Chlorophyll water is the new trendy wellness product that TikTok users are raving about, so much so that stores nationwide have been sold out for weeks. It is rumored that this purified water, infused with a couple of green drops of chlorophyll will take away your skin problems, fix your digestion and remedy bloating.

Chlorophyll water has taken the internet by storm, like many other popular trends before it because of the popularity of TikTok. Numerous TikTok songs are on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and products from LED lights and textured leggings have sold like crazy.

Second-year psychology major Emma Courville shared that she is one of many who feels influenced by TikTok at times.

“Sometimes I feel compelled to buy it because I see how well it works for other people, I look at the comments and see reviews about how good the product is,” Courville said.

The little knowledge on the product itself, or the taste of the thick, dark green liquid did not stop the comments and videos from blowing up chlorophyll water overnight. The comments and videos exacerbated an already growing trend, exactly how the TikTok algorithm is designed to behave.

Julie Rios, a second-year public affairs major, believed the obsession was due to past experiences with social media. 

“Because [Gen Z] grew up with social media, we subconsciously think that we need to be flawless and be skinny and many people want to be that person because it’s been engraved in us… it’s popular because we think that if it works for them, then it must work for me,” Rios said.

But what makes a TikTok video popular? It’s the algorithm that allows users to view content and share videos with their friends instantly. When a video gets more views, the more popular it becomes which fuels a new TikTok trend. Especially when the video features popular influencers, the views stack up. 

Communications Professor Jiangmeng Helen Liu commented on the influence of social media on business. She agreed that TikTok’s algorithm helped influence its users which created the new trendy product of 2021. 

“Businesses and TikTok can particularly influence and give you whatever they want, but also have the power to give information to fit your interests…which is why social media platforms have unique and great algorithms which make them addictive to the user and is their secret weapon to attract more users,” Liu said.

Liu also commented on TikTok’s popularity for the younger generation and how influencer marketing is so much more powerful now, although it’s not new. 

“Because users identify with [influencers] and think they are similar to them…the users believe that influencers might understand what their feelings and experiences are, so an influencer recommendation suits them. They can identify influencers as just better people, not someone who is unreachable, like celebrities,” Liu said.

Many different types of influencers promote products and in the beauty industry, chlorophyll water is just a small part of it. In the past, there have been other products such as The Ordinary Serum that TikTok users obsessed over. 

Emmalynn Cortez, a Seattleite social media blogger known “to inspire the modern woman to explore, create, and live in style,” shared her thoughts about promoting on social media on her blog. 

“People want to feel and be confident and they will try their best to invest in things that do so…brands contract and hire me to promote their products and especially with my blog and social media platforms, the products may influence my audience,” Cortez said.. “It doesn’t matter what the trend is…just by understanding human behavior, people are motivated by social groups…it (the trend) can be anything, today it’s just chlorophyll water.”