A new wave of humor and entertainment is taking over not only the internet, but also high schools, in the form of smartphone videos. Featuring trendy dances and comedic lip syncs, the app TikTok is capturing the attention of people across the country. It’s more than just the next social media sensation; it’s bringing fame and sometimes fortune to everyday phone users.

First released in China in 2016 as the app Douyin, TikTok took off in the U.S. in 2017 after combining with Musical.ly and extending to international crowds, according to a Vox article.

“I had Musical.ly a long time ago which turned into TikTok, and I got that in 2015,” said freshman and TikTok user Hanna Ward.

It remains popular this year with millions of active users, 41% of whom are between 16 and 24 years old, according to the Global Web Index. Evidently, a significant number of the app’s users are high school students, and PHS students are participating on the online platform as well.

“It’s like YouTube, but you get your results immediately. Within the first hour, you can see if a video took off,” junior Michael Eifert said.

Eifert, posting videos under the account @thebigshrek, is a verified “popular creator,” with over 643,200 followers and 12.9 million likes. His most watched video featuring dozens of neatly lined phones and the song “Someone Like You” by Adele racked up 44.1 million views.

users, and businesses have reached out to collaborate with him, including Nomad, a leading phone case company.

“I was just amazed. I didn’t realize that [my video] could get that popular,” Eifert said.

Eifert said he first downloaded the app in November of last year in hopes of gaining 50 followers in competition with other students. He was not anticipating how quickly his videos would gain popularity.

“I woke up, and there were 10,000 views after I had posted [my first video] the night before, and during first period, I remember jumping from 10,000 to 200,000,” Eifert said.

In his videos, Eifert said he destroys previously damaged Apple products he collects on eBay, forming domino assemblies or drilling holes straight through the screens. This was a hobby he picked up as a middle schooler and then transferred over to his TikTok content as a high schooler.

“It’s all about the beat,” he said. “If I’m doing iPhone dominoes and it’s playing with a song, it clicks, and everything lines up.”

Eifert said he has not just seen explosive results through TikTok numbers. Other video creators, Instagram

“They will send me their products, I put them in videos, and then they pay me,” he said.

Google interviewed him about his work and Comedy Central created videos with him at Clusterfest in San Francisco over the course of three days, Eifert said. Eifert’s page has even earned a page on the website Famous Birthdays.

“It was just exciting seeing [my own page] there,” Eifert said.

Unlike Eifert, junior Eden Smith said she opens up the app largely to watch others’ work rather than to share her own.

“Around last year, I started using it because everyone else was using it,” Smith said.

Eifert said that TikTok is a constantly changing, unpredictable app.

“When I first started, it was more people doing short skits, then it went to a few months later where people were doing tricks like backflip,” Eifert said.

Smith said she believes that TikTok, like most other social media apps, will die out eventually, but for now, it is an online source of connection for Gen Z kids and even adults across the country.

“I think what’s interesting about TikTok is that there are all different kinds of people,” she said. “It’s not just super extroverted people; anyone who has an idea for a TikTok can just make one.”