“I’m dating Draco Malfoy and so can you” Digitally mediated constructions of reality on ShiftTok

Introduction

Imagine that you had the ability to transition to an alternate universe of your own design, a universe where you are fully in control of what you look like, what you wear, where you live, work, and go to school, whether it is based on real life or a fictional world. This is the promise of ShiftTok, a community on the app TikTok that embodies a tangential continuation of Tumblr Fan culture. Based on a belief in a multiverse where every possible world exists, ‘shifters’ believe that we are able to visit these realities. As explained by on user “Just like there is a reality where your entire life was the same except you scrolled past this video instead of watching it, there is a reality where you’re a student at Hogwarts” (or dating Draco Malfoy).

In five parts, this piece explores the 'Shifting' community on TikTok as a case study, illustrating the increasing influence the 'digital' has on our perception of reality. Focusing especially on the way in which teenage girls and young women create online communities, this article looks into how social media can act as refuge during the turmoils of adolescence and early adulthood.

This is not written with the intention to pathologies or antagonise members of the 'shifting' community, but means to create an understanding of how the online spaces are becoming more and more entrenched in young people's perception of reality in a increasingly digitised society.

---

Part 1_ Reality Shifting 101

Even amongst those who spend a substantial amount of time on the app TikTok, ShiftTok is a rather obscure niche of the internet, so here’s a quick recap. In simple terms, it describes a collective of people on TikTok, mostly made up of teenage girls and young women, who believe that they are able to transition between their lives or Current Reality (CR) and a Desired or Dream Reality (DR) which they have planned out or ‘scripted.’

Often referencing the Multiverse, alternate realities, parallel universes and someone what grounded in quantum physics, the ShiftTok theory goes that there is a universe for every possible choice you make.

As explained by user Alexa “Just like there is a reality where your entire life was the same except you scrolled past this video instead of watching it, there is a reality where you’re a student at Hogwarts” (alexa, 2022).

While some shift into DRs adjacent to their CR (things that happened in their CR lifetimes e.g., concerts (abs, 2022)), most shifters choose to recreate themselves within fictional universes such as Marvel, Stranger Things and Hogwarts. Within these DRs they will then ‘script’ aspects of their DR lives such like the clothes they would like to wear, the name they want to go by and their appearance (the more specific the better!) . Additionally they include things they want to happen, ranging from being ‘the hottest person at Hogwarts’ (Cass, 2021), to romantic encounters and much more complex aspects such as scripting out disabilities (Astro, 2022). By far some of the most popular scenarios are dating Harry Potter characters like Draco Malfoy or Fred Weasley. Below are some examples of Scrips that have been written on the app Notion, on paper and as part of a PowerPoint, including 'about me sections, friends, family and dating history.'

Figure 1: Examples of Shifting Scripts on the app Notion, on paper and as PowerPoint

To gain access to these DRs, ‘Shifters’ can make use of diverse methods, most of which are

based around falling asleep and ‘waking up’ in your DR, although the community is adamant that it is not lucid dreaming . Some methods include the ‘5 sense method' in which you imagine your sense in your DR, the ‘double sided staircase method’ in which you imagine ascending a staircase, and the ‘Piano method’ where you picture yourself playing a piano and 'going home' into your DR (See images below for more detail) .

Figure 2: TikTok's outlining the 5 Sense Method, Double Staircase Method, and Piano Method

But shifting is not accessible to everyone. Some people try for months and years and are still unable to 'shift' into their DR (more on that later).

---

Part 2_ Say it with me ‘I’m a Shifter, Shifting is real’: Mediated Construction of Reality and Re-enchantment

Shifting, or rather the ShifTok movement as a whole can be seen as somewhat of a case study on how physical and digitally realities are becoming increasingly intermeshed, increasingly mediating our perception of life. As we have progressively moved online through the past years, digital spaces have become an extension of reality (boyd, 2011; Hine, 2015). Rather than only a reflection of the social, social media has become a space where we ‘enact the social,’ and develop out identities (Couldry and Hepp, 2016; p.2).

