I'm a huge fan of TikTok because after years of content stagnation and dullness, the internet is fun again. Especially places like Twitter and Instagram are outrage and depression inducers for me, consumed together it feels like the society is collapsing but everyone is living a perfect life at the same time.
The China thing is touchy but I want the west to beat them by being better, not by being dismissive and protectionist.
I guess by now everyone has heard of their legendary discovery algorithm so I'm not going there but recently I noticed that some of my favourite creators from the Youtube etc. are on TikTok and their material is much nicer to consume there. Why? I think this is because of the short and fast phased nature of the TikTok content. Instead of publishing 10 to 30 min videos(AFAIK Youtube encourages that, it is also good for the revenue), they put together a short video that shows the gist of the subject. They will also be much more responsive, quickly replying with short videos to the comments. It's a very dynamic place.
One exception for me is Nile Red, I love watching his 40 min chemistry videos. Actually, there are a few more YouTubers who's content works best on YouTube but I'm watching far less and I have more spare time now.
Maybe the medium is the message still holds? Maybe people are now ready to hear the message of the TikTok?
I like to think of TikTok as the crack cocaine of addictive social media. I used to think my dopamine receptors were burned out by the constant barrage of memes I received from reddit, Facebook and Twitter but TikTok proves they can refine that product to make it even more potent.
When I visit reddit now it feels behind in the same way Facebook used to feel behind. Facebook's video feature (which they shove into my feed as the third or fourth card during scrolling) is 90% stuff stolen from and that I already saw a few days ago on TikTok. But absent their algorithm it isn't nearly as effective.
I often have to remind myself how good TikTok's algorithm is. After using it for just a couple of days I can tell it knows more about me than I am comfortable with, even though I just scroll the FYP (For You Page) without logging into an account. The unbelievably narrow category of content it serves me clearly panders to my personality in a way that almost lets me believe I have a majority opinion. It creates a nearly perfectly personally tailored media bubble.
A lot of people from my generation (Gen X) and even from the older Millennial's don't use it, thinking it is just for the kids. That is probably for the best. If you are susceptible to media addiction I suggest never downloading it. TikTok: Not Even Once.
> I like to think of TikTok as the crack cocaine of addictive social media.
I'd compare it more to something like coffee, somehow every time I leave TikTok I'm happier than I was before. This did not happen with Facebook, Instagram, etc.
>I like to think of TikTok as the crack cocaine of addictive social media.
>If you are susceptible to media addiction I suggest never downloading it.
These are the two big takeaways I've had from using the app for a day. Everything about it is designed to be a sinkhole, like a modern casino where they're gambling with your attention. I know a lot of people who use Facebook/Instagram/TikTok compulsively, and it ruins them to a degree. I think (or hope, at least) the future is headed towards more personal communique (a-la Discord, Slack, Matrix, etc.)
I don't think the algorithm is that good, it's simply that the content is better.
I used TikTok for a couple of weeks and the product is very good. I uninstalled it not because I didn't like it but because I think it's another step in the wrong direction, for society and for me personally.
I first discovered the app when it was Musically but I was scared away by peer pressure, even then had a bad reputation. Then I noticed that the icon changed(or read an article about it becoming something else, not sure), gave it another shot secretly. I still don't have friends who use TikTok, at least that's what they say but they laugh to videos stolen from TikTok all day. They are late of course.
According to iPhone's screen time I use TikTok 29 minutes a day on average. For contrast, it says 2 hours 15 minutes for Twitter.[0]
I need to cut Twitter down, I mostly doomscroll on Twitter whenever I get bored. TikTok is great before sleep, I don't get the urge to check it all the time, I don't feel FOMO.
My wife is a user and I've noticed how incredibly reinforcing it is as a platform. After the first week I never heard her groan, cringe aloud, disagree with, or mock the creator of any video she was watching. Think about that. Even in online communities tailor made as escapism like gaming you still have people that piss you off or challenge your opinions. Tiktok is a perfect echo chamber.
Yep this older millenial is staying away. I do enjoy the links my friends send me. I watch and immediately close. "Download the app" they say. Nope. I'm mostly down to just a few minutes of twitter and instagram a day and a bit of reddit. The latter I don't really consider social media, its just what forums evolved into IMO and I've been using those since the late 90s so no difference. Facebook is probably just a few minutes per week. If it wasn't a convenient way to contact a distant connection I'd delete it entirely.
I think it's possible but it's also not clearly borne out by the data yet. What came out was that TikTok was "most downloaded", but that is in part because they've been paying $$$ for user acquisition through ads. There is definitely some addictiveness to the platform but it's not clear that users who download are staying long term. Personally I fell off the charm a few months ago and nothing at all is pulling me back in. We would have to see what happens in ~ a year when they run out of users to acquire and YouTube develops its own vertical-scrolling short form content.
As a genxer with an addictive streak, TikTok is undoubtedly as addictive as crack. Do not pick up the pipe. If you do prepare to lose hours of yiur life.
Let the children be free to download this app and let them play in it. They are going to realise soon how much of an addictive nightmare this app is and it just takes a slip up or a scandal from ByteDance to anger the majority users on the platform.
