From Corded Phones to TikTok Lives: Finding My People in the Most Unexpected Places
Sometimes I sit back and think about how much the world has changed in my lifetime, and honestly, it blows my mind.
I grew up in a time when there was no internet, no social media, no texting, no FaceTime and definitely no TikTok. If you wanted to talk to your friends, you picked up the phone that was attached to the wall with a cord and hoped nobody else in the house needed it.
And if you met someone who lived far away? Good luck with that.
Long-distance charges were real, and they weren't cheap. You couldn't sit on the phone for hours talking to someone who lived across the country unless you wanted your parents to lose their minds when the phone bill came. Making and keeping friendships with people who lived thousands of miles away wasn't something most of us could easily do.
Fast-forward to today, and I can pick up my phone, open TikTok and instantly be surrounded by people from all over the United States and even other countries.
Somehow, without ever planning for it to happen, TikTok has become one of my happy places.
There are creators I genuinely look forward to seeing go live. Some are famous musicians I've listened to for years. Michael Starr from Steel Panther, Ivan Moody from Five Finger Death Punch and Sebastian Bach are just a few, and there are many more. Then there are independent artists trying to get their music heard like Mick Blankenship and musicians like drummer Lonny Pasillas, who can simply turn on a camera, play, talk and hang out with everyone.
That's one of the things I find so crazy about TikTok. These are people we used to only see on MTV, in magazines, at concerts or maybe during an interview. There was always this wall between the artist and the fan. Now you can be sitting on your couch, open TikTok and suddenly there's a rock star you've listened to for years talking directly to people in the comments.
Then there are the communities that grow around these people.
I've been a moderator for Mick Blankenship for quite a while now, and one of the greatest things that has come from being part of his livestreams isn't just getting to support an independent musician I believe in. It's the people I've met because of him.
If it weren't for Mick, there are people in my life today that I probably never would have known existed.
I wouldn't have met someone all the way in California who has such a beautiful soul. I wouldn't have met someone from New York who can make me laugh when I need it. Some beautiful people from Ohio, and my home state Michigan. I wouldn't have met all the other people scattered throughout the United States and even other countries who started out as nothing more than usernames scrolling across my phone.
At first, we were strangers.
You start seeing the same usernames every night. You joke around in the chat. You develop inside jokes. You notice when someone hasn't been there for a few days. Eventually, conversations leave TikTok and move to Messenger or Instagram. Then you're texting each other. Some of us even call each other.
We check on each other. We talk about our lives. We laugh together. We celebrate the good things and help each other through the bad things.
Somewhere along the way, these people stopped being strangers on the internet.
They became my friends.
Some of them have become family.
When I really stop and think about that, it's incredible. A person in Michigan can become close with someone in California, New York or another country, and distance doesn't really matter anymore.
Maybe that amazes me so much because I'm Gen X. We didn't grow up like this. The idea that someday I could carry around a tiny device in my hand and instantly talk to people thousands of miles away would have sounded like science fiction when I was younger.
Now we don't even think twice about it.
Music, of course, is a huge part of what draws me into these TikTok communities in the first place. That's probably not surprising to anyone who knows me. Music has been part of my life since I was a teenager. I've spent years going to concerts, promoting shows, working with independent musicians and basically building a large part of my life around music.
TikTok has given me another way to experience that world.
There's something surreal about opening TikTok and seeing Michael Starr from Steel Panther hanging out and making everyone laugh. Or Ivan Moody from Five Finger Death Punch popping up on your screen. Or Sebastian Bach, someone many of us Gen X rock fans remember from the days when MTV actually played music videos.
Think about how different that is from when we were teenagers.
Back then, if you loved a musician, you bought their album, hung their poster on your wall, waited for them to appear in a magazine or on MTV and hoped your favorite band eventually came to your city so you could see them live. Unless you were incredibly lucky, there wasn't much chance that musician was ever going to know who you were.
Now you can enter a livestream, start recognizing the regulars and moderators, become friends with other fans and eventually have people recognize your name when you come in. You eventually become friends with the Rock Stars, the Independent Artists, the other creators.
That's still crazy to me.
Then there are the independent artists, which is a part of this world that means a lot to me.
Someone who doesn't have a giant record label or massive marketing machine behind them can hit that Live button and suddenly their music can reach someone hundreds or thousands of miles away. I can hang out in Mick's live and support an independent artist while talking with people who have become my friends. I can watch Lonny play drums and chat with friends in his live. I can stumble across another musician I've never heard before and suddenly discover music I might otherwise never have found.
I've seen firsthand through Mick's community what can grow from that. It's not always just about promoting a song or gaining another follower. Sometimes you're building a community without even realizing you're doing it.
And then there's Cheetoz the Klown.
I honestly don't even remember what made me stop scrolling the first time I came across him. Maybe it was the creepy clown makeup because, let's face it, you're going to stop for a second when THAT shows up on your screen.
