Monday, 6/24

Wow.  This is just starting to get…weird.

You may recall a few days ago when I mentioned the latest strange moment in my life, when I became an accidental Tik Tok star after my History Center cohort Emily put together a “Gen Z Intern Edit” video of something we shot back in January, and a whole bunch of people watch and/or like it.  At the time it had gathered 118,000 views, and the sheer number of people who had taken the 51 seconds to watch it blew my mind.

Well, that was Thursday.  And I wonder what the Thursday Me would think when, as of early on this Monday morning, it was up to 1.7 million views.

If I had a dollar for every time someone watched that video…I’d be a millionaire.  A literal millionaire.

I don’t get it.  I mean, I’m not a member of Gen Z, so maybe I’m not supposed to get it.  But there’s something in Emily’s work that’s captured the zeitgeist of a moment and has propelled both of us to a point where we never thought we would be.  She’s stunned because she’s created something viral.  I’m stunned because…well, because the kids watching seem to think I’m like, you know, cool, to use a Gen X term.

I mean, we all know I’m not, but some of the comments just make me shake my head in amazement–”you know he knows what he’s talking about”, “that dude seems so chill”, “I would totally listen to anything he has to say”.  That’s not some famous person or some learned person or some important person they're referring to.  They’re referring to me.  And even though my mind has been blown repeatedly the last few years…

This really blows my mind.

I have no idea what’s next as far as Emily’s video goes.  I thought it would have been a one or two day wonder, and then something else new would have come along.  I was (quite obviously) wrong, so I don’t even want to venture what’s to happen next.  Like all things viral, I’m sure it WILL slow down, but as to when, I have no idea.  Until it does, I’ll just keep watching the number of views go up, and stand in amazement at what Emily Varga has created.

And what has, in the most unlikely of ways, made me, for now, at least, a one week Tik Tok sensation.

(jim@wmqt.com)