Is TikT0k Harming Therians?

Hi peoples! I'm a therian tikt0k (same situation as you) content creator too, and I think TherianTok is both harmful and helpful. It isn't a great place sometimes, but it also can be really nice, such as the creator Opal.n.friends. They do really good quads and they're really sweet. There are a ton of other creators! The app isn't all bad.
-Moth

(2022-11-11 23:28)cat~n~raven Wrote:  Hi peoples! I'm a therian tikt0k (same situation as you) content creator too, and I think TherianTok is both harmful and helpful. It isn't a great place sometimes, but it also can be really nice, such as the creator Opal.n.friends. They do really good quads and they're really sweet. There are a ton of other creators! The app isn't all bad.
-Moth

in my opinion, doing quads doesn’t help the community at all. It makes people think it’s a necessity to be a therian and it’s also very dangerous. Many people get hurt from doing quads because they think doing quads looks easy, therefore not getting the proper safety tools incase they are injured (basically, people should put a safety warning on quad videos, it could end badly). Also a lot of misinformation goes around, such as therianthropy being “someone who was an animal in a past life,” which is not correct, at least not for everyone.

(2022-11-11 23:50)SlyCatQT Wrote:  

(2022-11-11 23:28)cat~n~raven Wrote:  Hi peoples! I'm a therian tikt0k (same situation as you) content creator too, and I think TherianTok is both harmful and helpful. It isn't a great place sometimes, but it also can be really nice, such as the creator Opal.n.friends. They do really good quads and they're really sweet. There are a ton of other creators! The app isn't all bad.
-Moth

in my opinion, doing quads doesn’t help the community at all. It makes people think it’s a necessity to be a therian and it’s also very dangerous. Many people get hurt from doing quads because they think doing quads looks easy, therefore not getting the proper safety tools incase they are injured (basically, people should put a safety warning on quad videos, it could end badly). Also a lot of misinformation goes around, such as therianthropy being “someone who was an animal in a past life,” which is not correct, at least not for everyone.

Agreed. There are safety warnings on my quad videos, and the misinformation is harmful too.

(2022-11-11 23:28)cat~n~raven Wrote:  Hi peoples! I'm a therian tikt0k (same situation as you) content creator too, and I think TherianTok is both harmful and helpful. It isn't a great place sometimes, but it also can be really nice, such as the creator Opal.n.friends. They do really good quads and they're really sweet. There are a ton of other creators! The app isn't all bad.
-Moth

I agree, Opal is really nice! I sometimes see them educating people in the comments (mostly clarifying things to haters). Their popularity combined with the interview on YouTube they did makes them shed some positive light on TherianTok.

Although, as you said, it's also harmful in plenty of aspects too. As in the lack of education and increase in this roleplay like aspect that TherianTok takes on. What I mean by roleplay aspect is the dressing up and doing quadrobics and acting like their theriotypes, rather than discussing our experiences as we do on TG. Not that there's a problem with doing quads and wearing gear, but done excessively with little to no discussion can cause people outside the community to make assumptions about us because they don't actually know what we are, or even cause some "therians" themselves to not understand what therianthropy is. I think that's the main reason you see people asking "how to be a therian" or "I chose x as my theriotype" on tiktok

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(2022-11-11 23:50)SlyCatQT Wrote:  in my opinion, doing quads doesn’t help the community at all. It makes people think it’s a necessity to be a therian and it’s also very dangerous. Many people get hurt from doing quads because they think doing quads looks easy, therefore not getting the proper safety tools incase they are injured (basically, people should put a safety warning on quad videos, it could end badly). Also a lot of misinformation goes around, such as therianthropy being “someone who was an animal in a past life,” which is not correct, at least not for everyone.

Yeah, it's my biggest pet peeve when kids on the app say that the definition of therianthropy has to do with past lives. It's great that some people are able to explain their experiences, but extremely harmful to new therians coming on the app getting the wrong information. Some people may think they are therians because of a "strong connection to animals", then pick an animal they like the most and say it's a theriotype, and pretend to have past live memories. and then say they have severe species dysphoria. I'm sure that most of these kids will grow out of it, but it sure is harmful to the rest of the community. Though it is great when you have the occasional educational account.

I don't think quads are bad, I just think TherianTok needs a mix of discussion, education (like on TG), and expression (the quads and gear they already have). with both of those combined, we wouldn't have to see TherianTok as a nearly different community than TG.


also kinda unrelated but SlyCatQT the video in your signature is adorable and I love it

(2022-11-14 20:31)Aspen_I_guess Wrote:  

(2022-11-11 23:28)cat~n~raven Wrote:  Hi peoples! I'm a therian tikt0k (same situation as you) content creator too, and I think TherianTok is both harmful and helpful. It isn't a great place sometimes, but it also can be really nice, such as the creator Opal.n.friends. They do really good quads and they're really sweet. There are a ton of other creators! The app isn't all bad.
-Moth

I agree, Opal is really nice! I sometimes see them educating people in the comments (mostly clarifying things to haters). Their popularity combined with the interview on YouTube they did makes them shed some positive light on TherianTok.

Although, as you said, it's also harmful in plenty of aspects too. As in the lack of education and increase in this roleplay like aspect that TherianTok takes on. What I mean by roleplay aspect is the dressing up and doing quadrobics and acting like their theriotypes, rather than discussing our experiences as we do on TG. Not that there's a problem with doing quads and wearing gear, but done excessively with little to no discussion can cause people outside the community to make assumptions about us because they don't actually know what we are, or even cause some "therians" themselves to not understand what therianthropy is. I think that's the main reason you see people asking "how to be a therian" or "I chose x as my theriotype" on tiktok

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(2022-11-11 23:50)SlyCatQT Wrote:  in my opinion, doing quads doesn’t help the community at all. It makes people think it’s a necessity to be a therian and it’s also very dangerous. Many people get hurt from doing quads because they think doing quads looks easy, therefore not getting the proper safety tools incase they are injured (basically, people should put a safety warning on quad videos, it could end badly). Also a lot of misinformation goes around, such as therianthropy being “someone who was an animal in a past life,” which is not correct, at least not for everyone.

