Shelter in Place, Connect Online: Trending TikTok Content During the Early Days of the U.S. COVID-19 Pandemic.

Abstract Purpose In the U.S., TikTok surged in popularity as the COVID-19 virus spread nationally. TikTok posts may both reflect and shape young people's perceptions of the pandemic. This mixed methods study applied a uses and gratifications framework to a systematic analysis of trending TikToks related to COVID-19, with attention to changes over a 2-month period. Methods Analyses are based on an original data set of 2,675 TikToks (529 unique videos across 68 COVID-relevant hashtags) viewed over 2,840,347,014 times. TikToks were tracked daily for 65 days after the beginning of U.S. stay-at-home orders (March 17 to May 20, 2020). A thematic analysis used 28 content codes and nine codes related to subject(s) to examine content patterns. Chi-square tests facilitated analyses of changes over time. Results Trending TikToks related to COVID-19 most often featured details of everyday circumstances and/or relatable commentary on Pandemic Life. These posts were similarly prevalent in Months 1 and 2. Health-Promoting TikToks outnumbered those exhibiting Risky or Concerning Health Practices (58:13) and were more common in Month 1. Advertisements and sponsored campaigns also shaped trending COVID-relevant content during the study period. Conclusions On TikTok, public health information appears to coexist with an abundance of commentary about everyday life during the pandemic. Posts arguably reflect documented social media use goals such as information seeking/sharing, archiving, and self-expression. Yet, TikToks during the pandemic period perhaps most often connect to another previously undocumented use goal: a digital search for common humanity in seeing difficult experiences as part of a larger human experience.