissociative therianthropy.

Why bicker on things you can't control? After us, there's certainly going to be more TikToks or related, or worse. It's not like it's going to disappear by complaining over it.