What Does "Hoya” Mean on Tiktok?
Published Nov. 12 2021, 5:15 p.m. ET
People are always looking for new ways to fight off their existential dread. Sure, you could work your butt off accomplishing all of your hopes and dreams that burned inside you ever since you were a kid staring up at the ceiling wishing for your shot to finally do everything that you wanted to do.
And maybe you want to distract yourself from what's going to be the rest of your life, so you find yourself hopping on TikTok trends to fill time. Maybe during one of those sessions you've come across the word "hoya" and wondered to yourself: Just what does that mean?
What does "hoya" mean on TikTok?
No it isn't a reference to the boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya. In short, it's basically the newest catchphrase for your standard call and response trend.
It's basically a call to action for other users on TikTok. Someone asks, "Can I get a hoya?" And then folks drum up the most creative way they can respond to the post.
As you can imagine, the whole thing can get pretty cringe-inducing, as folks really go out of their way to look as fabulous as they possibly can while saying "hoya" into their smartphone's selfie camera.
Where does TikTok's "hoya" trend originate?
Some TikTokers may be too young to remember the equally grating (yet still very popular) video social media platform, Vine, and the "Can I get an oh yeah?" trend that gained traction on there. Well, TikTok's basically the new Vine. And some folks on TikTok created their own "Can I get an oh yeah?" trend and changed "oh yeah" to "hoya" and that's the origin story.
The phrase is also being used by folks who are into disturbing the peace in public places for internet views, shouting, "Can I get a hoya?" in the middle of a shopping mall or mattress store, or crashing a funeral and recording what happens.
Perhaps it's a contest to see just how annoying and off-putting they can be in public, or maybe they're just really pushing their parents' buttons to get their folks to admit that deep down inside they wish they took birth control. Whatever the reason, videos with the #hoya hashtag have been collectively watched more than 193 million times on TikTok.
Not all of the #hoya videos are annoying, however. There are some people who try to get some hoyas from their pets or babies, which is way better than someone disrupting my second viewing of Clifford the Big Red Dog just so they can brag about their TikTok viewer count to their friends.
What are your feelings on the #hoya trend? Is it the worst? Or is it no worse or better than most other web trends?