Commenting specifically to TikTok, Boffone (2022) argues:

“As TikTokers mimic, re-enact, and reimagine the platform’s trends and its influencers’ activity, TikTok becomes embedded into our personalities, muddying where our online activity ends and where our offline lives begin” (p. 6)

ShiftTok is an especially extreme example of how this construction of reality literally translates into user’s perception of reality’s boundaries. Across ShiftTok, content created around a belief in the ‘multiverse’ is particularly central to the ‘Shifting’ narrative (Beth dewragwir, 2022). This content will often be connected ‘New Age’ visualisations of ascendance.

Figure 3: Screenshot of TikTok depicting shifting methods through ‘new age’ imagery

By using this imagery, ShiftTok essentially counters what was proposed by Max Weber in his theory of technological disenchantment, stating that as technology develops, our lives will become less determined by spirituality and religion (Weber, 1919). However, as put forward by scholars such as Partridge (2004) and Aupers (2010), internet sub-cultures, like ShiftTok, have been an apparatus for 're-enchantment' and a reintroduction of the spiritual. Conceptualising Shifting as a product of post-modernity, Partridge (2021) argues that the “postmodern nature of technology is now ‘bypassing’ the metanarratives of secular modernity” (p. 13).

---

Part 3_ ‘Attention Shifters’: Community building on TikTok

Emerging during the COVID-19 quarantines, Shifting content predominantly circulates on western and anglophone TikTok, creating the ShiftTok community under the hashtag #ShiftTok (Partridge, 2021). Here viewers and content creators share ‘self-help’ videos like Shifting methods, their journeys in attempting to Shift, templates and ideas for ‘scripts’, as well as ‘story times’ recounting experiences they had in their DR and, like any online community, Shifting memes. Yet the way in which TikTok facilitates community building differs from other platforms.

Algorithmically Diver Communities

ShiftTok is very much a product of app design, so here's a quick insight into how communities exist on TikTok. Unlike Facebook Groups or sub-Reddits, in TikTok’s ‘algorithmically diver user experience’ (Bhandari & Bimo, 2022) the ‘forum’ is not central to the existence of the ‘community.’ Having no ‘page(s)’ on which content is collectively shared, TikTok is more reminiscent of Twitter where strong communities are found under hashtags, like #BlackTwitter (Klassen et al., 2021). TikTok thereby falls into what Lindgren’s (2022) description as online communities being “defined simply as a group of individuals who interact around common interests, where the interaction is mediated and supported by internet technology” (p. 109).

While TikTok is often associated with mainstream culture, the app is home to a plethora of sub-cultures which both consists of pre-existing cultures congregating on the app as well as cultures which have emerged throughout the app’s lifetime (Boffone, 2022). Even though they are not created and do not exist within in a specific space, the communities still carry names and identities, ranging from generic groups such as BookTok or FoodTok, to more obscure niches like WitchTok or ShiftTok to those that are sporadic, having few followers, only lasting a number of days and having a certain air of niche virality. However, unlike Twitter, TikTok users are not restricted to ‘following’ accounts to have a media ‘feed’ tailored to their interests. While following individuals is still possible, the user experience is more focused around the algorithmically driven ‘For You Page’ (FYP) (Bhandari & Bimo, 2022). Picking up on interests, the algorithm tracks users ‘likes’ and ‘dwell time,’ presenting them with content that is similarly tagged by the AI (Xu et al., 2019). Ultimately, TikTok has created a passive, easily consumed, subconscious tailored user experience. On TikTok you don’t find the content, the content finds you.

Thereby users are likely to ‘fall into’ certain communities, without actively seeking them out. A person who may be interested in Harry Potter related content, will very likely stumble across a ShiftTok video at some point. TikTok therefore allows users to remain fluid in their engagement and the roles they take up within the community as audience, performers, or both.

Community Dynamics

Within the larger contextualisation of TikTok communities, ShiftTok is uniquely interesting for its multitude of complex dynamics which culminate and play out in intense ways. While, throughout its existence, ShiftTok has created positive aspects of community, it has also been privy to bias creation of norms, in-group discrimination and bullying.

