//Hannah Jenkins//

If someone were to ask me, ‘what TikTok hashtags do you think will be popular in 2020?,’ I would say, ‘How am I supposed to know? I don’t have 2020 vision.’ Corny jokes aside, a total of 500 million users are active on TikTok. In short, there is no denying that the popularity of TikTok has been carried into the new year. What exactly are all these people looking at? Here are some of the top new TikTok hashtags of 2020.

1. #POV (Point of View) 

Ever wondered what it’s like to be kidnapped by an attractive psychopath or to have your childhood best friend beat up your abusive boyfriend? No? Well, TikTok has you covered. TikTok POVs have risen in popularity in the past couple of months, reaching a total of 26.3 billion views. In a POV, the creator of the video makes the watcher feel as if they are involved in the hypothetical situation the creator set up. These situations range from confessing one’s love to just straight-up murder. Some POVs even include supernatural elements, such as soulmates and demigods. 

1. #WW3

On Jan. 3, President Trump ordered a missile strike on Iran, which resulted in the death of General Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s top commander. This is what the kids call a ‘big oof’ moment. The paranoia of a possible World War III started to quickly spread across the U.S. The situation soon started to spread on to TikTok as well, culminating 2.3 billion views. Were the TikToks made to inform the public about the crisis or to demand voters to elect a government that won’t ‘do us like this?’ I mean, some may have been informative/actually helpful, but they were buried by the millions of TikTok making jokes about the draft and how bad everybody would be in actual combat. Gen Z: The generation that has a joke for everything, including war.   

1. #kobe

Even though TikTok is generally a place to post jokes and generally fun content, there are times when the community, as a whole, is left speechless. The death of Kobe and Gianna Bryant was one of these times. On Jan. 26, Kobe and Gianna, along with six other people, were killed in a fatal helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif.. The tragedy left many in complete shock and grief. Soon, tributes to Kobe and Gianna started popping up in the sports community, as well as on social media. Many made tributes to the two legends on Tik Tok. In total #kobe, #ripkobe, #Gigi, and #ripgigi received 5,449,900,000 views. From artwork inspired by the two to old clips of them to words of encouragement to Bryant Family, there was no denying that the loss of the two had an extreme impact on the TikTok community. 

There have been more hashtags that have continued to rise in popularity. Some of these hashtags include #dance/#dancechallege with 102.9B views, #pets/#petsoftiktok with 8.1B views, and #comedy with 289.5B views. 

From fires in Australia to President Trump almost being impeached, 2020 has been a long year and we are not even halfway done yet. At least hashtags usually tend to keep things short and sweet. #escapetheproblemsofthemodernworldbywatchingTikTokandcreatingunecessarlylonghashtangs