Tik Tok As a Geographic Medium: The Flaneur's Daily Life and Social Interactions

Abstract: 

The popularity of such videos as 'drinking and throwing bowls at Xi'an's Yongqing square' and 'passing through buildings' at Chongqing's Liziba rail station have illuminated the 'fuzzy' space that people had not noticed, and brought new ideas and creativity to daily life.The implantation of digital media in daily life enables urban residents to be endowed with more possibilities and creativity as individuals or collectives, which to some extent dissolves the mediocre and gloomy state of daily life, and reuses or programs urban space in their own way. In addition,Tik Tok has become a 'moving' travel notes and a'living'visiting card of the city. Xi 'an and Chongqing have become the 'city of Tik Tok' and 'city of web celebrity'. In the future,urban landmarks will not only exist in the physical space, but also in the virtual form of Tik Tok, a pan-entertainment social media. The interweaving of media and geography transforms more and more traditional media into geographical media. It also creates a new space and time experience for people. The personal life and social interactions that people use as intermediaries have also changed.

This paper focuses on the embedding of network digital media in daily life and the expansion of urban space.Tik Tok
was used as the research platform and the wanderer carrying Tik Tok
around the corners of cities were considered as the research object.Based on Michel de Certeau's practical theory of daily life, two questions were answered:

  1. How do people integrate new media technology into the rhythm of daily life to show the creativity of daily life? How does this process affect people's awareness and exercise of their 'right to the city'? 
  2. How will the space-time created by the interweaving of media and geographic space construct the social interaction in the urban space? 

The author found that people showed the 'creativity' of daily life through the use of media resources such as 'music' and 'technology' in Tik Tok, as well as the space practice of 'walking'. In this process, people recognize and exercise the right to 'participate' in the city, and the city becomes a work jointly created by citizens. In the process of transforming media into geographical media, the visibility of urban space is enhanced, which not only changes the appearance of urban public space, but also completes the social production of space. A social relationship based on geographical location is taking shape.