On Tuesdays, the Daily Dot’s Problematic on TikTok column runs in the web_crawlr newsletter. It highlights the current trending problems on the popular video platform, which are also featured in Tuesday’s Problematic on TikTok column. If you want to get this column a day early, subscribe to web_crawlr; it will send you a daily email with current culture trends.
TikTok videos use an aging filter with lines around the eyes and a pronounced saggy chin. The image is overlaid on the song “1, 2, 3” by Sofia Reyes featuring Jason Derulo and De La Ghetto. As Reyes croons, “You seem to like me a little more today,” the filter pushes the age to 2 or 3.
When Reyes’ lyrics “Hey, how are you?” are displayed through the filter, the TikTokers’ facial features become apparent. This was popularized by @eunicetjoaa, @sitianggunn_30, and @katiana.kay; their videos have nearly 30 million, 11.4 and 6.3 million views respectively. After removal of the filter, Reyes’ lyrics can be seen to everyone.
Multiple video commenters criticized the filter used in the posted content. One commenter stated that @eunicetjoaa’s participation in the trend showed her true colors. Additionally, a TikToker user wrote that “Yea let’s not do this” in response to @sitianggunn_30’s video going viral.
Other TikTokers have documented the trend as well. @bubblesworlddd called the trend a “fatphobic confidence boost” in one video. She also noted that the filter she used to make her video was removed after people complained about how it made them look too fat.
When removing the lens from her camera, Bubbles was relieved to see that her face didn’t appear fat. In a TikTok overlay text, she wrote, “You go from having to see yourself with a larger round fat face,”
Oliver’s TikTok mocked the popularity of the skinny and hot trend. By using a filter on his video, he showed how “hot &skinny” he is.
Oliver expressed concern about the popularity of round-faced filter effects in a direct message conversation with the Daily Dot. He wrote in the text of his TikTok video after having his filter removed that his heartbreak came from viewing “my sad face” through a popular filter trend.
By parodying the trend, he intended to remind the public that everyone is beautiful and should be valued. He believes that social media’s standards of beauty are terrible.
