Fuzzy, Nonsensical, Mundane: The Gesture of Sharing #dontdrinkbleach ...

This short contribution draws attention to the gesture of sharing on TikTok. By discussing how TikTok’s infrastructural and creative affordances affected the spread of #dontdrinkbleach videos in the wake of Donald Trump’s now infamous comments on treating Coronavirus, it pursues two main objectives: The first is to address the lockdown aesthetic of TikTok through recent theories about the circulation of natively digital visual material. The second is oriented towards methodological experimentation with the capacity of this material to mediate fuzzy experiences of sharing nonsensical content. By combining Vilém Flusser’s notion of technical images with theories of digital aesthetic and viral contagion, I approach #dontdrinkbleach as a gesture of ironic distancing, arguing that the less an image informs, the better it communicates. Brought out by users’ interactive contributions during the pandemic, #dontdrinkbleach comes to increasingly trouble the distinction between shock and boredom, opening the realm of TikTok lockdown aesthetic to a larger ensemble of meaning and (non)sense making social media.