Abstract

This paper examines how TikTok’s baking community allows people from different cultures, backgrounds, and age groups to connect with each other and increase their sense of belonging. By taking advantage of the variety of community content and interaction between people on its diverse research platform, TikTok has also created an active and engaging community space where people can share baking-related content with each other. For example, from traditional baking methods to modern innovative baking recipes, they share their passion for baking and learn from each other to make meaningful connections. This paper will focus on how the baking community on TikTok bridges the generation gap in culture, background, and age to create an inclusive space for sharing and learning, benefiting society and education and building connections between people.

Introduction

In today’s digital age, social media platforms have taken over and changed the way people connect and form communities. This has made social media platforms one of the most powerful tools for connecting and building communities. For example, with its short video style and large user contact base, TikTok has become an important platform for people today to participate in and share various fun and playful interests, including baking. This paper will focus on the baking community on TikTok and argue the sense of connection and belonging that arises between people of different cultures and ages. This paper will also establish community activity and user interaction through the content on TikTok, showing how the platform can build a space where people can connect with each other through a common interest and passion for baking.

Social Media and Community Building

Social media platforms connect people with similar interests and play a key role in building community. According to Boyd & Ellison (2007), “Most sites support the maintenance of pre-existing social networks, but others help strangers connect based on shared interests, political views, or activities.” (p. 2). For example, TikTok’s unique creation of short video content and user-friendliness has made the platform a hub for the development of a diverse community through which to maintain connections between users. Not only that, TikTok’s emphasis on unlimited creativity and enhanced engagement among users has also attracted users from different age groups and cultural backgrounds from all over the world, thus making it a prime space for building community activities.

Diverse Range of Baking Content

The TikTok social media platform’s baking community provides a space for people to connect and build belonging. This is because the platform’s baking community has a variety of baking video content. For example, the platform offers a wealth of baking knowledge and steps, from traditional baking recipes and techniques to modern innovative recipes and methods inspired by trends. Engage a wide audience by using diverse baking content, including novice bakers interested in baking, young bakers who want to strengthen their baking skills, and experienced bakers who share their expert baking knowledge. According to Pitstick (2021), “This allowed young adults to be exposed to the quarantine baking practices of bakers from across the globe, rather than solely within their personal networks.” (p. 37). The TikTok platform must ensure that all kinds of video content can be recommended to different users to ensure that each user can find suitable and interesting topics from different recommended content to find a sense of belonging and resonance in the platform community space. According to Pitstick (2021), “when a user shares a video, they are connecting not only with their existing friends, but with potentially millions of other users.” (p. 37). For example, an elderly user from Malaysia became interested in baking through TikTok’s recommended content and began to actively participate in the baking community and learn from the baking experiences shared between different users. As a result, users who share a common interest in baking can share their experiences and exchanges about baking in this space, thus making the atmosphere of the baking community active and maintaining the relevant connection between people.

Algorithmic Promotion and Interaction

Besides that, social media mainly analyzes users’ preferences and search topics to ensure that the recommended baking content corresponds to users interested in baking. According to Issar (2024), “to navigate across the ways in which TikTok users would (implicitly or explicitly) recommend engaging with algorithms.” (p. 34). However, the data promotion of the TikTok platform has played an important and effective role in recommending baking content to the audience. This increases the visibility and number of viewers of the baking video content and improves and maintains the connection and interactivity between users. The interactive features of liking, commenting, and sharing provided by the TikTok platform provide a good connection to the baking community and encourage a sense of belonging among people with common interests.

Collaborative Challenges and Hashtag Campaigns

In addition, the baking community on the TikTok platform will use hashtag campaigns and collaborative challenge videos created between users to enhance and activate the baking community. Engaging in these interactive activities can increase user engagement and encourage users to share their creative content, thereby mutually stimulating interaction between people with common interests. For example, the hashtag #bakingchallenge shows a series of challenges between different users and their friends, such as one person having to cover their eyes and the other person needing to bring headphones and work together to complete the project they are baking. Using fun challenges to bake different recipes, the hashtag has garnered more than 10,000 challenges and hundreds of thousands of views. The baking challenge also shows how working together can promote creativity among people and reinforce the sense of belonging that people feel in a baking community.

Cross-Cultural and Intergenerational Connections

After a cross-cultural case study, learning and sharing recipes from traditional cultures is one of the most critical ways to improve and strengthen the connection between people on the TikTok platform’s baking community. For example, an elderly TikTok user with extensive experience in making a Malay dessert shared the process of making a traditional Malay dessert and shared a recipe for the dessert on the platform. This content was discovered by a young baker from abroad in the baking community of the TikTok social media platform, and through continuous learning, communication and improvement of their own ideas and recipes, they got different sparks and results. The young bakers were not only given new techniques but also improved recipes; experienced older users also recognized the new era of baking ideas and creative methods, and the two of them have been through in-depth communication. According to Darvin (2022), “the community transposes and reifies its knowledges, techniques and technologies as well as its interpersonal, social and cultural practices and positionings.” (p. 8). Therefore, they realized the different cultural differences between each other and were attracted by each other’s traditional culture, thus establishing a connection in the knowledge of traditional exchanges and having a familiar sense of belonging to each other’s baking projects.

