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The Dark Side of Manifestation:

A Randonautica Case Study of TikTok’s Role in Digital Legendry

Sajel Swartz

April 14, 2021

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Folklore and TikTok: An Introduction

Over the last ten years, a growing number of scholars have been arguing for the existence and

validity of digital folklore, culture, and community. For many years, academics avoided studying the

digital, their primary focus remaining on what they deemed “tangible” in fieldwork and research.

Indeed, Trevor Blank begins Toward a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Folklore and the Internet

by recounting an experience where an established scholar in his field stated that it was impossible to do

fieldwork on the internet, and that “there is no such thing as true ethnography online.”1

Interestingly, media or tech-based writers have had a similar struggle in viewing aspects of the

internet as a “serious” location of cultural exchange. Writers from successful publications such as the

New York Times have had a tendency to view Tik Tok as a platform that simply acts as a time-wasting

platform to distract people2, or “digital crack cocaine.”3 Tik Tok is an app where users create, share, and

view short-form videos. While more traditional or mainstream writers might claim that TikTok can’t

communicate significant content, those who have begun to engage in serious studies of the platform

have found that its ephemeral nature creates an online environment that acts as a breeding ground for

memes and trends (defined for our purposes as a kind of communally shared cultural unit that can be

adapted and used for individual self-expression).4 From this perspective, TikTok (and other social media

platforms of a similar nature) are becoming locations with rich community folklores.

1 Trevor J. Blank. "Introduction: Toward a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Folklore and the Internet." Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World, edited by Trevor Blank (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2009), 1.2 Jenny Odell. “Can We Slow Down Time in the Age of TikTok?” The New York Times. Published August 31, 2019. Opinion | Can We Slow Down Time in the Age of TikTok? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)3 John Koetsier. “Digital Crack Cocaine: The Science Behind TikTok’s Success,” Forbes. Published January 13, 2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/01/18/digital-crack-cocaine-the-science-behind-tiktoks-success/#4666bc2578be 4 Limor Shifman, Memes in Digital Culture (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013).

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In the last several years, academics from more than one discipline have begun to take seriously

ethnographic studies of digital communities and phenomena, folkloric or otherwise. My own argument

will work to contribute to these studies, exploring the connection between legends and TikTok as a user-

to-user social media platform through the case study of the viral Randonautica trend. I will be using the

framework created by these academics as they describe concepts such as the embedded and embodied

Internet, legends, ostension, and co-presence. While I have by no means had the opportunity to

produce an ethnographic study by speaking to those involved in this viral sensation, I will be using online

interactions and examples to support my argument for the role of TikTok in the proliferation of, and

belief in, Randonautica legendry.

I will begin by outlining the theoretical framework for digital ethnographic studies and digital

folklore studies. I will then explain the unique nature of the TikTok application by putting it in context

with other user generated content platforms, such a YouTube. In this process, I will be considering the

market for user generated content and user perception of different types of content (user created

versus professional in particular). I will then delve into my case study of the app Randonautica, arguing

that the viral sensation fits within folklore and legend practices, and that TikTok made such the legend’s

proliferation possible, but also made the legend all the more powerful and believable, ending with

considerations of how this case study might speak to the future of online content and digital folklore.

Digital Folklore: A Framework

To understand how a social media platform offers an experience capable of communicating

legend and folklore, it is important to understand the Internet more broadly as “embedded, embodied,

and everyday.”5 Although we have a tendency to view entering the digital world as the act of leaving

5 Christine Hine. Ethnography for the Internet: Embedded, Embodied and Everyday (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015).

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behind our embodied selves, the internet has increasingly intertwined itself into the physical world. This

is most obvious in the smart phone, but it exists in public transportation services, cash registers, home

devices that control our front door locks and thermostats, and much more. The internet exists as a

constant background to everyday existence, always at our fingertips and seeping into the tangible

practices we take part in each day.

An embodied internet means that much of the interactions between users operates as they

would in person. Co-presence has been a long-used concept in ethnographic studies, whereby people in

face-to-face interactions change their behavior based on the behavior of the other actor they are

engaging; this “renders persons uniquely accessible, available, and subject to one another.”6 When

Erving Goffman originally posited this idea, it focused specifically on in-person interactions within the

public space. However, as other scholars have suggested, co-presence also functions within public

spaces on the internet where people and communities gather.7 On social media in particular, users

emulate one another and create common forms of communication within their platforms. This can be

seen in the changing forms of communication between social media platforms such as TikTok. TikTok

communities self-define their groups and create rules for content, communication, and much more,

offering a commonly understood context for interacting with digital folklore as well as with other users.