Firstly, regarding its positive community aspects, ShiftTok, as well as TikTok in general, has provide a space for creative outlet in combination with social interaction, especially during times of lockdown (Barnette, 2022). Additionally, it serves as a space in which teens and young adults can congregate without ‘adult supervision’ allowing them to speak openly about their interests (boyd, 2007; p.132) and engage in democratic discourse (Cardon & Cardon, 2007; p.62). As seen in literature on fan-fiction, digitally mediated social practice, exchanging knowledge and peer-mentoring in a creative context on social media, has shown to be particularly beneficial to young people’s feeling of belonging, forming a type of ‘public/ peer pedagogy’ (Boffone, 2022). Furthermore, the format of most videos within ShiftTok are single person, ‘face to face,’ simulating an intimate context. Often users will use language addressing the viewer directly mimicking a conversation: “I will help you with your shifting practice.”

Yet within ShiftTok there exists a complex discussion of norms, rules and regulation around Shifting as a practice that are discussed amongst participants and approved or rejected within a hierarchy of ‘experts.’ Thereby participants learn norms and behaviour by viewing content which they then translate into their behaviour within the community as well as in their practice. While this can be positive in upholding social order, in generating conformity supported by an algorithm that actively promotes confirmation bias, this can lead to bullying of members who speak out against the norm and promotes ‘undemocratic’ behaviour (Bhandari & Bimo, 2022).

An example of this is the recent discussion over the existence of a ‘shifting police’. While some believe that there is no such thing, others argue that a CIA document from 1983 (United States. CIA, 1983) proves that in some DRs certain individuals may be able to detect their presence and potentially ‘kick you out’ (peyton, 2022). As many shifters constitute their DRs as safe havens where they are in control (Somer et al., 2021), this idea was adamantly rejected by most. Those who continued to believe in the ‘Shifting Police’ were ridiculed in their comment section, leading some to delete their videos and turned off their comment sections entirely .

---

Part 4_Day in the Life of a Shifter: A Networked Identity

Once one spends a substantial amount of time on ShiftTok, it becomes clear that Reality Shifting goes far beyond shifting as a practice, a perception of reality or even the shifting community. Being a Shifter is a key element of a user’s identity and existence. Part 4 discusses shifting in the context of social media identity construction, aesthetic escapism, and self-insert metho.

There is no doubt that social media has had a lasting impact on the way in which young people perceive themselves in multifaceted ways, enabling both for positive self-exploration and negative self-surveillance (Van Oosten et al. 2018, Tiidenberg and van der Nagel, 2020; Davis, 2018). As raised by Boffone (2015), Gen Z, in comparison to millennials, no longer frequent social media behind anonymous avatars but rather ‘show themselves’ in an upfront personal way on TikTok which “lends itself to the vulnerability of being silly, honest, and real” (p.6). Furthermore, as disused by Bhandari and Bimo (2022) TikTok has contributed to the rise of ‘algorithmed self-making’ as predecessor of the ‘networked self.’ Instead of seeking out connections with others through ‘friending’ and ‘following’, TikTok “repeatedly confronts [users] with various aspects of their own personas” (Bhandari and Bimo, 2022). In doing so they are able to enter a tailored space of comfort and ease where they are continuously acknowledged and affirmed in their realities.

It is therefore no wonder that during the COVID-19 lockdowns TikTok use skyrocketed, as a digitally afforded coping mechanism (Feldkamp, 2021). As young people struggled with significant determents to their emotional and mental well-being, many were dependant on social media to replicate interactions but also for immersing oneself in idealised realities (Fegert et al., 2020). This, arguably, set the stage for the rise of ShiftTok.

Aesthetic Escapism

Over lockdowns we observed a TikTok mainstreaming of people identifying with certain ‘aesthetics,’ to mean a collection of visuals and traits representing “historical eras, locations, genres of fiction, music, and even pre-existing subcultures” (Mirny, 2021). Popular aesthetics include CottageCore, FairyCore, Dark Academia and the Clean Girl aesthetic.

Figure 4: Screenshots capturing Cottage Core, Fairy Core, Dark Academia and ‘Clean Girl’ aesthetics on TikTok To varying degrees people will immerse themselves in this aesthetics, from simply enjoyment of watching aesthetic video edits, to orienting their style and their ‘vibe’ around it including the books they read, the music they listen to and the aesthetic of their food. Amongst the varying aesthetics a communality is the desire to live in a simpler, trouble-free world. As Mirny (2021) argues this “provide(s) young people a form of unique self-expression and a way to elude a world filled with death, disease, racialized violence, and political turmoil.”

