Is TikT0k Harming Therians?

I do believe that Tiktok and possibly even YouTube is hurting therians, I do make videos on Youtube doing quads and I also watch videos of others doing quads. I started watching Therian Territory when I found out I was a therian so I could look more into it and it helped me a lot. Though from what I have saw on Therian Territory and then from other people has been different. (I do know not everyone has the same experiences with therianthropy) Some people are saying that "Being a therian means you have a very strong connection with an animal". I do believe that some of these people are misunderstanding the meaning of therianthropy, or they just don't get the meaning of it at all. Now for the talk about TikTok, I do believe that TikTok is harming the therian community, there are a lot of young kids on there claiming to be therians. I have a belief that some of these kids got on the therian side of TikTok or YouTube and thought it would be cool to be a therian as well,I looked at one account and they kept claiming they were a therian and I ended up finding out that they were faking it and just did it for views and content and also found out they had another account that they would make fun of therians on. I do believe that a lot of apps are harming therians. (If I am wrong about any of this please inform me on it.)

People can spread misinformation on the app, but as a young pup, I use it a lot to find friends. In my opinion, it depends on what type of conversation it is. T1kT0k oversimplifies it a little, yes, but it's not too harmful.

I feel like TikT0k has made at least some kids, or younger teens, think therianthropy is just quadrobics, mask making, and posting Shorts. I know at least two other "therians" in real life who claim to have "turned" into therians and do the things mentioned above. I feel like it's mostly spreading false ideas of therianthropy to a younger audience.

I think it's become slightly "trendy" to be a therian, as a lot of kids see it on Y0utube or TikT0k and decide they must be a therianthrope too. It's normal to "play pretend as an animal" at 9 or 10 or whatever, but I think the term is just being thrown around without people knowing or acknowledging the definition.

Slightly off topic for the thread, but this is a quick warning to anyone who uses tiktok and posts about being a therian, or even just watches therian content on there. Especially the pups: please read this.

any comments saying "I need a therian gf" are not a compliment. Neither are the comments asking for a "stretch tutorial".

These comments are made by people who are sexualising therians, especially younger therians who are doing quadrobics, or cat-like poses, although I've seen these comments on pretty much any post about therians. There is a concerningly large amount of people posting these comments. All of these accounts commenting this should be blocked and reported if you come across them, ESPECIALLY if their commenting on your own videos.

I was going to post about this on TT myself, but i don't really post therian content there, and it probably wouldnt reach people that really need to see this if i did. (a few people have already posted about this issue on TT too.)

Stay safe fellow critters

Yes without a doubt. Don't get me wrong, there's some good content on there, but it's drowned out by the vast amount of misinformation spreading like wildfire. It's taken over by little kids, half of whom I'm honestly skeptical if they are therians or if they are just finding a place to belong.

We've never used TikTok so everything we know about it comes second hand, but it reminds me a lot of what happened with otherkin/fictionkin back on Tumblr in the 2010s what with people trying to change the identity because they think actually identifying as nonhuman is "too weird".

Then all of a sudden quadrobics came out of nowhere during the pandemic, and now it's everywhere in the community. Like you can't escape it and it is really weird how sudden and gripping its been. For me, of course I'm not going to move like that, I'm a grazing herd animal! Something's wrong if you see cattle twisting their limbs like that.

Most of this has got to do with the format itself and a part of the enshittification of the web. Social media like TikTok favors short, non-controversial videos that spoon feeds people algorithmic content that gets hits. A scorpion therian giving a detailed lecture about their experiences isn't going to hit the algorithm in the same way a short video of showing off some jumps.

-Pon

Can I ask what is PD which you watched? Is it a YouTube channel or something in this kind?

(2024-06-20 10:29)Haki Wrote:  Can I ask what is PD which you watched? Is it a YouTube channel or something in this kind?

PD, also known as pink dolphin is an educational therian youtuber. He also makes videos of local therian meetups organised by him and the local therian group.

@vrydi Thanks!