.         As the school year comes to a close and summer sweat starts to smell in the halls, one pressing question is called to mind: how will everyone stay connected, especially if friends are travelling for the break? While people can, of course, meet up with friends and schedule events, students won’t be seeing each other on the regular basis that’s been established over the school year. Friendships often fade in summer, especially for kids with strict parents or busy schedules, and socialising infrequently can definitely make the break a lot less fun.

.         So, how can people stay connected? Social media is a great tool, and more specifically, the rise of editing technologies. Now, silly edited videos of characters or shows may not seem like the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of connection; after all, it is consumerist content, and it’s not all that interactable. Or so many might think. In fact, with music and video based social medias, like Tiktok, recently rising in smashing popularity, these videos are a great, unique way to stay connected.

.         While fanbases themselves are nothing new, the sense of community found through online fanbases are interestingly useful, and they’re original to this new generation. Previously, before the popularisation of interconnectedness on the internet, fans would have to physically be in the same location to meet and befriend each other. Of course, physical interactions are a vital piece of maintaining close friendships, but they no longer carry the brunt of interactions. Community is no longer geography-centric, and fans of anything can meet from around the globe and geek out with each other thanks to technologies, like google translate, and social medias, like the aforementioned Tiktok. Fanbases for anything can sprout up and amass thousands of fans from all over without apparent reason, and this level of interconnectedness is not only a great way to maintain relationships but also forge new ones.

.         To take a closer look at what’s happening around the world, it’s crucial to explore the diverse terrain of the internet in order to find what’s popular. A key medium of how content surrounding these communities is created is through the use of editing technology. Skilled fans clip together videos or images or their favourite interests to music to create breathtaking video compilations known in shorthand as “edits”. These edits are fascinating in their uniqueness; nothing else on the internet has such creative freedom in the format of its medium.

.         These edits are usually short, lasting only a couple of minutes at the very most and (more commonly) as little as ten seconds. They can be about anything that can be imagined, and this brilliance can’t be stressed enough. They range from edits of Netflix shows like Breaking Bad, video games like Resident Evil, internet personalities like Tara Yummy, and famous brand products like Sanrio, to space, science, physics, literature, history, and politics. The entire known universe has been edited, literally, with dazzling arrays of solar systems humans will never touch at the fingertips of anybody geeky enough to enjoy that kind of content, and those geeks can be found in the millions. A gum wrapper could be edited, and, if executed well enough, it could amass internet fame and adoration.

.         It’s a brilliant new way for people in the younger generation to express and share their creativity and interests, and it connects people like never seen before. Knowing Polish isn’t necessary to watch an edit of a Polish kid’s favourite car, and visiting South Africa isn’t the only way to experience its beauty. Of course, first hand experiences are infinitely more precious than just consuming the experiences of others when it comes to living life, but in regards to connection, edits are truly beautiful tools.

.         This new art medium popularised by Tiktok has brought with it distinct humours and slang worldwide that couldn’t be replicated without it. The gap between the understanding of the elder generations and the newer is only exponentially growing, but with this creativity, it could be for the better. The word “core” has been assigned to communicate certain atmospheres or aesthetics of some of these videos and edits, and there are too many “cores” now to count. Of course, there are the less useful ones, like lobotomycore, but the good outweighs the bad, and who can say which human experiences are more valuable than others? Hopecore, lifecore, sillycore, lovecore; they’re all seemingly-stupid Gen Z slang words, but they stand for a lot more: a new way to share the human experience with people from every country, culture, background, and belief.

.         The beauty of this connection is invaluable, and witnessing, celebrating, and mourning the ups and downs of others’ lives not only strengthens our ability to empathise, but is also just really, really sweet.