Using Tik Tok to Tell Chicago & The Sloop's History

We're fascinated by new technologies and the creativity it unleashes.  Don't believe us, this here blog was birthed from a similar sentiment.

Along those lines, today we stumbled upon a video on WGN about a local man who uses Tik Tok to tell Chicago's history:

A Chicago TikToker is sharing facts and history about the city in videos that have now gone viral.

Shermann Thomas’s 8-year-old daughter was posting dance routines on the app when he suggested she post facts about Chicago instead. She wasn’t interested in the idea so he started posting his own. His first viral hit was a minute-long history on Lower Wacker Drive and from there, his account continued to grow.

The life-long resident is telling the city’s stories and reaching a younger audience by posting short videos that he heavily researches.

“History matters and it’s not this boring stiff thing that we are used to,” he said.

Sure enough many of his videos touch on South Loop topics such as this one about Clark House:

@6figga_dilla

Chicago’s oldest house. ##Clarkehouse ##Chicago ##chicagohistory ##fyp ##historytok ##chitown

♬ Spongebob - Dante9k

Sure, the content isn't ready for 60 minutes quite yet, but we still find it interesting. Further more, maybe some of you haven't checked out Tik Tok. As a person who is paid professionally to understand the media ecosystem, we've been blown away by Tik Tok's platform.  Maybe this gives you a chance to play around with it?