Dimensions of Youth Interaction on TikTok: Exploring Creativity, Multimodality, and Digital Literacy

Abstract

This paper explores youth perceptions of TikTok, looking for how this platform influences their daily experience and how they build their relationship with technology. We rely on qualitative research using interviews as a method to search for evidence. Based on the analysis of data collected from 19 participants between 11 and 23 years old, interviewed by 4 researchers, individually or in groups, during seven interviews of approximately one hour, during a school year. This study addresses how users interpret their activities on the social network TikTok—after transcription of the interviews, using HappyScribe, which were subsequently reviewed manually, a total of 71 documents were obtained. A double coding process, automatic and manual, was carried out. This combination of quantitative and qualitative methodology allows for a broader understanding of the trends and patterns that mark the youth experience on TikTok. A closer look at this technique shows that it was carried out by analyzing the terms, considering the context in which each of the codes appears. This function uses an algorithm to generate a hierarchy of codes based on recurring phrases in the data. The results show that TikTok is not only an entertainment platform, but also a space for the production and negotiation of shared meanings among the platform's users, who employ different linguistic strategies. Young people generate content by adapting to algorithms and re-signifying trends based on their cultural experiences. Likewise, there is a constant interaction between creativity and algorithmic regulations, which influences which meanings consolidate or disappear. The common perceptions identified in this work reveal not only the relevance of TikTok as a tool for social interaction among young people but also how it is configured as a creative space related to the acquisition of multimodal skills and even capable of enhancing various forms of literacy.