I hate how most tiktok therians are fake, but I'm not exactly against the idea of therians using tiktok or social media. I used to have a friend who makes edits and posts them online. While a lot of them are fake, some of them are still real.

Many things! So many things that I literally have a list, but I’ll spare you of it. For the most part, it’s just a lot of ways that I don’t fit in with human beings.

I don’t feel connected to humans, I don’t think like they do, when I watch humans I feel like I’m watching a different species, I don’t get along with them, I don’t feel attracted to them (asexuallll), and I just don’t understand a lot of their culture at all. From war to socializing to however the heck humans enjoy making eye contact with each other and don’t see it as aggressive...I’m lost. Very lost.

So! If I’m not human, I must be something else. I thought I was koalakin for a little while, then grizzly bearkin, but then discovered cryptids...and everything suddenly made sense. I do enjoy being alone, being shrouded in nature or imagining living in liminal spaces or empty buildings. Whenever I feel overwhelmed by human life, dissociation and isolation is always the first thing I turn to. Just laying down with all the lights off in complete darkness, or looking through images of liminal spaces and losing myself in them, or going outside in the dead of night when no other humans are awake. It’s incredible. It feels like home. I truly am a cryptid at heart and at mind.

...oh, also some other stuff like my mood changing with the weather and prolonged staring were always issues I had. Cool stuff!

The topic of "tik-tok therians" gets brought up on TG a lot, and while I understand the hostility, I don't really think it is surprising that children are drawn to the idea of therianthropy. For kids, especially those who are neurodivergent or don't "fit in" for any reason, animals can bring a great comfort. A lot of kids who don't fit in are constantly looking for communities to join, so making therianthropy a trend or aesthetic makes it more accessible to them. They are also looking for reasons as to why they don't fit in or get along with other people their age, and to put it simply, not being human is a really good explanation for why someone doesn't understand humans or get along with humans. Aesthetics in general have been on the rise, and therianthropy is not the only identity that has been watered down because of it. Many subcultures have been turned into aesthetics on tik-tok and those communities also suffer because of it. Aesthetics and the trends that go along with them lead to easily digestible social media posts and consumerism, which is what algorithms love.
I guess my main point is, therianthropy is being portrayed as an aesthetic or trend online because that is simply how social media works, and that kids, especially neurodivergent kids, are bound to be drawn to therianthropy specifically.

I'm biased because I dislike tiktok and its userbase. However i'm convinced that 99.9% of people who come from tiktok claiming to be therian/otherkin, specifically children, are going through some kind of fitting in phase.

(2024-08-14 11:19)D_Lizard Wrote:  Yea thats true.
But because of the current generation having like 4-5x more accessibility to the internet than those before.

Which makes it a lot more/bigger than before.

(Feel free to correct me if anything i say is incorrectly said)

The concept of Eternal September might be of interest to you.

(2024-08-14 8:15)Siris Wrote:  not a new phenomena just a new platform. said it many times it was tumblr-kin and wolfaboos from twilight before, tiktok-kin are just the newest breed.

Yea thats true.
But because of the current generation having like 4-5x more accessibility to the internet than those before.

Which makes it a lot more/bigger than before.

(Feel free to correct me if anything i say is incorrectly said)

not a new phenomena just a new platform. said it many times it was tumblr-kin and wolfaboos from twilight before, tiktok-kin are just the newest breed.

(2024-08-13 21:31)D_Lizard Wrote:  

(2024-08-13 16:30)LavenderWobbleDragon Wrote:  I was made aware of the community through tiktok, but I had a feeling there was more to it, so I researched, until I ended up here.

I found it through YouTube shorts.
I wasn't really intrested untill i found one about being a therian is not a choice.

That made me intrested and i went to le good o'l google aaaaaand somehow, somewhere ended up here xD.


Honestly people should do research about something before they say im that or this tho.

Tbh I found it through tiktok comps on youtube and not exactly tiktok itself.

(2024-08-13 16:30)LavenderWobbleDragon Wrote:  I was made aware of the community through tiktok, but I had a feeling there was more to it, so I researched, until I ended up here.

I found it through YouTube shorts.
I wasn't really intrested untill i found one about being a therian is not a choice.

That made me intrested and i went to le good o'l google aaaaaand somehow, somewhere ended up here xD.


Honestly people should do research about something before they say im that or this tho.

Well, my reawakening was partially precipitated by the reactionary elements of the far right mentioning 'litter boxes' and generally condemning therians as an identity they sought to antagonize. So I suppose a side effect of current trend. Being told by some assholes that I was doing this for funsies, when my existence was continual anxiety and stress of thinking I was broken somehow and pretending to be human 24/7, was a real kick in the snout.

Ultimately I think there are a lot of kids who are trying on the identity to see if it fits their experience. This is normal and a lot of them aren't actually Therian. The downside is there are a lot of aspects to the actual identity that are misrepresented routinely.