2022 TikTok Wrap Up — CatlinSpeak

By George Pritchard ‘23

2022 was dominated by social media. Elon Musk purchased Twitter to very mixed reception, the number of Facebook users declined for the first time in the company's history, and everyone finally learned what it looks like to BeReal.

However, amongst all of the social media craze this past year, one app was planted firmly in the forefront of many people’s minds: TikTok.

The Chinese social media app is one of the most popular in the world, with over 1.5 billion monthly active users. Users post videos of themselves lip syncing, dancing, talking, or doing anything else you can imagine.

Out of the millions of videos posted on TikTok this year, many trends took over the ‘for you’ pages. These were the TikTok trends that took over 2022.

It’s Corn

The trend that dominated months of TikTok began in August, when “It’s Corn” began gaining popularity.

The sound features a young child discussing the many wonders of corn on the cob, remixed into a catchy song. Most videos consisted of people lip syncing the song, or performing corn-related actions.

This was one of the most lighthearted TikTok trends of the year, with the original child gaining celebrity status, and no one being negatively affected by any of the videos.

James Droz

An account that went viral this year on TikTok was Jamesdroz556.

Droz first went viral after reacting to a loss by the Minnesota Vikings in January 2022. He used his now famous line “[losing team], what happened? How do you lose to the [winning team].”

His account soon exploded in popularity with him posting multiple videos each day, after most major American sporting games. He even got so popular that Droz was invited to the Oklahoma Sooners locker room after their win over Oklahoma State, to ask “what happened?” alongside the entire football team.

Droz does come with some controversy though, as on Dec. 14, 2022, his account was banned for violating TikTok’s terms and services. He has since been reinstated, and has continued to make videos.

Catlin Gabel School (CGS) senior Josh Wiltz, an avid viewer of Droz’s TikToks, said “I love how James is so real, always showing the utmost emotion and care in his videos. You really get a sense of who he is, and what he stands for.”

Slideshow Format

For the past few years, 99% of TikToks were videos, as short, digestible clips were TikTok’s bread and butter. However, this year, some TikToks have moved away from videos, and transitioned into a slideshow format.

These TikToks are formatted similar to an Instagram post. There are multiple slides that cycle through, but the viewer can stop it at any moment. It is unclear when this trend took off, but it has skyrocketed in popularity in the second half of the year.

CGS senior Tatum Chase said “I like the slideshow format because I can swipe through at my own pace. It feels like I’m in control.”

Brazilian Dance Battle

One of the newest and most current trends from 2022 is the Brazilian Dance Battle.

The original video, which has now surpassed over 20 million views, is two Brazilian kids dancing to Tubarão Te Amo by DJ LK da Esocia, MC Ryan SP, and Tchakabum. Videos of the trend often consist of people challenging their friends to a Brazilian dance battle, and then competing to see who does the dance better.

It became so popular that at the World Cup in November, Brazilian fans would challenge opposing teams fans to a dance competition, taking the competition off the field and onto the dance floor.

CGS senior Audrey Karp said “It’s so fun to see young people having a great time dancing, but also putting a little playful competition into it. I love to do the dance as well.”

Understanding the Assignment

If you were on TikTok during the first half of 2022, you would’ve heard the words “understood the assignment,” hundreds of times.

People would say it as praise to someone, giving their stamp of approval to whatever the other person was doing. Many of the videos would center around fashion, as for example, if a celebrity wore a fashionable outfit to an award ceremony, their fans would say they “understood the assignment.”

Most TikToks of this trend would use the song “The Assignment” by Tay Money, while they showed off something or someone that ‘understood the assignment.’ This trend went even beyond TikTok though, as it was very popular on Twitter as well.

This was a far more uplifting trend than others on TikTok, as it was primarily used to boost the morale of people.

Ohio

One of the most popular memes on TikTok this year was people insulting the state of Ohio.

The trend consists of a person doing something strange or an odd occurrence in public, and it being associated with Ohio. For example, a TikTok in which a roller coaster malfunctioned was posted, with the caption “Only in Ohio.” The video went viral, gained over 32 million views.

The meme actually originated in 2016 on Tumblr, when a user posted an image with text saying “Ohio will be eliminated.”

It is unclear what the particular problem is with the state of Ohio, but the trend gained a tremendous amount of attention.

CGS Senior Luke Carslon said “I think it’s kind of stupid. It makes sense but I just don't find it very funny.”

About Damn Time

The final trend that took over TikTok was the dance to “About Damn Time” by Lizzo.

After the pop star released her hit single in April 2022, TikTok influencer Jaeden Gomez created a dance to the song.

For the following months the song/dance combination was all over TikTok. It got so popular that Lizzo herself made a TikTok teaching people how to properly sing and dance to the song.

This trend was a blast from the past, as during TikTok’s rise in popularity in early 2020, dances to songs like Say So and Renegade were all over the platform. Since then though, TikTok dances have become less popular, but “About Damn Time” certainly reverses that trend.

It was a wild 2022 for TikTok trends, as no one expected corn and Ohio to dominate the platform. Part of the beauty in TikTok is its unpredictability, which remains true going forward. What will be the top trends of 2023? Only time will tell.