36% of the accounts followed by the users surveyed posted humorous or comedic content on TikTok, explains the Pew Research analysis. — Photography Antonin UTZ/AFP
Often perceived as a platform for light-hearted entertainment, TikTok has become a must-have for American users. A recent study by the Pew Research Center reveals a surprising trend: US adults mainly follow pop culture and entertainment accounts, leaving traditional media and political figures to the sidelines.
The majority of TikTok's adult users in the US follow content creators and influencers who have gained popularity through social networking, as well as more mainstream celebrities. These groups account for around half of the accounts followed by American adults on the platform. By contrast, politicians, figures of civil society, and traditional media outlets and journalists are almost absent from users' lists: "Each of these groups makes up less than half of 1% of all the accounts we examined. And the typical US adult on TikTok follows no accounts in each of these categories,” the study states.
