When you see the word “crystals”, what comes to your mind first?
For most teenagers today, this word reminds them of the popular social media trend (started via Tiktok)— #crystaltok that has garnered over 6 billion views worldwide. This is a page where content creators post videos showcasing their love and appreciation for crystals due to their supposed healing abilities, automatically influencing their follower bases and encouraging them to share the same beliefs.
However, crystals have been around for hundreds and thousands of years….So what exactly led to the huge spike in the popularity of crystal buying and selling today?
With the rise of social media platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok, trends that have swept the world off its feet—at least for a little while— are gaining immense traction, gradually becoming the norm. Upon closer inspection, you may realize that the “for you pages”(FYP) on such platforms are maneuvered in a way to suit our interests, specifically recommending posts that fall into the same category as those that we seem to browse through frequently. This creates an effect— the Echo Chamber effect— where media that seems to cater to our tastes and preferences are consistently being pushed out onto our personalized “for you” pages every single time we hit the refresh button. Consequently, we spend more time looking at the same type of posts, making it much easier for us to feel an inclination towards joining communities on Tiktok, one of which being “crystal enthusiasts” where users share and repost information regarding how to utilise crystals to reap spiritual benefits.
Due to the immense ability of influencers online to capture its target audience by adding aesthetic elements into their posts, #crystaltok has become an incredibly accessible place for those who are interested in crystals to form connections with others. Therefore, whether for bad or for good, Tiktok is significantly altering the way people perceive and use crystals.
Undeniably, crystals have been promoted through Tiktok platforms in recent years as a source of positive energy, with rose quartz being associated with love, amethyst with purity and opal with passion, et cetera. Some users believe that crystals have metaphysical qualities which allows them to achieve a sense of balance and serenity, others prefer to collect them for their visually stunning appearances. The rise in popularity of crystals among the online community also resulted in an increase in the number of online stores that aim to sell crystals. Many people have leveraged on the wide accessibility of Tiktok to promote their products through Tiktok lives like “crystal scooping” that have been held by sellers.
However, with online stores also comes higher risks of being involved in scams and being sold inauthentic crystals. Purchasing crystals through Tiktok or any other social media platform makes it much more difficult to determine the authenticity of the crystals sold as customers often do not get the chance to check their products before they click “purchase”. This results in consumers receiving items with defects or completely not getting what they paid for. Moreover, the probability of customers getting inauthentic crystals is much higher. Inauthentic crystals are ones that are created under synthetic conditions such as high temperatures and the specific coloring of man-made materials. This undermines the credibility of online stores, leading to a lack of accountability and trust between consumers and businesses.
Moreover, the spreading of information regarding how crystals can aid in healing and improve health can also get out of hand, leading to the so-called Placebo effect. Tiktokers today are conveying messages about how crystals are able to treat actual mental health illnesses like depression and anxiety in an attempt to source for more views. For example, amethyst and hematite are said to help with period pain, Celestite helps with Borderline Personality Disorder and fluorite with ADHD. Furthermore, critics often argue that most of these properties are not backed up by concrete scientific evidence, rendering it unreliable. This problem is further fueled by the fast-spreading nature of information through social media platforms where a single message promoted by influencers could be shared with their entire fanbase consisting of over hundreds or thousands of people, leading to widespread fake news.
Ultimately, it is completely okay to show interest in beautiful, aesthetically appealing stones.
However, it still remain hard to determine whether the community #crystaltok on Tiktok is built solely for people with genuine interests in crystals and their properties, or if it has turned into a profit-making channel for emerging businesses online.
Written by: Ren Yingqi (22S6J)
Edited by: Chiang Xin Ni, Nicole (22273), Lee Ren Kai Artemus (22A15)
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