Highlights
- TikTok's viral nature has made it easier for creators to monetize their content and showcase their creativity through short-form videos.
- The "You're my bird" trend on TikTok involves users sharing emotionally impactful slideshows with loved ones, accompanied by the song "Anchor" by Novo Amor.
- Despite privacy concerns, TikTok remains a popular platform for users of all ages to express themselves and consume entertaining and inspiring content.
Social media trends are ever-changing. A platform that seems to heavily embody this is TikTok. Thanks to its digestible short-form content, TikTok has made it easier for a lot of online creators to go viral - even spilling over to platforms like Twitter and Instagram. These videos can range from dance videos with catchy songs to bizarre trends, like the Grimace Shake skits.
On the other hand, TikTok has also turned into a sort of digital journal for netizens. Instead of posting a 30-minute vlog on YouTube, they would squeeze moments into one-minute clips. The viral nature of the platform has also made it easier for creators to monetize their TikTok content. Some use the platform to pay homage to their loved ones in creative videos, with the latest trend to catch the attention of TikTokers being "You're my bird."
What "You're My Bird" Means on TikTok
The "You're my bird" TikTok trend is essentially a slideshow of photos or videos where people tell their loved ones this phrase while emotional music plays in the background, usually "Anchor" by Novo Amor. This will be followed by the text response, "Your what?" The final image will then show a man laying face down, with the text "I can't do this anymore," and a small bird replying, "Yes you can" while pulling him up by his shirt.
The original bronze statue is called "Trans ī re, Hacienda Paradise" made by Norwegian artist Fredrik Raddum in 2017. It's one of 11 sculptures for the Utopia Experiment that was exhibited in Galleri Brandstrup is Oslo. According to Raddum's website, the exhibit explored humans' need for "reinvention through relocating and migrating." The sculptures were also based on a story about a group of Europeans that left their homes to live on the Galapagos Islands in South America in the 1930s. Around this time, there were cases of unsolved disappearances on the island.
Raddum's exhibit was viewed as emotional and sometimes even dreary. It originally didn't have the same uplifting vibe as the "You're my bird" trend. It's highly likely that someone visited Galleri Brandstrup, admired the seemingly resilient nature of the bird as it tried to pull the man to his feet, and shared it on their personal social media account/s. However, there seems to be no concrete explanation as to how it ended up on TikTok.
The earliest version of the "You're my bird" trend was believed to be uploaded on the platform in July of this year. In just a few days, over 70,000 users have hopped on this trend and shared touching tributes to their families, partners, friends, and even pets. The number is expected to rise in the coming days or weeks, or however long the trend will last on TikTok. "Bird" has also become a term of endearment used by avid TikTokers.
Novo Amor's "Anchor" also rose in popularity thanks to the "You're my bird" trend. As of writing, the song, which was originally shared by TikTok user .lovespotify, has over 150,000 videos under its tag. "Anchor" itself is a moving song, making it the perfect track for the TikTok videos. In the past, it's been proven that TikTok was a great platform to promote music, with users sharing their faves, like Mario Kart's soundtrack to help them study.
TikTok can be a polarizing platform because of alleged security and privacy concerns. The platform even faced a class-action lawsuit in regard to child data gathering in the EU and UK back in 2021. However, many people of all ages still use it to express their creativity, and hunt for content that will entertain, inform, and inspire them. With trends like "You're my bird" taking over a portion of the platform, it's undeniable that TikTok will still be the go-to for wholesome content.