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Thanks to TikTok, society has progressed. Its raw algorithm is unprecedented in power and has allowed countless ideas that move humanity forward to the surface. It’s frankly why lawmakers want to ban it stateside: They can’t control the truth and so all they can do is suppress it.
In week 1 of the 2024 Daily Dot Hall of Fame, we’re turning to “TikTok Movements.” These are more about America, less about political jostling for power. These ideas have only one agenda: Bringing innovation to light.
Last year, this category celebrated teachers, witches, and even housekeepers. This year, the categories are grittier.
Here are the first round of nominees for the 2024 Daily Dot Hall of Fame.
Fixing Your Own Gadgets
Are air filters from Home Depot a scam? What about how you have to buy a whole new floor if one panel is broken because the flooring industry allegedly changes designs every two years to keep you buying a new one?
Planned obsolescence, in other words.
And what about the iPhone? Do you really need a new one every two years when you can fix it and keep yours running for seven? Awareness about how our stuff works helps our community and the environment.
There are very few repair shops on Main Street, USA because we’re so used to throwing away headphones when a battery in them dies.
Thanks to TikTok, DIY hacks are all the rage.
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Making Your Own Food
Young people burned out by meal delivery apps and expensive Taco Bell have begun to find savings in raw ingredients.
The totem for this philosophy came to us via sour cream. Also tortilla chips for Mexican restaurants. But sour cream has just two ingredients.
If you make your own, you have the potential to save real money, especially as that learned behavior permeates to your other food needs.
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‘Should You Tip’ Server Discourse
The world generally agreed that in 2024, a 20% tip was the gold standard after decent service. And then those tip tablets started appearing in the most unusual places.
At the Starbucks drive-thru. Should you tip your drive-through operator? At the airport with no one manning the iPad. A restaurant in Austin thought it would be funny to offer a 69% tip option on its touchscreen. And it’s funny enough that you want to press that button when you get the check especially if you only ordered fries and a beer.
These screens remind us how made-up currency can be and how flimsy it all feels without paper bills. TikTok’s tipping discourse has helped keep us grounded, making good decisions in all of these case-by-case scenarios.
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Abandoning Your Shopping Haul At The Self-Checkout
A Walmart worker went viral for saying that they observed lots of folks abandoning their hall at self checkout.
Like hairdressers who say that no one is getting highlights or strippers who say the tips are down this quarter, that was a sign of economic hard times.
Walmart has become America’s public square, which is chiefly why we cover it so much. Most facets of society mix at their local Walmart and most communal problems play out there. When people realize they cannot afford to buy what they thought they could at the self check out and leave, they can at least do so with some semblance of anonymity to hide their shame.
It is a sign that something is deeply rotten in American life.
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Beating The Car Dealership
You go to buy a car and it turns into a 9-hour duel of the fates.
You feel gamed by a salesman‘s unclear value propositions and desperate deliverables. You don’t trust the sticker price. You don’t trust the upsells. The hidden fees jump out at you like a horror film as you’re trying to finalize your purchase.
Thanks to TikTok and its innumerable confessionsfrom the dealership industry, car buyers now have a deeper understanding of how to navigate this very necessary storefront.
Over the past years many tried using car services such as Carmax or Carvana to skips the dealership process but those web services come with their own problems too. Now we understand what cars to avoid, which to sell before 50,000 miles, and what time of the month to make a purchase.
Let’s keep making this a buyer’s market.
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