ABSTRACT
As social media platforms have become even more important for individuals in their day-to-day life, they additionally fill a role in times of mourning. This may include sharing tributes, memorializations, and advocating for their deceased loved ones. The content produced as part of these mourning practices may look different on various platforms. On TikTok, for instance, textual, audio, video, photographic, and musical elements can be combined to share grief experiences and connections with others (Gibbs et al., 2014; Cupit et al., 2021). In my previous work on grief on TikTok (Eriksson Krutrök, 2021), memes were a central component of many users’ grief storytelling practice. Memes provide frameworks for storytelling, as they can be filled with any meaning, context, or circumstances. Of TikTok's 1 billion monthly active users, roughly two-thirds of its user base is between 10 and 29 years old (Wallaroo Media, 2022). This high concentration of youths on the platform indicates a necessity to understand its user base further, especially in communities dealing with existential issues. This chapter focuses specifically on the role of playfulness and creativity in grief expressions on TikTok, within the framework of memefication and connectivity among youth in socially mediated spaces.
