This week on Under the Radar:

TikTok, the Chinese-owned app known for popular dance videos and creative tips for everyday tasks, has changed the way people go viral on social media.

The video-sharing platform exploded in popularity during COVID becoming the world’s most downloaded app in 2020. With school buildings shut down, a generation of young people looking for connection and entertainment found it on TikTok, as did others captivated by the clever and amusing short films. Just this month, TikTok announced that more than one billion people use the app globally.

TikTok has produced thousands of social media influencers — content creators who attract large numbers of followers and views. Some of them have now joined forces to establish TikTok Houses with members living and posting content together full time. And one local Tik Tok House is getting a taste of fame by posting about all-things Massachusetts. The ultimate goal: lucrative brand deals and celebrity.

Is this trend the next wave of social media? And what does it mean to be TikTok famous?

Kyle Gove, the owner and manager of “The Mass House” says his collaboration started a year ago and has grown to almost 100,000 followers in just one year.

"We just enjoyed making content with each other under one collective page, it’s bigger than us individually," he says. "It represents something more than our individual selves, we want to represent the state on that platform."

Guests:

Rebecca Jennings, senior reporter covering internet culture at The Goods by Vox.

Kyle Gove, owner and manager of local TikTok group “The Mass House.” Kyle is a freshman at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.