TikTok’s “NPC in real life” trend comes from the worst side of Gen Z

I’ve been watching these videos for at least a year, what I would call the “NPC in real life” trend on TikTok, videos that are harassing, embarrassing or scare people in public. Harassment is a part and parcel of online life, something I take it easy YouTube Prank Channelsniche celebrity drama, and my twitter reply guys. But these videos annoyed me in a unique way, like watching them is like sinking my hand in a bowl of water Seeds of the sweet gum treebecause their creators had a unique justification – it’s okay to bother other people, they said, because other people are nothing more than non-playable characters.

More than anything, it seems embarrassing to think like that. When I watch these videos that try to disrupt entertainment, they get in the way elderly peoplepossibly homeless people, and service staff, I feel like our cultural myopia is getting worse. Being the creator of your own personal social media content doesn’t make you god, but seeing everyone around you as a mindless NPC, an easy target, makes it easier for you to give up your empathy and believe otherwise.

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Everything that makes a non-playable character is in the name. In a video game, NPCs are characters that you can’t play even if you really would like to kill a man with NPC Princess Gwynevere‘s generous bosom inside Dark Souls, as I know I would. Anyone who isn’t an NPC is a hero, the protagonist.

This type of character arrangement may be inherently individualistic, but it’s ambiguous – it mimics those found in mythology Story arc known as the hero’s journey, in many films and in the ubiquitous I-I of many songs. Nothing makes video game characters particularly susceptible to egotistical metaphors than characters in these other art forms, except perhaps the fact that “NPC” is a more specific term than “background character” or “extra” and more neutral than “antagonist” or “best friend”.

Also, the protagonists of video games are loaded with some kind of positive action that you can’t find anywhere else since their actions, apart from cutscenes, are linked to the player’s. If only viewers could fire any gun in John Woo’s plastic surgery thriller Face/Offmaybe I’d write about the “Nicolas Cage in real life” TikTok trend instead.

So the origin of Urban Dictionary‘s snobbish 2018 interpretation of an NPC– “seemingly a person incapable of objective thinking” – becomes clearer against this background. Other people? Animals, puppies in need of a leader, semi-educated people whose joy and ambition lies in helping you find the right train show up for class on time. And you? You are the flawless main characterunhappy to have all these alien personalities interfering in your quest.

Although the Urban Dictionary Definition was born out of lazy political dissatisfaction (it lists both “Fuck Trump! Ban Guns!” and “Fuck Hillary! Ban Immigrants!” as NPCs say), the TikTok interpretation of NPC is more generic, like other online interpretations going back already in 2011but just as sticky with condescension.

If you search “NPC in real life” on TikTok, you will be met with results that have garnered millions and millions of views, with the highest volume of videos posted between Spring 2022 and now. The type of content varies and videos are rarely about actual video games. One of the most viewed NPC videos, with 16.8 million views, features a group of boys pretends to be Grand Theft Auto NPCsbut another with 12.5 million views follows a kid growling at a passing classmate, ostensibly to help himself cope with life among “too many NPCs.”

The most prolific anti-NPC creator might be British TikToker bigcthedonwhose entire account and a total of 15.3 million likes advertise TELL WEIRD THINGS TO NPCS, TELL WEIRD THINGS TO NPCS, SINGING SKEPTA ON TUBE TO NPC’Sand TELL WEIRD THINGS TO NPCS. This sort of grating display of lewdness is the most popular type of NPC video, although teens often do “NPC interviews” as well. with children at schooland dazed writes that some NPC videos have more to do with increased interest simulation theorywith the videomaker performing robotic, game-character-like movements that must seem “almost unnerving, akin to swallowing the red pill” to an unsuspecting viewer.

But for me, a 23 year old, and a senior member of that much–philosophizes–around GenZI think TikTok’s obnoxious use of “NPC” stems from my generation being small, alone and online most of our lives.

In my most important years, tweens and teens, I shaped my identity and understanding of community through chat rooms, blogs, and group texts. I’ve never seen who I’m talking to on the other end. I’ve posted selfies on Instagram, stories on An Archive Of Our Own, lunchtime thoughts on Twitter, songs on SoundCloud. I saw other people’s selfies and other people’s stories, but in a physical sense everything was filtered by my isolation – only my face I could stand up and see in the reflection of my computer, it was just my typing telling everyone what I believed. Using a computer is not fundamentally different from past generations’ pastimes of watching television alone or writing letters alone, but only a computer allows someone to analyze their physical and emotional selves and turn them into neat digital packages. Also known as social media posts.

For some members of Gen Z, the first generation to have access to social media from birth, how we understood ourselves was shaped more by what we did alone and in the light of a screen than by other people. The internet, with its boundlessness, its photo booth filters that can distort self-image even more than the unreasonable expectations of a magazine, has impressed us more than sitting in a cafeteria and noticing that the people around us are fearful, loving , and also alive.

When I was younger and spent most of my time dealing with my inner and personal digital world, I think I stopped seeing that everyone around me was breathing fully. They looked like empty-headed NPCs to me – but then I grew up.

I have learned to listen to and care for others. I’ve learned that selfishness quickly erases any hero status you’ve bestowed on yourself: it hurts you and the people who try to help you on your journey. And “NPCs,” are they really that mindless? Is it so terrible to be a helpful member of a well-meaning collective? NPCs also have stories, families and feelings. Being like everyone else isn’t bad, so I don’t have to be the hero. Sometimes I think it’s good to be someone else’s NPC.