Where Does The 'Wow, That's Awesome' TikTok Sound Effect Come From?

After over 20 years of widespread use of the internet, it seems as though it's the youngest of us that realize the meaning of being chronically online from a young age. An AI-generated sound effect on TikTok acts as the perfect storm of digital happenings to revisit a topic often discussed in memes; what does it mean to have unrestricted internet access at a young age? And how does it affect your digital footprint?

Where Does The 'Wow, That's Awesome' TikTok Sound Effect Come From?

Sometime in early 2023, a TikTok account posted a bizarre video featuring a clip of cows slipping on black ice. The video also contained a text and sound overlay that went, "Wow, that's awesome," cut with a voice screaming "Oh my god!" The video ended with the voice saying, "Careful, careful. Finally defeated."

And as people on TikTok are wont to do, creators began using the sound effect to show what it was like looking at gross stuff on the internet as a young child. One such video described being "in fourth grade coming home after school to watch roller coaster derailments and school shooter documentaries for 6 hours straight," while another simply discussed "9-year-old me looking up pictures of Chernobyl on the family computer every day after school."

What Does It Mean To Have Unrestricted Internet Access At A Young Age?

The aforementioned TikTok trend is reminiscent of a meme often parrotted by people who also went on the internet with little to no oversight as a young child. Sometime after the year 2019, various internet users began to converge on the belief that, due to the reasons listed in the above TikTok, most kids should probably not be allowed on the internet freely.

What Does It Mean To Have A Digital Footprint?

In relation to having unrestricted internet access and looking at disturbing things, another issue discussed in memes of this genre is the idea that the internet never forgets. Digital footprint is a slang term that is derived from the idea that people's activities on the internet leave behind unwanted "footprints" that can hurt them later.

For the full history of "Wow, that's awesome," be sure to check out our entry on the meme here for even more information.