Moreover, the case study of intergenerational relations found that the baking community on the TikTok social media platform also provided a space to crack down on connections. Using the community on the platform, young enthusiastic bakers and older bakers with rich baking experience can interact on various projects, collaborate with users who need help and share their tips and baking ideas, thereby helping to solve problems encountered by different generations. According to Nouwen & Duflos (2021), “We approach this phenomenon with the intergenerational solidarity framework, which is concerned with social cohesion and belonging across generations.” (p. 498). For example, a young baker accidentally found a family baking recipe while cleaning up at his grandmother’s house and shared the content of the recipe on the TikTok platform’s baking community, thus causing a conversation and contact with other interested users because of the baking recipe. A book of traditional baking recipes will not only arouse the curiosity of young bakers in the new age but also attract the attention of traditional older bakers. This is because the traditional heritage of baking recipes and techniques for the modern era will be very relevant content. Therefore, the intergenerational content not only preserves the recipes and techniques of traditional baking but also increases intergenerational interaction and the sense of belonging people feel in the community.

Counterarguments and Limitations

On the other hand, it should not be admitted that although the TikTok social media platform baking community provides people with a lot of useful learning benefits, establishing a common topic connection and a sense of belonging between people, the most important thing is to admit that no matter how good, there will be certain opposition and restrictions. Some critics have argued that TikTok’s “viral” promotion and emphasis on the platform have led to user dependency. For example, users may assume that content and baking recipes shared by other users are correct without thinking and judging, thus losing judgment on a matter. As a result, the TikTok platform must screen all content to be shared in the community in order to reduce the appearance of content that shouldn’t appear and increase users’ independence.

According to Braun & Mateus (2024), “TikTok-scapes challenge text-image distinctions, but also call into question the shifting dynamics of authenticity and representation in the digital age.” (p. 37). The fast-paced impact of modern TikTok trends often results in a lack of authenticity and credibility in the content shared and exchanged within the baking community. For example, sharing a recipe in the community without any practice leads to growing disunity and suspicion among people, making the baking community on the platform unreliable and gradually disjointed. Over-commercialized and patronized baking videos often lead to visually unreal results. For example, the original baking content video wants to share how to make simple and delicious whole wheat bread, but the baking video has been excessive with commercial words and advertising methods, resulting in users feeling disgusted and unable to learn to make the mood. Therefore, the TikTok platform must reduce the commercialization and advertising of baking content and allow more authentic baking content to be shared with each other in the baking community so as to inspire a sense of belonging among its users who share the same baking interests.

TikTok’s modern, fast-paced trend can also cause users to look bored and tired. Social media platforms’ data keeps tracking users’ preferences to promote the same type of content, which can lead to boredom and boredom. For example, data on the TikTok platform consistently promotes bake-type content to users who are interested in baking, but this also leads to user boredom, which affects user engagement and interaction in the baking community. Obviously, this is also difficult for creators of baking content, who need to constantly share and communicate with each other based on the user’s level of interest in the baking community. However, people of different cultures and ages will be able to connect and belong through the platform’s baking community. Despite these controversies and concerns, people’s ability to connect shouldn’t be underestimated.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the baking community on TikTok’s social media platform enables people of different cultural backgrounds and ages to cultivate a comfortable sense of belonging and increase their connection with each other. This has gradually made the baking community a strong and recognizable community space. Moreover, TikTok creates a space of inclusion and belonging. It uses diverse baking content, data reckoning, and hashtag challenges to allow users to share their thoughts and knowledge about baking anytime, thereby building and maintaining connections between people. While TikTok will still have its challenges and criticisms, the baking community on the platform will provide in-depth communication and learning benefits for cross-cultural and generational relationships and turn the baking community into one of the trends. Therefore, with the emergence and strong development of multiple social media platforms, the bakery community on TikTok also demonstrated and proved that even from different cultural backgrounds and age groups, as long as there is a common interest and persistence, it is possible to establish a meaningful sense of belonging and maintain connections in any space.

Reference

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Darvin, R. (2022). Design, resistance and the performance of identity on TikTok. Discourse, Context & Media, 46, 100591. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211695822000149

Issar, S. (2024). The social construction of algorithms in everyday life: Examining TikTok users’ understanding of the platform’s algorithm. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 40(18), 5384-5398. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10447318.2023.2233138

Nouwen, M., & Duflos, M. (2021, June). TikTok as a data gathering space: the case of grandchildren and grandparents during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Proceedings of the 20th Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (pp. 498-502). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352750545_TikTok_as_a_data_gathering_space_the_case_of_grandchildren_and_grandparents_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic#pf5

Pitstick, E. (2021). Baking During COVID-19: Coping, Connecting, Creating. https://digitalcommons.denison.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1056&context=studentscholarship