Within folklore studies, efforts have also been made to place the digital at the forefront of

scholarship. Academics like Trevor Blank have made a concerted effort to create publications that not

only include his own work, but also opening up the field to other digital folklorists’ work. In Slender Man

is Coming, Blank introduces the concept of digital legendry through creepypasta, scary stories that have

been copied and pasted throughout the internet that encourage viewers to share and contribute to the

6 Erving Goffman. Behavior in Pubic Places (New York: Free Press, 1963), 22.7 Christian Licoppe and Julien Morel. “Locative Mobile Media and the Development of Unplanned, Fleeting Encounters with Pseudonymous Strangers and Virtual Acquaintances in Urban Public Places,” The Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography, eds. Hjorth, Larissa, Heather Horst, Anne Galloway, and Genevieve Bell (London: Routledge, 2017).

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story. The articles that follow his introduction follow the different aspects of the Slender Man legend,

making arguments for digital folklore practices. It is from the work of these academics that I will be

building my argument for Randonautica legendry. Scholars have long struggled to define the field of

folklore as well as legends. These terms are, somewhat purposefully, confusing; this is because they

must cover a vast array of ideas, concepts, and groups. However, for the purposes of this article, I will be

employing Linda Dégh’s definition: “an overarching term to include all stories, short or long…the legend

is a legend once it entertains debate about belief…the sounding of contrary opinions is what makes a

legend a legend.”8

Within legendry, the concept of ostension has also become a common topic of exploration for

folklorists. Ostension is when an individual enacts some form of a legend in reality; in his article “The

Cowl of Cthulhu,” Andrew Peck suggests the use of defining an ostension practice rather than an

ostension action; as Peck says, “’practice’ refers to the collection of many actions and acknowledges the

connectivity, aggregated volition, and self-awareness enabled by the affordances of networked

communication.”9 This concept of ostension practice also connects directly with Goffman’s concept of

the presentation of self to others through “frames” as discussed in his work Frame Analysis. According

to Goffman, people use theatrical frames in their interactions with others, particularly through speech.

As storytellers, we dramatize our experiences to others, creating suspense, using irony, and

repeating/rehearsing the stories we tell to others to enhance the listening experience.10 The

performance of self thus becomes a theatrical act, shattering the “notion that everyday life is to be

placed on one side and the fanciful realms on the other.”11

8 Dégh, Linda. Legend and Belief : Dialectics of a Folklore Genre (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 97.9 Peck, Andrew. "The Cowl of Cthulhu: Ostensive Practice in the Digital Age." Slender Man Is Coming: Creepypasta and Contemporary Legends on the Internet, ed. Blank Trevor J. and McNeill Lynne S. (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2018), 52.10 Erving Goffman. Frame Analysis (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986), 503-504.11 Ibid, 155.

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In the age of social media, people have been broadly encouraged to share all of the aspects of

their life, creating “content” for those in their networks. This has created a tangible process for

Goffman’s self-presentation, whereby people are not only allowed to create an online version of

themselves but also have the opportunity to take part in playful framing that other viewers know is

made specifically for their entertainment. This intersection is especially poignant for TikTok. While

TikTok is a video platform that thrives on content made by “ordinary people,” much of the content on

TikTok doesn’t act as a personal blog, the way a platform like Facebook might function. Instead, TikTok

creators make content or share ideas with entertainment and performance specifically in mind. Jump

cuts, viral audio, and captions all contribute to the self-conscious nature of this framing, deliberately

shared with viewers who are aware of the frame.

In the context of ostension practices, this manifests as content creators adding to the legend of

Randonautica, filming their experiences using the app and posting them in the frame they believe to be

most interesting and entertaining. For Randonautica videos, this seems to be creating a scary or

suspenseful atmosphere, including horror movie music played over the videos and captions such as, “I

deleted the randonautica app after this.”12 Like many modern legends, this has also culminated in

“prank” Randonautica videos, where the viewer is deceived by the creator into a jump scare. These

videos serve to increase the stature of the legend, creating a frame not just for understanding the

content creator but also for understanding Randonautica experiences. As mentioned by Dégh, the use of

hashtags on these prank videos such as “#truestory” also add to the legendry of Randonautica

experiences, calling into question the validity of the stories associated with the app and the “real”

videos of other users.

