Every few months, a TikTok trend emerges encouraging people to showcase their self-growth and vulnerability. 

A new article by Yahoo Life highlights this phenomenon and discusses why generation Z and millennials feel so comfortable sharing personal information on the platform. 

Research by University of Michigan School of Information assistant professor Nazanin Adalibi and postdoctoral research fellow Kristen Barta are mentioned in the story. 

In their research, “Constructing Authenticity on TikTok: Social Norms and Social Support on the “Fun” Platform” Andalibi and Barta study how TikTok normalizes expressions of both positive and difficult emotions and experiences for users. 

“Anonymity, both of content creators and of one’s audience, potentially affects the intimacy and depth of personal expression and disclosure of personal experiences on TikTok,” they write. “Anonymity upholds normative authenticity on TikTok by reducing the risks associated with personal expression and disclosure. In online contexts, anonymity has been associated with a disinhibition effect, in which individuals may express themselves more freely and perhaps with more intimacy of depth of disclosure, than in a face-to-face, offline context.”

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Read “Content creators are showing how their lives have improved with help from Olivia Rodrigo’s trending track ‘Vampire’” on Yahoo Life. 

Learn more about Nazanin Andalibi’s research and publications by visiting her UMSI faculty profile and personal website.