Twenty-first century begging.. When Tik Tok becomes a means for young people to get money.. Are they driven by need or riding the wave?
Elderly and young people, under the weight of miserable conditions, sit for hours in desolate tents, their eyes fixed on their mobile phones, with the aim of appearing on a live broadcast and practicing the latest innovations of artificial intelligence: virtual begging or what we can call “remote begging”.
While browsing the TikTok application, that famous platform that has attracted millions of users in recent years, especially during the lockdown period with the spread of the Corona virus, dozens of clips and direct videos appear that have turned many young people into beggars.
Between begging and sexual suggestion
In deplorable cases, some of these young men appear indifferent to society’s view of them. On the contrary, they are particularly keen to show the worst life a person may live in, in order to obtain a few dollars. This strategy used by these people can be described as a “work kit”, which requires showing a high amount of misery in order to make more money.
These models, which are countless, come alongside another segment of content makers that rely on sexual suggestiveness to attract attention. But these latest scenes may no longer be shocking, given their massive spread a long time ago, especially with the advent of dating apps.
This reality has become a confusing question for many: Did Zhang Yiming, the inventor of this application, know when launching his project, which aimed primarily at publishing dance videos, that it would turn into a virtual place for begging, and that the dignity of some people would be meaningless in exchange for large sums of money?
The unemployed found their way in this platform as an opportunity to get money, and they entered into direct and humiliating challenges; Sometimes you see them smear themselves with powder or coffee, and sometimes you find them turning into dogs or breaking an egg on their heads.
“We want a lion”
It is noteworthy that what you hear most of the time during the live broadcast, which does not exceed five minutes, are words that vary between competitors cursing each other to increase excitement and suspense, and words of praise for the supporters to urge them to pay, in addition to phrases such as “May God give you support” and “We want a lion, a lion.” Only the word “Kafu” clearly shows that the fish has been caught in the “Tiktoker” hook.
While watching these tours, you feel as if you are in a street and a needy person stops you asking for help, but the latter’s standing in the sun or showers certainly requires more effort and greater stamina than those who sit in his room in front of his phone. Therefore, the “Tik Tok Ala Mod” shehada would be better than staying all day on the streets knocking on the window of this one or that kindly giving you a few pennies coming out of his pocket.
The situation on this platform is different. It is enough for you to infect your shares with one of the wealthy people who enjoy seeing people in humiliating conditions, watching these challenges, participating in them, and fueling them as a means of entertainment. You will not exchange the hundreds and even thousands that come out of their pockets for the numbers recorded in their bank accounts, but rather you will sacrifice the reality of those who live without finding. What they feed on.
The most terrible thing was that I happened to be on a live broadcast of a Syrian man who was sitting in a tent with water covering his feet.. He stayed like this for hours while he was sitting on a chair in front of his camera. He did not even move to draw water from the ground, but rather his bitter reality was an opportunity that he wanted to exploit to win the sympathy of supporters and make greater profits. He was happy with what happened to him, but would he have felt the pleasure of the waters that flooded the rest of his life before the emergence of this application and the spread of this new phenomenon?
What is hard to believe is that these challenges were not limited to those who are unemployed, but also business owners who despaired of their business faltering, so they also decided to resort to Tik Tok to get their share of the best supporters and their gifts, and a number of Arab actors also had a share, after To discover that representation in our countries does not “feed bread”…
After a journey of immersion in the world of Tik Tok, you will find that most of these young men are from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and our countries in economic crisis … unlike Western countries whose people are good at using this application due to the many restrictions that their countries forced the parent company to put in place, which of course do not exist in our world.
In the face of this rampant disease, I feel our need and the need of our societies, which are gradually losing their values and principles, to eradicate this dangerous tumor that threatens our elders and our young. On the contrary, it supports our more involvement in these applications.
It is worth mentioning that TikTok allows you to buy currencies from your credit card to send gifts, and the app’s gifts start with a rose, which is the cheapest in price, with a few centimeters and equal to one point, and ends with TikTok Universe, which costs about $500 and equals 34,999 points! Or to wait to collect these points through your participation in chats, but you can rarely collect coins equal to a lion or a whale …
