Experiencing Epiphanies: Instagram vs TikTok

BCM241 BLOG POST 4

In the autoethnographic research I’ve been observing the content and comments in my media niche while simultaneously creating and distributing my content. I’ve been screenshotting and noting down my observations as I experience them regarding my content as well as other creators in my niche. Through this participatory observation, I’ve recognised some epiphanies that may help the development of my DA. 

Firstly, I’ve recognised that TikTok and Instagram have very different algorithms and also have differences in how content is distributed and received. The community of this niche are primarily on TikTok as it is a video centred app, while on Instagram people are less likely to scroll as they do on TikTok, meaning the experience is somewhat different in how the content is enjoyed. The aesthetics of the Instagram content “focus on mood and atmosphere rather than the representation or communication of emotions”, the experience is more limited, whereas, in my experience, the content on TikTok evokes more emotions through a combination of aesthetics, persona and the design of the platform (Manovich, 2019, p. 8). Though I do receive more engagement on Instagram, I attribute this to already having an established platform, I also promote the videos on my personal account therefore a bigger audience is attracted to the content.

The niche’s content on TikTok evokes emotions through using a combination of sad/melancholy audios, slow videos of nature or aesthetically pleasing landscapes and captions that aim to conjure an emotional/relatable response. This is reflected in the comment sections where people consistently comment on the ‘calming’ nature of the videos. By “identifying concepts associated with sensory or emotional experiences” I’ve discovered that these videos provide a sort of escapism, through imagery, music and captions you are transported to a peaceful place (Pink et al. 2016, p. 3). This ‘escapism’ is something I’d like to try and emulate better in my videos, by incorporating more relaxing videos and especially doing more thought provoking captions. To improve my TikTok videos and gain some more engagement I’ve noted down several processes that may help boost my engagement on the app. Such as, Using trending hashtags, making sure to use the ones with large amounts of views, attaching audio with lots of other videos made to it instead of using the original audio.

In the case of both platforms, I’ve aimed to view how aesthetics are used effectively by the creators to build their audience and persona. Overall, the aesthetics are a very important component in the enjoyment of the niche, though in different ways for each platform. Each creator has an established aesthetic that they adhere to, whether that be in colour schemes or certain landscapes. I’ve done this by editing old footage from my camcorder, the camera naturally gives the video a warm vintage look and (from what I’ve posted) has helped establish my aesthetic in the niche.

I’m excited to observe more to discover the difference between the two platforms while testing further from the observations I’ve made and hopefully produce content more frequently. Follow me to see how it goes!

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Reference List

Manovich, L 2019, The aesthetic society: Instagram as a life form, Data Publics, Routledge, forthcoming.

Pink, S, Horst, HA, Postill, J, Hjorth, L, Lewis, T & Tacchi, J 2016, Digital ethnography: principles and practice, SAGE, Los Angeles.