A Guide to Children’s Culture for Out-of-Touch Adults: Where Will People Go After TikTok?
If early reports are any indication of future results, 2025 will be a bad year. It’s only been two weeks and kids are already leaving TikTok, accusing Elon Musk of cheating in video games and drinking water from glaciers.
Self-proclaimed “TikTok refugees” flock to Red Note
An online group calling themselves “TikTok Refugees” is downloading the RedNote app ahead of TikTok’s possible shutdown. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has vowed to begin phasing out the app in the U.S. early next week unless the Supreme Court intervenes to delay the pending ban, which would leave 170 million U.S. users unable to watch popular dance videos or share their personal information with the Chinese government. .
Ahead of possible closure, young people are looking for alternatives. An alternative for many is 小红书, also known as Xiaohongshu in Chinese or “RedNote” in English. The social media app is currently at the top of the list of most downloaded apps on the Apple App Store, despite not being available in English.
Potential TikTok alumni are already posting videos on both TikTok and RedNote, giving each other tips on navigating the app in a language you can’t read or speak, or simply reacting to what it’s like to use RedNote. Take TikToker xlvxlv1 for example, who simply says, “I’m here and I’m scared”:
In the most interesting TikTok/RedNote cross-posts, users talk about why they are switching to the Chinese social media platform when Western options like Instagram and Facebook are easily accessible. It turns out that they actually choose RedNote because it’s Chinese. The government shutting down TikTok is seen as censorship, and many think the real reason the US is banning TikTok isn’t because of “national security reasons,” but because of one person: Mark Zuckerberg.
Here’s how new RedNote user Candacce explains it: “I’d rather look at a language I don’t understand than ever use a social network that Zuckerberg owns. Mark Zuckerberg is lobbying Congress to ban TikTok and force everyone to use his social media. “It felt like he was in college and trying to get people to be friends with him.” Burn .
I don’t know if Zuckerberg’s lobbying of Congress is a factor in the TikTok ban, but if TikTok users think it is, I doubt any of these young people will return to one of Zuck’s facilities. Most TikTok users are under 30 and view Facebook and Insta as apps for older people. They’re basically uncool, and once you have that image, you can’t shake it—just ask anyone who’s called a nerd on the first day of freshman year.
Viral Video of the Week: Does Elon Musk Cheat in Video Games?
In other “billionaires who act completely childish” news, let’s talk about Elon Musk, the subject of this week’s viral video. Musk, a grown man, recently posted a video of himself playing the video game Path of Exile 2 on X, ostensibly to test out the site’s streaming capabilities, but really so he could show off some totally cool magical armor wands or some nonsense of your character, “Percy_Verence”, is used in the game. (Yes, that’s what Musk chose as his character’s name.) Musk clearly wanted to show off his high rank in Path of Exile 2 . “This is the maximum difficulty, on hardcore,” Musk, a grown man, proudly declared during the stream.
It would be funny/pathetic enough (fantastic?) but probably not absurd enough to go viral. But then real Path of Exile 2 players analyzed Musk’s stream and came to the conclusion that the richest man in the world is a gaming scammer and is hiring other people to play video games for him, presumably so he can look cool in people’s eyes who actually play. there are a lot of video games.
“ He clearly has no idea,” says YouTuber Quin69TV , “100 percent, some guy is playing for him on this account,” he added.
I can’t say if what Quinn69 and others are saying is true (I’m an adult, but not Elon Musk, so I don’t know anything about Path of Exile 2 ), but the video evidence on YouTube seems convincing. But mostly it’s fun. I can’t believe Elon Musk is a real person and not the protagonist of Adam Sandler’s poorly reviewed 2004 film.
Debate about what “TS” means on the Internet
I like to keep an eye on the slang that kids use , so I was prepared to tell you that “TS” means “it” when used online, but that’s only partly true. Like most modern online slang, TS comes from AAVE , where it means “this shit” or “that shit”.
In a sense, “that shit” is just another way of saying “that,” but it’s all underlined by the ” AAVE to Brainrot pipeline ” that uses words like “rizz” and “giyatt.” (However, the slang word “skibidi” does not have AAVE origins; it is a native Brainrot word.)
Is the widespread use of TS another example of appropriation? Likely. At least that’s what a lot of people on the Internet think . Whether anyone can do anything about it is another question; language tends to evolve the way it does, whether people like it or not.
Warning: Do not drink water from glaciers.
In part 4623 of my 9690 series, “Don’t Do Anything You See on the Internet,” let’s look at videos of people drinking melt runoff from glaciers. If you think this is a great idea, I have news for you: it’s not.
The trend is growing in popularity among people who have the opportunity to travel to remote locations to drink melted ice, including rapper Ludacris, who recently tasted meltwater from an Alaskan glacier and posted video evidence.
I can’t deny that glacial water looks very refreshing, but obviously there are a lot of things in the water that you can’t see . Scientists (remember them?) studied glacial ice and discovered that it was teeming with microbes . It appears bacteria, phages (viruses that live inside bacteria) and other creatures are polluting our ancient glaciers. There could be something else there – something sinister that has been waiting for thousands of years for its chance to strike. “We know very little about the viruses and microbes in these extreme environments,” glaciologist Lonnie Thompson told Forbes .
Until proven otherwise, I will assume that Ludacris was captured by the creature from John Carpenter’s The Thing, and that our current Ludacris is a homicidal alien simulacrum. Also, I’ve changed my mind: drink as much glacier water as you want. Whatever happens to you, it can’t be worse than simply existing in 2025.