Yeah, it's my biggest pet peeve when kids on the app say that the definition of therianthropy has to do with past lives. It's great that some people are able to explain their experiences, but extremely harmful to new therians coming on the app getting the wrong information. Some people may think they are therians because of a "strong connection to animals", then pick an animal they like the most and say it's a theriotype, and pretend to have past live memories. and then say they have severe species dysphoria. I'm sure that most of these kids will grow out of it, but it sure is harmful to the rest of the community. Though it is great when you have the occasional educational account.

I don't think quads are bad, I just think TherianTok needs a mix of discussion, education (like on TG), and expression (the quads and gear they already have). with both of those combined, we wouldn't have to see TherianTok as a nearly different community than TG.

you make a great point. And yes, unfortunately that occasional educational amount of people aren’t that known on TherianTok. I doubt it will ever be possible to make a perfect balance of education and expression of therianthropy. Unless the therians on there actually listen when someone is trying to correct the misinformation they’ve learned and/or start spreading correct information, i don’t think we’ll ever reach that point.

It looks like the problem is having orthodox therians pushing their way of seeing their own therianthropy on everyone, or their listeners aren't true therians. Talk about your experience if you want to do so, listen to their approach, but ignore when they try pushing their orthodoxisms.

(2022-10-12 2:16)Aspen_I_guess Wrote:  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.

You explained the situation so well and about fake therians to them are people who cant do quadrobics well there just talking fibs because what if someone who had leg problems cant do a lot of physical activity? Like me i have a condition in my legs that causes difficulty wuth crouching,kneeling etc. So to then im a fake therian apparrently.

At this point, outside of the times when I'm able to pop into this forum, my exposure to the therian community such as it is mostly consists of hearing things second-hand from furries that I'm friends with.

I'm relatively open about my therianthropy in furry spaces these days, and so occasionally I get questions about it. Sometimes they're from folks who are exploring therianthropy for themselves, sometimes they're from folks who are just curious. But I definitely can feel sometimes that folks come to those questions with a little bit of baggage, presumably from being exposed to it somewhere prior to talking to me.

If I'm thinking about these things just on the personal, how-things-impact-me level, I would hope that folks who see "therian" in my bio or whatever else would be open to talking to me about what that means to me instead of jumping to too many conclusions. For anyone who I'm actually friends with, I have faith in them to do that, and that's what's really important to me. People generally get that, well, it means different things to different people, it's hard to have any really specific definitions that apply to everyone, and so on. So, even if they see some goofy stuff on TikTok, maybe they idly wonder if I do quadrobics when they're not there, but they don't assume that I have to do that to be a therian. Or if they do, then it's not really worth my time to talk with them -- it's my job to know what I am, not theirs, and they can keep their snouts out of it. That's just something folks have to learn at some point.

On the other paw, though, it is a little sad to me when I see folks who are interested in therianthropy, or maybe they seem kinda therian to me from past interactions, but they reject it because they see someone's definition that doesn't fit them and don't dig any deeper. I don't know how much of the weird baggage I've seen folks bring to discussions about therianthropy comes from TikTok vs. anywhere else, but I have noticed people get frustrated because they get the impression that therianthropy has to be a spiritual thing. It makes it a little harder for me if they do ever come to me with questions, because first I have to dispel their misconceptions. Ultimately, I can't define therianthropy for people, so there comes a point in every conversation like that where I have to start pointing them to various resources and say, "Hey, here's some other ideas people have about things, you should look through these and kinda mash all this stuff together to figure it out for yourself." And then whatever stuff I point them to is competing with this other baggage... all I can really hope is that folks have enough common sense to understand that the sorts of posts y'all are describing are merely one individual's experience, not a definition that everyone must agree with.

I guess what I'm getting at is, I put a little bit of hope into the average person that they can see these sorts of posts and understand that it's possible it means different things to different people. Being trans means all sorts of different things to different people (even as they all have certain things in common), "queer" means all sorts of different things, and I hope that people can understand therianthropy on a similar level. But it is frustrating when folks go out and prescribe definitions that don't actually apply to everyone. I wish people wouldn't do that, but... so it goes.

I originally learnt about therianthropy from tikt0k and it caused me to do more research on other sites. I think that people posting stuff like quads is ok but it's just causing more people to veiw therianthropy as a trend and people to think that all therianthropy is behaving like an animal. Allot of the tikt0k therians are really nice through

After being on TikTok for about two years now, I have a solid answer.
Yes. And it's getting very bad. Trends mocking therians, people making fake accounts to make fun of them and increase harassment, and entire communities dedicated to bashing Therians. The lack of proper information and even other therians spreading misinformation is getting to a boiling point.

People don't wish to educate. They post quad videos mainly and rarely answer questions. When they do, I see very few creators that actually know what they are talking about. When asked what a therian is, most just say:

"It is being an animal in your past life"
OR
"Google it/research"

This massive amount of misinformation, and also the lack of creators actually wanting to spread helpful info, leads to a very negative side of TikTok, where the community is harassed frequently. People not well-educated will then go to spread further misinformation, and thus the cycle continues.

At its core, the harassment all seem to start at TikTok therians not being informed properly or not giving proper treatment to questions.

This is not all, but MOST seem to do this, which is very worrying.

So in conclusion, yes, TikTok is harming therians.