I have been thinking about the relationship between digital media, especially TikTok, and spirituality for a while now. How does spirituality change when mediated by the algorithms of a profit-oriented platform? Is TikTok good for the matters of god, spirit, and growth? If this video has found you, this message is for you, please enjoy!
Let me know in the comments what you think about it. How do you find spirituality within the framework of TikTok?
References
I mentioned Gabi Abrão, her tag on social media is @sighswoon. You can find her reflections on the girlhood discourse here.
If you are interested in the #witchtok content, you can find it here.
Bohra, Neelam and AJ Willingham. “‘WitchTok’: Amid uncertainty, a new fascination with astrology and the occult bubbles up.” CNN, August 19, 2021.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/19/us/witchtok-astrology-covid-19-pandemic-trnd/index.html
Gallo, Mia. “Astrology’s rise to popularity in the era of TikTok.” The Review, March 11, 2021.
Marshall McLuhan. “The Medium is the Message.” In Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 8-30. London.
Patridge, Esme. “When Spirituality Meets TikTok: Gen–Zs Answer to Religion.” Theos, June 9, 2021.
https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2021/09/02/when-spirituality-meets-tiktok-genzs-answer-to-religion
Pitcher, Laura. “Can the algorithm ever be spiritual?” i-D, May 17, 2022.
https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/7kbg9x/tarot-tiktok-algorithm-trend
Urban Dictionary. Dr. Carey Perkins. “Spiritual Bypassing.” Published January 12, 2022. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Spiritual%20Bypassing
I loved your video! It also makes me think about those times in which those allegedly tarot reading videos would pop out and sometimes if it caught me on a low day, I would watch it without really knowing what to expect from it. Sometimes, it would line up and then I would get a dopamine rush but when it did not I would get a sense of confusion and then realize how dumb I felt for watching a three-minute video to get some insight about my love life. It kind of feels like a horoscope columns in pop culture magazines, just that there is something so personalized about TikTok that it envelops us into believing
I loved this topic! Like most TikTok users who have tarot readings on their fy page, I have fallen down the rabbit hole of ‘spiritual bypassing’ from creators feeding into their viewers’ insecurities and hopefully dreams for views and likes. This trend reminds me as well of the videos that say something along the lines of “This music has manifested energy, use this sound for good luck”. For so long I really disliked these creators for trying to capitalize off of children’s anxiety, but from another perspective, I realized that the basis for manifesting is the rule of belief, meaning everyone who had used the sound believed they would be lucky, thus they would be lucky. However, this point is only relative within spiritual frameworks. On another note, this has also resulted in a very hurtful trend, where a video would say “if you don’t use this sound, someone you love will be in an accident”, and this doesn’t provide the viewer with any re-affirming thoughts and is just a result of people taking advantage of kids using spirituality
This was so fun to listen! I also somehow find myself in these type of videos sometimes and I honestly have no idea how they end up on my fyp with the algortihm. Nevertheless, I cannot help myself but continue watching these videos telling me something about my future. It is very interesting how some people really do watch them with curiosity and hope that something they were wishing for will be told in “their” reading. I also always found the side of the people who take these very interesting. How they just assume that people are not going to realize that this video is actually not finding them, and the fact that these viewevers actually do think it is finding them is so funny to me.
I was thinking about doing a critical piece on digital spirituality, but never got around it, so I loved hearing about it from you!
For one, in some ways I think these online taro readings and “Interact 3 times to claim this good message” videos are a part of a cycle of washed out trends like chain letters from 10-15 years ago (the ones where you have to forward the message to 10 people or bad luck). It grabs the attention of a viewer quickly and uses all the right keywords for a person who is in a vulnerable state. Most readings you will find on TikTok are centred around special someone coming back, around, apologising and sprinkled with promises of a better month ahead, full of good surprises. Of course these are the things that a person would like to hear, especially if they have been experiencing things like heartbreak.
All that being said, I do think there is some room for spirituality to be done online, if done right, without the exploitation of naive and vulnerable people. I also find interesting the question you pose: is the algorithm divine intervention? While I do not have a concise answer for this, I think it is important to keep in mind that even lingering on a single taro reading video, the algorithm could pick it up as a new point of interest and continue “feeding” them.