Sixteen videos. Fifteen seconds each. Fourteen “[user] liked a video you reposted”. Thirteen “[user] reposted a video you reposted”. It seems to go on and on, when will it end?

If you’re like me then you’ll notice this during the three hours of mindless scrolling, avoiding anything productive. In late 2023, reposting became more popular on TikTok. 

The repost button is a fun little way to interact with the app, especially if posting isn’t your ideal thing. This feature sounds great in theory, but not in practice. TikTok has added notifications where you can see who liked and/or reposted the same video you have. Sounds fun right? Until your entire For You Page has been reposted.

In my personal experience, I normally get excited when I see a notification from TikTok, thinking someone tagged me in a video. But ever since the repost notifications became a thing, that excitement faded away. It’s gotten to the point where I turned off TikTok notifications entirely and not look at the inbox. It’s too predictable. 

Users have been reposting every video they see, or at least that’s what they make it to be. Yes, reposting videos that you find relatable or like in general is fun, but it’s not fun when every TikTok you’ve seen has been reposted already. Especially with those who use the repost button more frequently than the like button. I myself have been on the receiving end of the repost epidemic where every video has already been reposted. It kind of takes away from the escape-reality-and-zone-out viewing experience. The little tag above the creator’s username in the video feels like the snapchat bitmoji in a chat: always watching. 

Recently, I find myself counting the amount of TikToks I see on my For You Page where one of my mutuals has reposted the same one. Without fully watching the videos, I counted 12 in under a minute. That’s ridiculous. The repost epidemic has infected one too many people for comfort. 

A question I’ve had for a while now is: what is the purpose of reposting? At first users could add comments on their reposts and mutuals could reply. Naturally, TikTok removed that feature. So what’s the point in reposting if users can’t add their own input similar to X (formerly known as Twitter) “retweets” or Facebook’s “share to page”? 

It’s interesting to see how the evolution of mankind has now been subject to “haha that’s funny” looking at their light-up metal rectangles.