12 @hayley_aig, “I deleted the randonautica app after this” [Video], TikTok, August 1, 2020. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeuPAaqv/

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User-Generated Content and TikTok

User generated content (UGC) exists on almost every platform. From social networking sites like

Facebook to microblogging sites like Twitter, UGC plays a massive role in the success of digital platforms.

Starting in 2005, it was YouTube that maintained the role of being a video-based content creation site,

entirely sustained by the videos created by their users. These users created a YouTuber community

around their work, and struggled to have their online work taken seriously by those in the more

traditional entertainment industry.13 However, this process began to change after Google bought

YouTube in 2006. Over the following years, Google transformed the Youtube copyright policies and

improved the platform experience, paving the way for increased use by massive entertainment

corporations and increasing the amount of professionally generated content (PGC).

Today, while there are still Youtubers on the platform continuing to make UGC, it is clear that

users are often choosing PGC and are aware of the fact that the content has changed. When you look at

some of the most popular videos on YouTube, they include videos created by massive conglomerates.

One especially recent example of this type of high production video channel can be seen in Condé Nast’s

Bon Appétit channel, where the “BA Test Kitchen” video series experienced massive success. These

videos, while they do follow the BA Test Kitchen as they discuss and make food, isn’t popular because of

the cooking or baking itself.

Over time, the video producers on the Bon Appétit channel (and on many other professional

channels) have learned how to integrate their work into the “down to earth” style of Youtube content,

focusing their videos more on the personability of the “characters” on their show.14 In the case of the BA

13 Liz Shannon Miller. “Can an Online Star Really Make It in Hollywood?” Vox. Published January 3, 2020. https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/12/27/21031780/youtube-star-make-it-hollywood-lilly-singh-issa-rae-michael-buckley-hannah-hart 14 See Jack Saint’s The Collapse of Bon Appetit YouTube video for background on the change in Condé Nast videos. It is also important to note that the Bon Appétit channel has, as Jack Saint mentioned, come under controversy for their failure to address systemic racism in the workplace. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQV-W_Ut8MY

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Test Kitchen, these videos were such a massive success because they allowed for personability,

introducing viewers to each employee and then creating content where the different cooks had to work

together and interact on video. And the viewers of these videos have no qualms: they are fully aware

that the content they are viewing, while seemingly down to earth with personable “characters,” are

curated by corporations for their viewing pleasure. As one commenter mentioned on the Bon Appétit

video The BA Test Kitchen Makes the Perfect Thanksgiving Meal | Making Perfect: Thanksgiving Finale,

“this is a sitcom pretending to be a cooking show.”15

As the newest platform to utilize UGC videos, perhaps taking over amateur content that is now

less common on YouTube, Tik Tok grew from being a small platform to create lip syncs and dance videos

to a massive content platform that spans across all age and interest groups. TikTok began as a

combination of the Chinese apps Musical.ly and Douyin. Musical.ly was an app that allowed users to

create 15 second lip sync videos to popular songs, while Douyin was a more general short form video

sharing app. In 2017, the Musical.ly app became TikTok, the international version of Douyin. Since then,

the app has been downloaded over 2 billion times.16 There is little doubt that the expansion and

popularity of this app took place in part because of the coronavirus pandemic. It was over the summer

of 2020, in particular, that TikTok’s viewer base massively increased, offering individuals worldwide a fun

escape from the stay in place orders keeping them at home. However, unlike YouTube, there are a few

key differences to the TikTok platform that make it a true user-to-user content experience.

First, TikTok was specifically created as a mobile app. While there has been an effort to create a

website for users as the app has grown in popularity, TikTok was ultimately made to be used on a smart

phone, and encourages users to create content from their own device. This setup prioritizes individual

15 revolutionzedjoy, 2020, comment on The BA Test Kitchen Makes the Perfect Thanksgiving Meal | Making Perfect: Thanksgiving Finale, YouTube.16 Christina Gayton. “The Origins of TikTok.” Medium. Published July 18, 2020. https://christinagayton.medium.com/the-origins-of-tiktok-5efa7da4b3e6

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use over institutional use, and has seemingly slowed down corporate use of the application; while there

are some accounts created by larger corporations, the videos created by these institutions largely seem

to be labeled as “ads” that simply load as the first video on your home page, rather than actual content.

