PoV

You are reading an academic article.” The memetic performance of affiliation in TikTok’s platform vernacular

Bibliographic Data

ID7477084
AuthorsTommaso Trillò (0000-0003-2830-528X, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume28
Issue1
Pages380-400
Publication date2024-11-05
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Media & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14614448241290234
OpenAlexW4404119846
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited38

This article investigates the characteristics and communicative values of the popular PoV meme on TikTok to uncover mechanisms of community building on the platform. An analysis of the content, form, and stance of 250 videos revealed that creators of PoV memes lip-sync to audio remediated from pop culture and mimic how they imagine “you” would act in a given scenario. I offer the concept of “echoic affiliation” to describe how PoV memes leverage TikTok’s “use this sound” function to construct ephemeral bonds between users. Furthermore, PoV memes textually articulate multiple perspectives, producing intersubjective encounters that reflect a platform imaginary in which “the algorithm” efficiently clusters similar people on the same “side” of the app. In the conclusions, I present a novel definition of PoV memes and reflect on the pivotal role of affiliation for TikTok’s platform vernacular

Art · Internet privacy · Linguistics · Literature · Memetic algorithm · Memetics · Reading (process · Sociology · Vernacular · Computer Science · Digital Marketing and Social Media · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Artificial Intelligence

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Open DOIOpen Access