Despite joining X (formerly Twitter) just a couple years ago in 2022, the ‘Wild TikToks’ account has already amassed 1.4 million followers, eager to browse snapshots from all sorts of TikTok videos.

The large number of followers the account has might not be surprising considering how many people are users of X, or TikTok, for that matter. As of April 2024, the former boasts more than 0.611 B active monthly users and TikTok has close to 1.6 B. (With more than 3 B active monthly users, Facebook is the leader among social media platforms.)

If the number of X or TikTok users got you wondering how many people were using social media in general, the answer is nearly every internet user there is. According to Statista’s 2024 data, there were roughly 5.44 billion active internet users and around 5.07 billion social media users.

“Social media is inherently an addictive activity. It provides instant gratification while all major platforms utilize incredible algorithms that show us exactly what we want to see, when we want to see it,” Nick Mattar told Bored Panda, pointing out what it is that draws us to it. “Additionally, content creators have become so well-versed in creating attention-grabbing material that their videos, tweets, and images are designed to capture your attention and keep you watching.”

Discussing the reasons why some people are interested in online content they have no context on or relation to—a snippet from a random person’s TikTok video, for instance—the social media expert suggested that they might find a way they relate to it.

“This is the perfect description of a meme or gif that goes viral and becomes part of internet culture. The beauty of memes and gifs—and now short video clips, too—is that anyone can apply any popular piece of content to their own personal situation as they see fit. If the content is understood to mean a universal feeling (like frustration, happiness, or another emotion), then it doesn't matter where it originated. Memes, gifs, and short videos have become a way for us to express ourselves to an online audience. We use these because it removes emotion and introduces humor into situations that may be otherwise uncomfortable,” Mattar explained.

While the reason for success of all sorts of content, such as memes, gifs and short videos, is their relatability, the secret formula to the success of X, according to Nick Mattar, has become its longevity and hyper-focused user base.

“While we used to believe Twitter was successful due to its unique platform and ‘micro-blogging’ functionality, the failure of Threads showed us that was not the case. Threads had much of the same features but fell flat after booming with 100 million users. But Twitter users had established a community that was a combination of real-world connections and people they only interacted with on the platform - a much different community than Threads, which imported your Instagram friends. The result and secret sauce: Twitter users have developed a community over nearly 20 years that cannot be replicated anywhere else.”

Home to ‘Wild TikToks’, X/Twitter was started in March of 2006. Since then, it has experienced highs and lows with numerous changes in features and management, one of the most prominent ones being Elon Musk taking over the company in 2022 and renaming it ‘X’.

If spending time on Twit… X is something you enjoy, you might like browsing these hilarious X posts depicting updates for earth, these surprisingly entertaining remarks from the Washington Department Of Natural Resources, or these renowned posts that ended up on the “Internet Hall Of Fame” X account. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg; browse Bored Panda for more.