But then I stayed.
Behind this creepy, scary-looking clown is someone who is genuinely funny and entertaining. Then I heard him sing and thought, wait a minute...this creepy clown can actually sing too?
And yes, Cheetoz definitely has his admirers in the chat.
I'm not judging.
I get it. LOL.
There's just something about the combination of the creepy look, the humor, the personality and then finding out he can actually sing that works. You go in expecting one thing and realize pretty quickly there's a lot more behind the makeup.
And honestly, that's part of what makes TikTok fun. You never know who is going to pop up on your screen or why you'll end up looking forward to seeing them again.
But underneath all the joking around, there is something about these TikTok lives that I don't think the creators themselves always realize.
They may not know how much they can touch the souls of the people who keep coming back.
There have been days when I've been depressed. There have been days when anxiety has gotten the best of me or life has simply felt heavy. Then my phone lights up and tells me someone is live.
Sometimes it's Mick. Sometimes it's Michael Starr. Sometimes it's Ivan Moody or Sebastian Bach. Sometimes it's Lonny. Sometimes it's another musician or creator I've come to enjoy.
And sometimes it's a creepy clown who makes me laugh.
You click on that notification, and for the next hour or two, you're somewhere else.
You're listening to music. You're laughing. You're talking with people you've gotten to know. You're reading the comments and joining in on the jokes. The Creators and Musicians get to know you and greet you when you come in.
To someone who has never experienced one of these communities, that might sound insignificant.
It isn't.
Sometimes small things aren't small at all.
A creator might think they're just hitting the Live button. Maybe they're bored. Maybe they're playing a few songs. Maybe they're practicing drums. Maybe they're telling stupid jokes or just sitting around talking to whoever shows up.
Meanwhile, someone watching might be having one of the worst days they've had in a long time.
Someone could be lonely. Someone could be grieving. Someone could be dealing with depression or anxiety. Someone might simply need another human being to make them laugh.
For that little bit of time, you've given them somewhere to go. You've made them feel like they're part of something. Maybe you've helped whatever they're carrying feel a little lighter.
And sometimes something even bigger happens.
Two strangers meet in your chat. Then they meet another person. Then another. Before long, they're talking outside the livestream. They're texting each other, calling each other, checking on each other and becoming part of each other's lives.
People who probably never would have met otherwise become friends.
Sometimes they become family.
All because someone decided to pick up their phone and hit Go Live.
I don't think we give enough credit to how powerful that can be.
I sometimes hear people talk about social media as though it's destroying human connection, and there are definitely ugly sides to it. I've seen those too. But I think we sometimes forget about this side of it.
Social media can also create connection.
A livestream can almost become the modern version of walking into your favorite neighborhood hangout where everybody knows your name. You recognize the regulars. They recognize you. Someone notices when you haven't been around. Inside jokes develop. People ask how you're doing.
Except now your neighborhood can stretch from Michigan to California to New York and across oceans into other countries.
That's pretty amazing when you think about it.
Sometimes I wonder what teenage me would think about all of this.
That girl listening to music and talking to her friends on a corded phone couldn't possibly have imagined that one day she'd be holding a tiny computer in her hand, talking to people thousands of miles away as if they lived next door.
She couldn't have imagined that musicians we once watched on MTV or listened to on our stereos would someday be able to turn on a phone and talk directly to us. She couldn't have imagined supporting independent musicians from her couch, watching a drummer play live, making friends across the country or finding people online who would eventually feel like family.
And I'm pretty sure she couldn't have predicted that at 57 she'd occasionally be sitting around watching a creepy, hilarious, singing clown and thinking, "Okay...I get it." LOL.
Yet here we are.
Technology gets blamed for separating people, and sometimes it does. But sometimes it does exactly the opposite.
Sometimes it connects people who never would have found each other otherwise.
So to Mick, Michael Starr, Ivan Moody, Sebastian Bach, Lonny, Cheetoz, the independent artists, the musicians, the moderators, the creators, and all those familiar usernames. I hope you know that what happens in those livestreams can mean more than you realize.
Sometimes we show up for the music. Sometimes we show up for the laughs. Sometimes we show up because our friends are there. And sometimes we show up because life was a little heavy that day, and for an hour or two, your little corner of TikTok made it feel lighter.
And to the people who started out as strangers and usernames on a screen but somehow became friends and even family, I'm really glad we found each other.
Who would have thought we'd go from corded phones and long-distance charges to friendships that stretch thousands of miles, rock stars hanging out with us from their phones, independent musicians building communities, drummers playing live...
and yes, even a creepy clown who somehow turned out to be funny, talented, and maybe a little easier on the eyes than a creepy clown has any business being. LOL.
What a strange, funny, and pretty damn amazing world we live in.
Peace, Love and Loud Music,
Mickey
Comments