Written by Leah (Bunny) Overstreet
I just dropped $90 on sequins. This is, unfortunately, entirely within my nature. I’m already a slave to the sparkle but the holiday spirit has swept me up and is apparently holding me at gunpoint, demanding that I spend my barista’s paycheck on shiny plastic frivolities. It all sounds so ridiculous, but I swear my consumerism is for a good (crafting) cause! You see, my TikTok has been shoving endless holiday craft ideas down my throat and a few of them were too delicious to pass up. So now, I’m crafting most of my holiday gifts and I’m soooo excited about them… and also mildly terrified about the amount of time and hot glue they will take to make.
I would consider myself an intermediate crafter at this point. I’ve spent the past two years letting internet crafters lead me down a trail of pretty breadcrumbs and into the land of“ I can make that!” So far, TikTok creators have taught me how to hand bedazzle, bead embroider, make a lamp shade, and even create my own burlesque costumes. They’ve introduced me to the New York fabric district and showed me which stores are the best for beaded fringe, where to find the best fabrics for cheap, and how to get to the 20 foot wall packed floor to ceiling with sequins.
Of course I have taken this information and run with it, exploring on my own and using it to create things completely unique to me, but I cannot deny that TikTok—and its endless supply of talented artists sharing their work and process—played a key part in showing me all that I was capable of making with my own hands. Previously, I have been guilty of underestimating the wealth of knowledge available at my fingertips—in part because I’d kept a strict distinction in my head between being online (wasting time, frying my brain, vapid, a bad habit that must be kicked) and offline time (higher brow, touching grass, better for me) and thus limiting my online enrichment.
I still doom scroll and give myself time to be unproductive and enjoy silly videos. However, pigeonholing scrolling into something categorically bad kept my use of apps like TikTok and Instagram pretty surface level.
It’s because of my time on apps like TikTok that I’ve been inspired to tap back into my childhood self: crafting, watching early 2000s reality television, and even getting back into reading. From the 3rd grade when I stole the Twilight Saga from my sister’s bookshelf until I graduated from high school, I always had a book in my hand. I’ll admit I lost the free time required for a reading addiction when I went to college. There were too many assignments to do, too many people to see, too much of the city to explore. I’m also embarrassed to admit that I didn’t exactly know what to read once I was older than the main characters in the books I loved so much. But now, a few years out of college, my love for reading has been reinvigorated along with the discovery that I can make beautiful things with my own hands. Countless vaguely witchy divas have graced my FYP with hyper specific book recommendations for any fantasy scenario you could imagine. I’ve been hand delivered sultry enemies to lovers romances about a lesbian vampire hunter turned vampire bodyguard turned unlikely blood bank, and I’ve more recently read a titillating historical alternate universe romance wherein women can inherit titles and the main character is a French courtesan who’s blackmailing a Butch duke! Each of these was perfectly curated to my specific tastes and provided by people who have become experts on the latest books worth tearing into.
Photo screenshotted from the TikTok of @natalie.loves.cats
Growing up my latest read was whatever caught my eye on the book shelf. While I still adore foraging for my next book, I also appreciate not having to literally judge books by their covers and actually be routinely presented with books that have been read and reviewed by readers who love the same things I do. Much like with crafting, I’m benefiting from the knowledge and passions of people online and, in turn, fueling my own excitement and hobbies. Letting my digital existence inspire my irl experiences has been surprisingly rewarding.
“Much like with crafting, I’m benefiting from the knowledge and passions of people online and, in turn, fueling my own excitement and hobbies. Letting my digital existence inspire my irl experiences has been surprisingly rewarding.”
Rather than merely being a slave to an endless scroll of short form content, I’m curating my algorithm so that it inspires me to create. (To clarify I’m still enslaved by my phone, I’m just ALSO utilizing it for my more analog activities lol).
I suppose you could say I’m being influenced. While I’m spending a sometimes embarrassing amount of money, this money is spent on things that truly enrich my life. I’m having fun learning new skills and diving into hobbies I used to love. I’m already hand feeding my device all of my personal information, so I might as well receive bespoke content that helps me be a creative person both on and offline.