While mainstreamed by TikTok, this culture originated on Tumblr, which afforded users access to image databases and allowed for the creation of ‘distinct visual identities’ though a blog format (Mirny, 2021). Additionally, as a fan platform it facilitated the development of personal identification with ‘aesthetics’ related to media. Emerging from is digital phenomenon, Shifting is grounded in the desire to escape to ‘beautifully’ designed worlds in the form of an aesthetic self.

The Self-Insert

It is from these digital cultures that we have furthermore seen the rise of the ‘self-insert’ in Y/N (Your/Name) fans fictions, which are written for the reader to plug themselves in as main character. On TikTok this has been adapted in POV (point of view) Y/N videos, which invite the viewer to image themselves is specific scenarios.

Figure 5: Screenshots form POV Y/N TikToks from Harry Potter (1 & 2), Marvel and Enola Holmes (TV show)

Building on Foucault’s work, Sapuridis and Alberto (2022) have argued the fan-fiction self-insert to be a ‘digitally mobilised technology of self’ and, using their theorisation, I suggest that it is also applicable to shifting. Sapuridis and Alberto (2022) contend that the self-insert “hing(es) upon…using the “self” as a device to facilitate, affectively driven kinds of interactions.” As Foucault, they theories that the self-insert practice is reflective of an individual’s impulses and desired life. Meanwhile the reasons that compelled them to engage either in self-insert or shifting (or both), contextualise their relationships to lived reality. Furthermore, Sapuridis and Alberto (2022) state that Web 2.0 has afforded endless opportunities for self-expression as well as a vast digital archive of media artefacts that develop the self-insert as a ‘technology of self.’ As Siles (2012) writes “artifacts and practices of the self mutually shape each other” (Siles 2012, p. 409). We can see this played out on ShiftTok through content exchanged as self-expression which inspires others in their shifting practice who then again feel compelled to share their experience. Thereby the 'technology of self’ is inherently both digitally mediated and mobilised.

---

Part 5_ “You can get out of here and you’re gonna say no?”: Harmful trends and Duty of Care

Building on the last post covering shifting as digitally mediated ‘technology of self’ and form of virtual escapism, this final post investigates the potential harms associated with the ShiftTok community and discusses the protection of young people on the internet.

Figure 6: Screenshot of TikToker expresser her desire to 'Permashift' (link not included to protect user)

“It’s so tempting sometimes to permashift to my Fred [Weasley] DR” says the caption on a TikTok of a young woman blankly staring off camera, tears in her eyes “coming back to this reality, not being pregnant is killing me…. I hate being here.”

On ShiftTok, several videos such as this are circulating, expressing similar sentiment over dissatisfaction, idealisation of DRs and in some cases the desire to ‘Permashift’ (permanently shifting to their DR). A common theme across these videos is a want to belong to a world that is not only aesthetically beautiful but is also one in which they are in control. Furthermore, some shifters draw on specific circumstances in their lives which they want to escape from, including COVID-19 and Roe v. Wade.

Figure 7: Screenshots of TikTok expressing desire to ‘escape’ real life On TikTok Shifting has been subject to scrutiny by both ‘spiritual practitioners’ and across the wider TikTok community. While some WitchTokers, often older than the average shifter, will warn about ‘young girls playing with fire’ (I.y.a, 2021), other non-believers often pathologies the practice. While some perceive Shifters to be lying for ‘clout’ (slang for fame) and being ‘chronically online,’ others have called Shifting out for being a maladaptive daydreaming practice or even a gateway for self-induced psychosis (Third Sprouse, 2022).

But is there anything to it? Is ShiftTok actually harmful to young TikTok users?

