Transition: from Musical.ly to TikTok

I open TikTok, type in a handle which I will abstain from mentioning here and reminisce about the sweet years of 2016 and 2017 when Musical.ly was THE platform. Launched in 2014 by Alex Zhu and Luyu Yang in Shanghai, the app was meant for short, mainly dance and lip-syncing, videos and the majority of creators/users were teenagers. Well, kinda similar to TikTok (for which Musical.ly was a predecessor), but not at all. So, let me dive into how everything and nothing has changed from the 2010s until now.

Ah, the years of Musical.ly

Being a true gen-z’er, I grew up with technology around me. I couldn’t really use it and definitely did not know how to turn YouTube videos like my 3 year old niece does (nor was it that easy), but it was there. Slowly but surely I was introduced to a big box television, then a big box computer, then a smaller box phone and climbed my way up to the teen years when some social media magically appeared on my smartphone. Musical.ly was one of those magical apps that let creative energy flow. 

At that point of life, my digital practice consisted of friv.com games, peer youtuber’s and dancing + lip-syncing on Musical.ly, so all in all – doom scrolling was not really a thing (which I will get back to a bit later). Everything appeared possible, I dreamt about getting a bunch of likes on my videos and asked my mom to film my silly little dances. 

So, Musical.ly was a platform where everyone was able to create content and just enjoy the creation part of it. It was more like a hobby where you’d learn dances and show to your friends how good you were. Or not that good… But you were not judged and didn’t get thousands of bully comments on not that perfect body, moves, rhythm. At the end of the day, as Simon Lindgren refers to the digital – it was just a tool “for the creation and circulation of content”. Emphasis on a tool. All the applications, like Musical.ly were “extensions of our senses” (McLuhan), but they were not really a part of us, as humans. They were just attachments that we could take on and off whenever desired. 

What changed? The era of TikTok

In 2018 Musical.ly was bought by some people, turned into TikTok and oh boy it started trending, getting millions, billions of downloads. It happened so fast, just in a year or so. This was part of a bigger change when both our devices and applications in them (the content of medium is always another medium, McLuhan) suddenly became an inherent part of us, as a “civilized” society. Getting back to TikTok, it preserved the main features of Musical.ly (like short video format), but the way we make use of it changed a lot. 

The way it’s designed and “usage” culture behind it makes us scroll for hours watching videos not really taking anything from them. We watch, like, scroll. Watch, like, share with my friend, scroll. Repeat in that order for 500 times. Since we scroll 500 times and see 500 different videos that means there are an endless amount of creators, therefore it is still very much about the magical creation, right? My answer is yes and no. The creators in TikTok have become elites that get to make it on our feeds, and us, the normals, get to watch them. We spend hours on our phones (maybe baby boomer memes are not that wrong), give every free minute for a maximum exposure of “what is new”. TikTok, differently than Musical.ly, sucks people in and gets us addicted. I want to catch up and not miss anything as if I could not survive without at least 2 hours of scrolling per day. But really, could I survive? 

I guess it’s part of a bigger picture

While Musical.ly was transitioning to TikTok, the whole society was transitioning from our digital tools being, well, helpful tools to them being an inherent part of us, of human experience. Even in the 2010s I remember being able to easily go just with some cash in my pocket (or my moms) – parking, bus ticket, food in cafes were paid with coins; phones were used basically only for calls/messages and some games. Now, in 2024, I basically need to carry my phone wherever I go and everything is digitalized – for parking you need an app, for bus ticket – a card (or an app), in a cafe there is a big chance you’ll see a sign “we only accept cards”. Everything is adapted, so we could deal with all our businesses on the phone. For our own comfortability, of course. 

However, at the same time you become completely dependent on it. Like you become dependent on social media such as TikTok to see what your friends are up to, where is your favourite singer’s singers concert (maybe even see them respond live to your message), or get the latest news on the shit situation of the world. Because most information is shared on these apps and sometimes not anywhere else, you become an outsider and just pray on not missing out. So, honestly, I do not think I could survive without social media, more so without my phone. 

And, in conclusion:

The transition from Musical.ly to TikTok mirrors a broader societal shift in how we engage with digital tools. While Musical.ly encouraged creativity and fun, allowing users to dip in and out as they pleased, TikTok and other modern platforms have evolved into something far more pervasive, blurring the lines between tool and necessity. Our once-optional digital accessories have now become integral to our daily lives, shaping how we connect, consume, and create. The nostalgic simplicity of Musical.ly serves as a reminder of a time when technology was still something we could use for funsies, learn things and then step away. Although, today our dependence on digital platforms sadly has become deeply ingrained, making it hard to imagine life without them.

Resources:

1. Image from A Millennial’s Guide on How to Use Musical.ly – Business Insider;
2. Simon Lindgren – Digital Media & Society;
3. Marshall McLuhan – The Medium is the Message.