Gen Z-ers are posting memes showing their reactions to the fallout from the virus, while the app is helping to educate users

As the world reckons with an indefinite period of social distancing, teenagers on TikTok are bringing people together with memes about coping during the coronavirus pandemic.

Videos using the hashtag #coronavirus are up to 5.5bn total views on the app, which lets users post short clips set to music, as of Thursday.

Many show emotional reactions to the Covid-19 fallout: one user documented the screams of students on campus as they responded to dorms being closed and school shutting down. One user posted a video of themselves crying and dealing with a potentially corona-related fever. Others are devastated to be packing up and leaving study abroad programs.

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Many are simply upset that coronavirus is ruining all their plans. While some videos acknowledge the gravity of the situation, most posts are steeped in a dark humor that has come to characterize Gen Z.

This is a generation that grew up after 9/11, came of age during the 2008 financial crisis, and is faced with an unprecedented climate crisis that threatens to end the world as we know it. As one TikTok user put it: the “desensitized teens who grew up with information overload” are unfazed by the global economic and social impacts Covid-19 could have.

Memes aside, TikTok is taking proactive measures to educate people about the spread of the virus, at a time when many major social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, are pushing back against the spread of misinformation.

TikTok told the Guardian it was working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to “provide trusted information to our community”. Through this partnership it has provided a page with a Q&A about the virus, ways to protect yourself, and “mythbusters” featuring tips from the WHO – telling users when to wear a mask, whether you should spray chlorine or alcohol all over your body to stop the spread of the virus (short answer: definitely not), and other daily protective measures.