In one of the few academic commentaries on Shifting, Somer et al. (2021) explores this in an analysis of psychological features. Noting that there are benefits to the practice such as enjoyment and companionship, they furthermore stress participation comes with a number of risks. With most young people’s mental health drastically affected by COVID-19 lockdowns, many became invested in finding solutions for their loneliness and boredom (Brodeur et al., 2021). Those who began Shifting around this time, they found, may experience an addictive dependency on Shifting as a coping mechanism and become attached to their idealised DRs. They found that continuous engagement in their scripted DRs' experiences may lead to feelings of losing control in their real lives. Furthermore, they suggested that some developed an obsession with the Shifting community for acknowledgment of their feelings, leading them further down the shifting rabbit hole and the normalisation of harmful narratives (Somer et al., 2021). This can be seen in trends such as the romanticisation of the Permashift and the will to permanently leave their lives behind.

Figure 8: Screenshots of 'permashifting' on TikTok

As shifting is both an identity and a practice that is difficult to achieve, there is a risk of obsessive tendencies over learning the newly emerging parameters on shifting and seeking advice for self-improvement.

Yet to what extent should young people’s use of platforms that afford self-discovery and community building be regulated and infringed upon in the name of protection? Livingstone (2011) discusses this in relation to sociological theories of risk. Drawing on Giddens’s ‘project of self,’ she stresses the importance of young people’s ability to explore and express their ‘self’ on the internet, becoming cultural pioneers. Referring to Beck’s (1992) theory of ‘Risk Society’ they argue that the internet has reconfigured the concept in terms of three elements: the identification of risk, the intensification of risk and the individualisation of risk. We can see these directly apply to the case of ShiftTok. As the niches of the internet become more obscure, the identification of what is harmful and what is positive self-expression becomes complex to identify for parental figures and institutions. Furthermore, with the intensification of risk, what can be constituted as risk is constantly developing in social, political, and arguably psychological terms. Finally, the individualisation of risk portrays ‘risk’ under neoliberal Western capitalism society as ‘the increasing exposure of the individual to the consequences of their own risk-related decisions’ thereby, ‘risk taking’ is increasingly a complication to be individually responsible for. This is especially true in considering the framing of teenage girl’s ‘crazes and trends’ which are often denounced and framed as hysterical without a three-dimensional consideration of care that does not cover pathologist their realities.

---

Bibliography

Aupers, S. & Houtman, D. (2010), Religions of Modernity: Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital, Leiden: Brill

Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. London: Sage.

Beth dewragwir (2022). 18 August. Available at: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFs87h4L/ (Accessed: 5 December 2022)

Bhandari, A. & Bimo, S. (2022) ‘Why’s Everyone on TikTok Now? The Algorithmized Self and the Future of Self-Making on Social Media.’ Social Media + Society. 8 (1), pp. 1-11.

Boffone, T. (2022). 'Introduction', in Boffone, T (ed.) The Rise of TikTok in US Culture. Milton: Taylor & Francis Group, pp.1-13.

boyd, d. (2007). Why youth heart social network sites: The role of networked publics in teenage social life. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning – Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume (ed. David Buckingham). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

boyd, d. (2011). 'Social network sites as networked publics: Affordances, dynamics, and implications’, in Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), A networked self: Identity, community, and culture on social network sites. New York, NY: Routledge. pp. 47– 66

Brodeur, A. et al. (2021) COVID-19, lockdowns and well-being: Evidence from Google Trends. Journal of Public Economics. 193 pp.104346–104346.

Cardon, D., & Cardon, C. (2007). The strength of weak cooperation: An attempt to understand the meaning of Web 2.0. Communications & strategies, 65(1), 51-65. https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/4581/

Cass (2021). 24 April. Available at: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFs8fBsF/. (Accessed: 5 December 2022).

Cheney-Lippold, J. (2011) A New Algorithmic Identity: Soft Biopolitics and the Modulation of Control. Theory, culture & society. [Online] 28 (6), 164–181.

Couldry, N., Hepp, A. (2017) The Mediated Construction of Reality. Oxford: Polity Press.

Davis, S. (2018). Objectification, Sexualization, and Misrepresentation: Social Media and the College Experience. Social Media + Society, 4(3), pp.1-9.

Fegert, J. M., Vitiello, B., Plener, P. L., & Clemens, V. (2020). Challenges and burden of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for child and adolescent mental health: a narrative review to highlight clinical and research needs in the acute phase and the long return to normality. Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health, 14, 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034- 020-00329-3

Feldkamp, J., (2021). 'The Rise of TikTok: The Evolution of a Social Media Platform During COVID-19', in

Hovestadt, C., Recker, J., Richter, J., Werder, K., (eds.) Digital Responses to Covid-19. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, pp.73-85.

