Taylor Loren sat down in front of a camera, blue and pink lights glowing behind her. From her living room to the screens of more than 8,300 students, she started to explain what a "meme mentality” was. This lesson, on cultivating a relatable online image, was part of Loren’s class on how to master — or even just understand — TikTok, currently the most downloaded app in the world.
Loren, a social media strategist in Vancouver, British Columbia, teaches people how to use TikTok. If things work out right, her students might even go viral. That is part of the curriculum. Being a star, she tells her class, requires several key skills: spotting trends, carving out a niche and, sometimes, playing up the culture battle between Generation Z and millennials.
"People are realizing that this is the future of social media and they need to learn now how to create video content,” Loren, 32, says. "I just saw a really big opportunity.”