Another aspect that sets TikTok apart from platforms such as YouTube is their emphasis on short

form content. While the internet is no stranger to short form content and information, with platforms

such as Twitter leading to the rise of microblogging, TikTok’s limitation to 15-60 second videos means

that production time and cost becomes a less significant factor to the success of the video. Anyone can

go viral, with the right content, and there are no expectations of perfect video or sound quality. In fact,

those who are interested in creating more high production content have to put a great deal of creativity

into making something that is not only entertaining, but short enough to fit into the parameters of a

TikTok video; some creators even describe their frustration with attempting to fit more complex ideas

into the short format, particularly when they receive criticism in the comments for missing nuance in

their content.17

Perhaps the most significant aspect that sets TikTok apart from other video-based UGC

platforms is the app’s homepage format.

17 See: Ben Brainard (@ben_brainard), “reply to @ironicwastelands you either don’t know what scrabble is or you don’t know what a political satire is, but that’s okay!” [Video], TikTok, April 10, 2021. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeu5NJtm/

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The setup of TikTok’s homepage is seemingly simple: your page is divided into two sections: “Following”

and “For You.” Centered at the base of a user’s homepage, as part of the navigation bar is the white “+”

button, where TikTok encourages users to create their own videos. The automatic centering of content

creation function, always available while you scroll through the app, is itself indicative of TikTok’s

interest in having all of their users creating content for each other.

The Following section, as you would expect, only includes videos from the accounts you follow,

while the “For You” page could include anyone’s content. The videos auto-play on a loop until you hit

the screen to pause, and if the user is uninterested in the video, it is as simple as swiping up to move

onto the next video, one of a seemingly endless number of videos. If the user is interested in the content

creator, they can wipe left to access their account, or click the icons on the left to access their account,

the comments, and the share function.

Each person’s “For You” page is unique, based on their viewing preferences, and for a time

TikTok left users wondering exactly how their magical algorithm worked to pull up relevant videos on

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their feed.18 However, in June of 2020, TikTok finally revealed what factors decide how the ubiquitous

algorithm works19:

User interactions: the videos you like, share, or comment on, as well as accounts

you follow and the content you create

Video information: including sounds, captions, and hashtags

Device and account settings: such as language and country settings, and device type

This algorithmic setup has a clear functional purpose for TikTok, enhancing user experience and keeping

users on the app. However, the language used by users to describe the algorithm speaks to a broader

understanding applied to Randonautica as well. The makers of Randonautica presume the power of

setting one’s intention as part of how the app “works,” and this has been embedded into Randonautica

legendry. Similarly, spiritual TikTok creators will post videos that they say are “meant” for you spiritually

if they show up on your “For You” page20, and many users will comment on what they perceive as a

“scary” or pervasive level of accuracy from the algorithm. Ultimately, the personal nature of the

algorithm picking videos just “for you,” the explicit emphasis on amateur UGC, and the setup of a

“never-ending” stream of content all create the perfect setting for the sharing of ostension practice as

authentic videoed “proof” of the Randonautica legend’s power.

Randonautica and TikTok Randonauts

The Randonautica app was launched in 2020 by Joshua Lengerfeld. While the app launched to

mixed reviews over poor user experience and bugs, it quickly gained popularity over the spring and

18 For example: “ The algorithm really took out the ‘for’ and just said ‘you’” or “my FYP has been veeerrryyy specific.” 19 “How TikTok recommends videos #ForYou,” TikTok, June 18, 2020. https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/how-tiktok-recommends-videos-for-you 20 See videos such as: Jaylin Howard (@jaylinhoward10), “This video is meant for you.” [Video], TikTok, December 7, 2020. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeu5reaH/

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summer of 2020. According to an Atlantic article in July 2020, the app had been downloaded 8 million

times, with 6 million of the downloads happening starting in April. Succinctly, the app is made to

randomly generate coordinates for users to visit. However, Lengerfeld’s app is marketed a bit

differently. On their website, Randonautica cites the work of Robert Jahn —who argued that people

have “micro-psychokinesis,” the ability to subtly impact machinery— as an argument for their users’

capability to set their intention for their adventure, and thus impact the quantum number generator and

the location given by the app.21 This means that users of the Randonautica app should, according to the

creators of the app, be able to mentally decide a theme for their adventure and the app will give them a

random location that somehow corresponds to the intentions set by the user.

