My research was motivated by my profound interest in how adolescents use social media, and TikTok in particular, which stemmed from my own personal experience with the platform and my previous scientific research in this area. I had already begun to conduct research on TikTok during my junior year, so I knew that there was very little scientific literature about this youth-dominated platform. My junior year research project was focused on the socioemotional well-being of adolescent TikTok users, and was conducted to satisfy my personal concern about how my usage might be impacting my own moods. After I completed the research in 2019, the app was even more popular, so there was more to learn about how it was being used and what impact it was having. In early 2020, I began to search for mentors that could guide me. When my school went remote due to the pandemic, my research mentor and I were already exploring potential dimensions for a study and concluded independently that we had to capture this moment while it was happening. I began data collection almost immediately, without a clear research question, because we had no idea about the scope or duration of the pandemic. I was eager to collect as much data as possible about how people were posting about Coronavirus on TikTok to see where the data would lead me and what insights it could offer. The results of the final research contribute to our burgeoning knowledge of trending content by offering a snapshot of the social media landscape during a crisis, showcasing the connection social media provides, and exposing its commercial facets.

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• Mathematics