Family videos have taken over TikTok, and it’s the sort of wholesome content getting me through this pandemic.

TikTok

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When I started my TikTok obsession a year and a half ago, it was like wandering into some secret teen clubhouse. And it was wild.

This was before TikTok trends started to make regular appearances in the media, way before local news created scares about dangerous challenges, and eons before anyone knew who Charli D’Amelio was. Nah, back then it was all furries showing off their suits, anime kids doing hand motions I didn’t understand but thought were neat, and gamer boys making fun of them. It was a thing you only used earnestly (and therefore, uncoolly), or you were there ironically. I was hooked. That all changed, of course. It wasn’t long before TikTok culture, with its e-girls, soft boys, and VSCO girls, bubbled over into the mainstream. Teens used the app because it was genuinely fun and addictive, and the content turned from ironic to hilarious. It's truly the closest we’ll ever get to my dearly departed Vine. As with anything that gets popular, the mainstreaming of TikTok has changed the app’s culture. Now there were old people using it (old as in older than 30), and celebrities were attempting cringey humor with their own accounts. To be honest, I was getting ready to declare that TikTok’s glory days were dead. And then the pandemic hit. The novel coronavirus, away from the horror happening in our hospitals and nursing homes, has changed our lives in mundane yet surprising ways, from how we shop to how we wash our hands. TikTok is no different. COVID-19 has brought something delightfully wholesome to the app — families. Parents weren’t totally absent from the app before, but when teens and young adults across the world hunkered down with their parents in quarantine, those parents started appearing in their TikToks. I first noticed it with the dance challenge for the Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights.” The challenge involves three people doing some easy choreography to the song, and teens were recruiting their parents to join in, adding charming captions like “this took my dad almost two hours to learn.”

Another trend was themed family quarantine dinner parties, where everyone dressed up. Like this emo night.



Or this Tiger King night, which I've watched so many times, cackling all the way.

Some are more prank-like in nature, which is even better.

Another favorite of mine was families re-creating club nights for their bored kids, like this adorable dad.

Then there were breakout hits, like this very enthusiastic dad announcing family lunch, followed by a walk.

@gigglehaus I think my dad is enjoying his kids being home from college a little too much ##foryou ##coronavirus ♬ wHatCoULdbEmoREfuN - gigglehaus

Another was this mother-and-son duo trying to land a ping-pong ball in a plastic cup.

Their names are Scott and Carol Haennelt, and they live in San Francisco. Scott told me he had to leave college for home when the virus shut down his campus. Scott had been on TikTok for a while, and when he first started he would get his mom to take part but she didn’t totally get it. “When I started filming these weird videos I’d be like, do this video with me for TikTok. And she’d be like, 'Who would watch this?'” he told me. While home for quarantine, Scott decided to try his hand at the ping-pong trick shots he’d seen other people do, and once again he recruited his mom. For three nights in a row, the pair spent an hour at a time trying to get the ball in the cup, recording their reactions along the way. Seeing Carol’s face light up when they finally get it in is a moment of the purest joy. But it's also joyful hearing them talk about how they spent the time together. “It’s sort of a consequence of playing together — the relationship naturally gets stronger,” she said.

Scott Haennelt