Viral “fake people” TikTok trend invents bizarre backstories for strangers
TikTok: fakehumansofamericanuAs part of a viral TikTok trend, users are creating complex backstories for random strangers they film on their college campuses—but not everyone is a fan.
As a hotspot for viral content on the internet, new trends are going viral on TikTok practically every day, with everything from dances to challenges, and more.
But the latest strange trend to sweep the app has got people divided. In what some are referring to as the “fake people” trend, participants will film videos of strangers—more often than not without them knowing—walking about in public.
They’ll then overlay some text on the video with details like a name, age, and random details about their lives with ideas about who they’re dating, where they’re from, what they study, etc.
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These details are all made up of course, and people try to get as creative as possible when it comes to inventing backstories for these random people.
It is a particularly popular trend on college campuses, and entire accounts have sprung up dedicated to videos about people at specific universities.
These videos can rack up millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes, with commenters letting creators know how accurate they think their description is.
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However, not everyone is a total fan of the trend, with some people raising the issue of recording and uploading videos of people without their prior consent.
“Why are you filming random people?” one comment reads, with another user calling it, “lame and judgemental.”
Despite criticism, this trend is only continuing to gain traction on the platform as people come up with more specific and even crazier stories about people they’ve never met.