When a user opens the app, they are asked to set their intention, and then choose a “type” of

location to go to. The options include Anomalies (improbably dense clusters of random points). Within

Anomalies there are Attractors (locations that are meant to hold a larger number of random points) and

Blind Spots (defined as simply random points) and Voids (spaces that lack random points). You are also

asked to choose an “entropy source,” with two options that include QRNG (quantum random number

generator) and ANU (Australian National University).

21 Kaitlyn Tiffany. “The App of the Summer Is Just a Random-Number Generator.” The Atlantic. Published July 21, 2020. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/07/randonautica-app-tiktok-body-reddit-quantum/614401/

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Once you specify your choices, the app “calculates” a random location for you to visit. The

location should, in some fashion, connect to your set intention. The terms and choices, while easily

explained, use concepts and terminology that fall outside of everyday experience, adding to the

strangeness or mystery of the app. And the locations, truly random in their nature, often lead to a

variety of unique experiences for users.

There is little doubt that the app gained popularity over the summer of 2020 in part because the

pandemic created limitations that made Randonautica one of the few safe and fun activities to do with

family or friends. However, the app truly hit mainstream popularity in July 2020. In July, TikTok user

ughhenry posted a video with his friends using the Randonautica app on a beach at Duwamish Head,

Seattle. Randonauting with the intention of “travel,” he and his friends were immediately drawn to the

suitcase found near the randomly generated location. Upon opening the suitcase, the teens discovered a

horrible stench that led to a phone call to the Seattle Police Department.

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The Seattle Police later confirmed that the suitcase held the bodies of 35-year-old Jessica Lewis

and 27-year-old Austin Wenner.22 This led to a continued police investigation, resulting in an arrest.23

However, the video didn’t just instigate a police investigation; it led to the meteoric rise in Randonautica

users and videos. Like so many other conspiracies and legends, the story of how the Randonautica app

led these teens to two murder victims further precipitated a sort of legend about the capability of the

app and its users, when their intentions are set.

While there are variances to the understanding of Randonautica (as with all legends), I will

describe the Randonautica legend as follows: for those who believe in the power of intention setting and

asking the universe for what you want/don’t want, the Randonautica app offers an avenue for finding

physical manifestations of these intentions. However, the Randonautica app works most powerfully

when users have dark intentions, and there may or may not be something nefarious about the

machinations of Randonautica that leads people to dangerous locations or situations. Randonautica has,

as a result, become something powerful and dangerous in and of itself, and should be used with caution.

As with most legends, Randonautica and Randonaut stories have been met with skepticism.

However, the user-to-user experience of TikTok allowed for this trend to spread among users at an

exponential pace, and found a community of people who firmly believed in the app legendry. In part,

this appears to be because of pre-existing communities on TikTok that have introduced users to

legendry, folklore, and more generally concepts of magic (and TikTok’s algorithm offering the

opportunity for those interested in such content to see Randonautica videos).24 However, the ostension

practices of uploading your own Randonautica experience, taken up by so many users, also contributed

22 “Remains of 2 bodies found in suitcases on West Seattle beach identified,” King 5 News. Updated July 1, 2020. https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/remains-found-on-west-seattle-beach-identified/281-d3a505c4-1ea2-4e72-984a-f5bb4f8fa843 23 “UPDATE: Detectives Arrest Suspect Following Investigation of Human Remains Found in West Seattle,” Seattle Blotter: Seattle Police Department. Updated August 20, 2020. https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2020/08/20/detectives-investigating-after-human-remains-found-in-west-seattle/ 24 This can be seen in particular with the popular TikTok community called “WitchTok,” where manifestation and intention setting is often mentioned as part of practicing witchcraft or other related spiritual practices.

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to the feeling that the Randonatuica stories were a common experience, all following the legend’s

storyline. Of course, along with those stories that show “real” experiences came scare videos,

representing the way that play can be found among ostension practices.

