It is no secret that the China-owned social media platform, TikTok, is a determent to the young people of the West. While Chinese children are filtered videos on maths, science, and careers that further culture, and human significance western countries are given propaganda, influencer hacks, and smut.
To garner likes and and. viral popularity TikTok users are pushing the extremes of their stunts to get the dopamine hit they crave from their social media addictions.
TikToker fakes his own death to find out who cares and then shows up at the funeral https://t.co/OgDEmC2ua7
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 14, 2023
One Belgian TikTok star is making the issue of social media popularity glaringly obvious. The social media influencer who has over 166,000 followers on the platform, recently faked his death for attention!
According to the London Times, David Baerten a Belgian TikTok influencer faked his death and then showed up to his funeral. “Cheers to you all, welcome to my funeral,” David Baerten told his assembled guests in a video.
TikToker reportedly fakes his own death, then returns to funeral in helicopter: ‘Welcome to my funeral’ https://t.co/DZs1c2qdmw
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 15, 2023
The Times quoted Baerten on his reasoning for the stunt, “What I see in my family often hurts me,” the TikToker Star said.
“I never get invited to anything. Nobody sees me. We all grew apart. I felt unappreciated. That’s why I wanted to give them a life lesson and show them that you shouldn’t wait until someone is dead to meet up with them” He continued.
It is like a train wreck, people are sickly fascinated by these extreme stunts that garner likes. one video that shows Baerten making his appearance at his funeral via helicopter has received over 5,900 likes on TikTok.
People also reported that Baerten included his family in the social experiment.
A man in Belgium decided to teach his family a lesson about staying in touch by faking his own death and then filming himself as he crashed his own funeral with a dramatic helicopter arrival, triggering a social media backlash — see the footage! https://t.co/urkMOmO4vU
— TMZ (@TMZ) June 14, 2023
“Rest in peace, Daddy. I will never stop thinking about you,” one of his daughters reportedly wrote on TikTok before the service. “Why is life so unfair? Why you? You were going to be a grandfather, and you still had your whole life ahead of you. I love you! We love you! We will never forget you.”
TikTok is increasingly becoming a source not just for internet exhibitions of stupidity but also becoming a trusted source for news in the younger generation.
A study conducted for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, part of Britain’s University of Oxford, found 55% of TikTok users and 52% of Instagram users get their news from “personalities” on this social media platforms.