Fernandes, B. et al. (2020) The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on internet use and escapism in adolescents. Revista de psicología clínica con niños y adolescentes. 7 (3), 59–65.

Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and self-identity: self and society in the late modern age. Cambridge: Polity Press in association with Blackwell.

Hine, C. (2015). ‘Ethnography for the internet: Embedded, embodied and Every day’. London: Bloomsbury.

Hogan, B. (2010) The Presentation of Self in the Age of Social Media: Distinguishing Performances and Exhibitions Online. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society. 30 (6), pp. 377–386.

Javed, B., Sarwer, A., Soto, E. B., & Mashwani, Z. U. (2020). The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic's impact on mental health. The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 35(5), pp. 993–996.

Jerasa, S., Boffone, T. (2021) BookTok 101: TikTok, Digital Literacies, and Out‐of‐School Reading Practices. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 65 (3), pp. 219–226

Klassen, S. (2022). Black Twitter Is Gold: Why This Online Community Is Worthy of Study and How to Do so Respectfully. Interactions. 29 (1), pp.96–98.

Lindgren, S. (2022) Digital Media and Society. 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Livingstone, S. (2011) ‘Internet, Children, and Youth’, in The Handbook of Internet Studies. Oxford, UK: Wiley‐Blackwell. pp. 348–368.

Mirny, N. (2021). Escapism, identity, and the evolution of TikTok aesthetics, The McGill Tribune, (March) [Online]. Available at: https://www.mcgilltribune.com/a-e/escapism-identity-and-the-evolution-of-tiktok-aesthetics-03302021/

O’Reilly, M. et al. (2021) Applying a ‘digital ethics of care’ philosophy to understand adolescents’ sense of responsibility on social media. Pastoral care in education. [Online] 39 (2), 91–107. Available at: https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1080/02643944.2020.1774635 (Accessed 4/12/22)

Partridge, C. (2004), The Re-Enchantment of the West, Vol 2 : Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture and Occulture, London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Partridge, E. L. K. (2021). Digital Spirituality: Technological Re-Enchantment in 2020/1? An exploration of Witchcraft and Reality Shifting on TikTok as (post)modern spiritualities existing in Wouter Hanegraaff’s ‘mirror of secular thought’. BA (Hons). Thesis. University of London.

peyton (2022). 2 November. Available at: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFsLYpaa/ (Accessed: 7 December 2022)

Sapuridis, E., Alberto, M. K. (2022) Self-Insert Fanfiction as Digital Technology of the Self. Humanities (Basel). [Online] 11 (3), pp. 68

Shift <3 (2022). 2 September. Available at: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFs8tVf3/ (Accessed: 6 December 2022)

Siles, I. (2012). Web Technologies of the Self: The Arising of the ‘Blogger’ Identity. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 17: 408–421

Somer, E., Cardeña, E., Catelan, F. R., Soffer‐Dudek, N. (2021) Reality shifting: psychological features of an emergent online daydreaming culture, Current Psycholodgy. [Online] 1 (13), https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02439-3

Third Sprouse (2022). 30 November. Available at: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFsL27Bo/ (Accessed: 6 December 2022)

Tiidenberg, K., van der Nagel, E., (2020). ‘Sex and Social Media’. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited.

United States. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Department of the Army (1983). Analysis and Assessment of Gateway Process. Maryland: US Army Intelligence and Security Command. Available at: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210016-5.pdf (Accessed 06/12/22)

Van Oosten, J. M.F., de Vries, D. A., Jochen, P. (2018). The Importance of Adolescents' Sexually Outgoing Self-Concept: Differential Roles of Self- and Other-Generated Sexy Self- Presentations in Social-Media. Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking, 21(1), pp.5–10.

Weber, M. et al. (1994) Weber: political writings / edited by Peter Lassman and Ronald Speirs. Peter Lassman (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Xu, L., Yan, X., & Zhang, Z. (2019). Research on the causes of the “Tik Tok” app becoming popular and the existing problems. Journal of Advanced Management Science, 7(2), 59–63.