There are thousands of videos on TikTok that use #randonautica, culminating in over 915 million

views. Some of the most popular videos (excluding the ughhenry video, which has since been taken

down) have over 4 million views. The comment sections in these videos are revealing of the belief many

viewers seem to have in the validity of the legend. In baby_nugget_witch’s video25 (one of a several part

series) she videos pulling up to a old barn, narrating her fear as she walks and drives around the

location. Her comments include statements like “I am scared with the energy we have created in the

studio today,”26 as well as users connecting the video to other scary stories, such as the horror film

Megan Is Missing, commenting “girl u found megan”27 and “Is that Megan’s friend Amy.”28

However, what is truly fascinating is the trend in the comment sections that shows viewing

users, both out of concern and frustration, correcting Randonautica practices as filmed by other users,

thus regulating ostension practices. Although these videos are clearly filmed for entertainment or as a

way to perform one’s experiences to the public, viewers are aware that this performance still retains

some level of authenticity by way of its amateur creator. In essence, the majority of the popular

Randonautica videos aren’t made by “content creators.” Rather, viewers see that the creators of these

videos are ordinary people just like them, and as such someone who they need to warn and educate on

how to use Randonautica safely. On baby_nugget_witch’s video, viewers are “yelling” at the creator in

all caps, saying “AND YOU WENT ALONE…GURL -N”29 and “WHY WOULD YOU GET OUT YOUR CAR !!!”30

25 Samantha Tiano (@baby_nugget_witch), “Why do I keep doing these [emoji] But after I post we are finding a new map” [Video], TikTok, November 18, 2020. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeu5uF2G/ 26 @ursuspicious, November 19, 2020, comment on “Why do I keep doing these…”[Video], TikTok. 27 @r4h.u1, November 19, 2020, comment on “Why do I keep doing these...”[Video], TikTok.28 @wet.ones, November 19, 2020, comment on “Why do I keep doing these…”[Video], TikTok.29 @benjamin50s, November 19, 2020, comment “Why do I keep doing these…” [Video], Tiktok.30 @vair0bi, November 18, 2020, comment on “Why do I keep doing these…”[Video], TikTok.

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In an even more intense Randonautica video, made by user mykenarae, the video doesn’t

physically show the Randonauting experience. Instead, the video stays on mykenarae, as she cries and

explains her Randonauting experience that night, during which she and an unseen individual named

Darius were using the app with the intention of death and came across a man dying of a gunshot

wound.31 While the man was reportedly taken to the hospital and survived the wound, as mentioned in

a later explanation, the video creator posted the video as a warning for other users with the message

“please do not go randonauting” and “you never know what you’re going to come across.” While there

were sympathetic viewers in the comments, many of the most popular comments were written to

reprimand what they deemed a misuse of the app and a misunderstanding of the power of the app as a

tool for manifestation. A comment by user seungminalee, with over 200,000 likes, states “lmfaoooo sis

started our saying ‘mY iNtEntIon wAs dEatH’ and then cries about being traumatized…did you not ask for

it????”32 other users, with a perhaps less critical lens, state “you got what u manifested :/”33 and

“Randonautica is one app that’s not ment to be trifled with.”34 Frankly, I cannot imagine a greater

validation of a community’s belief in such a modern legend, than the act of prioritizing chastising

Mykena Rae for misusing an app before addressing that fact that she had a traumatic experience (during

which she and her friend Darius arguably helped save a man’s life).

Conclusion

As with all trends on TikTok, the Randonautica craze was a short-lived digital folklore

phenomenon. For most people, on and off of TikTok, the use of the Randonautica app and the ostension

practices of filming one’s adventures using the app has largely faded from online relevance. However,

the brief but powerful captivation of the Randonautica legend does act as a guide for how folklore and

31 Mykena Rae (@mykenarae), “this just happened in aurora colorado. please do not go randonauting, you never know what you’re going to come across,” [Video], TikTok, June 25, 2020. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeu5uF2G/ 32 @seungminalee, June 25, 2020, comment on “this just happened in aurora colorado…”[Video], TikTok.33 @alyssamckayyy, June 25, 2020, comment on “this just happened in aurora colorado…”[Video], TikTok.34 @creepypastaboi101, January 10, 2021, comment on “this just happened in aurora colorado…”[Video], TikTok.

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legends might continue to travel on popular social media platforms in the future. On any online forum

that creates a space for user-to-user contact and content, this type of practice is possible; however, as

TikTok has shown, the role of video and sound (particularly in short form, where nuance can be left

behind in favor of theatrical value) serves to amplify these practices and beliefs. In the future, it would

be interesting to take a closer look at trends and communities that have a more lasting impact online,

such as the WitchTok community, and how they have managed not only to proliferate ideas as with

Randonautica, but also reinvigorate beliefs and movements previously thought to be “irrelevant.”

Ragardless, there is little doubt that social media platforms like TikTok will continue to play a role in our

practice and communication of digital folklore well into the future.