The news about it being the most downloaded app is great news if you are an investor in ByteDance; I don't know what you get out of it if you're a mere user. As always you're basically the product (again), providing them with shareholder value by being addicted and posting continuously to other addicted users. Making your data and their algorithm more valuable.
Since we're comparing these platforms to being like drugs, and given you are saying that TikTok is proven to be even more potent, the description of such a drug sounds more like heroine, than crack. Addictive and dangerous. That isn't going to end well.
Lots of positivity in this thread, and I don't think that's entirely a bad thing, but I think TikTok is the worst of the social media platforms in terms of addictiveness, based on my peers.
As a recent grad, so many of my friends are heavily invested in TikTok and have been since quarantine began, some of them for a bit before. The amount of time they spend there is absurd. Consuming 30 second content for three hours can't be good for concentration, right? It helps add to the 'always online' mindset that has grown more popular with social media and smart phones.
Instead of going for a walk, some of my friends would opt to lie in bed and watch TikToks, creating empty, basically non-existent connections with people across the world. Connections with people across the world are awesome, and one of the best things about the internet, but TikTok connections are basically UDP.
Most TikTok content I've been shown is shallow, the same way so much social media content is shallow. My having to get to the point immediately, we leave out key details and we want to catch your attention before you scroll away. Of course there is the other end of the spectrum with YouTube where a 2 minute tutorial takes 15 minutes.
I try not to use much social media, and honestly, I probably should limit my time on HN more as well. Doom scrolling is a real thing, and TikTok is not immune to that. I've seen plenty of dread inducing content that comes from TikTok as well.
TikTok keeps you logged on, as it's supposed it. I just don't think that's a good thing. If you can control and limit your usage to something that's healthy for you, then I don't think there's a problem. For me though, that healthy limit is 0, because I know myself and I have little self control with social media in the past.
I'm not a TikTok user.. or really a fan or user of any social media (and yes I realize I'm on HN).. but I find it silly that people are saying TikTok is somehow "better" for society or peoples' psyches than any of the alternatives.
Do you remember when Facebook wasn't considered terrible? Twitter? Reddit? Instagram? Snapchat?
This is just the latest one to rise to the top.. following very predictable patterns. It's got something novel (in this case I guess a better algorithm and UX).. an attracts an early community (which largely always seems like the youth rebelling against the current top dog). Then the masses come. Pretty soon.. that original spirit and thing that makes it "better" is taken away by greedy advertisers or "influencers" and the party's basically ruined. And then the next one comes along.
So consider me skeptical of TikTok being any fundamentally different. In another 2-3 years, the next social network will emerge and take over the zeitgeist. Rinse. repeat.
Indeed. That is the pattern. This is yet another social network doing the same typical social network things found on other networks with:
* Far more invasive tracking
* Designed to be addictive as possible.
* Manipulation of content - seen and unseen
* Feeds are gamed by larger creators
* Lots of privacy violations and getting sued for it.
Every other social network has all of these properties and TikTok isn't any different. The users here commenting about how great it is like 'TikTok is the best thing to have happened to the Internet' [0] maybe forgot when Facebook was once seen as 'the best thing to have happened to the Internet' Until the larger influencers, companies, large corporations come in and ruin it.
When ByteDance eventually IPOs, it will be in the interests of the investors and the big money and not the users who still work for the algorithm even when it is already gamed. Another fast growing social network will take their place.
I’m a 34 year old who just got into Instagram and TikTok.
I love it and hate it.
I love all the creative and ridiculously funny content I find.
But I viscerally cannot stand and get angry over so much attention seeking garbage there is out there too. Just smug unqualified nobodies telling people to “stop it” with a smug meme song regarding health habits or fashion or whatnot. Or “oh no no no no” or “thank you Diane” memes.
I dunno. Maybe I’m a summer child discovering something everyone’s already contending with. I know it’s a biased sample but there’s this whole culture of entirely unearned confidence and narcissism.
Don’t get me started with all the 20something ”Influencers” humble bragging about their cars and homes.
I get angry at night and yet I can’t stop scrolling because there’s always some occasional maniac driving a canoe down a hill into a lake.
I’m just yelling at people to get off my lawn aren’t I?
I want to spoil a magnificent movie, the Russian classic Stalker [1]. If you haven't watched the film and want to one day, please stop reading this comment.
It is a deep film with many themes but one main theme involves a curious plot device. From the Wikipedia article: "The Zone contains a place called the "Room", said to grant the wishes of anyone who steps inside." The theme of that plot device is that once a group of explorers finally get to the room they refuse to go inside. The "Room" isn't a monkey-paw like device that distorts your wishes and gives you a bad outcome, rather it sees inside your soul and gives you what you truly desire. It raises questions about man's conscious desires compared to his unconscious desires. Do you really want to know what you truly desire, even the desires you hide from yourself?
I can't do justice to the film but I think of it often and usually with respect to AI and the unreasonably effective algorithms that drive modern feeds. TikTok is in some ways our first true glimpse into the "Room" of Tarkovsky's Stalker.
All this to say: I don't see any of the things you are saying you see on TikTok. Whether you like it or not the algorithm is sending you what you engage with. You have been sorted into the "desires wild canoe ride" TikTok. You are sorted into the "desires smug fashion gatekeepers" TikTok.
And if you happen to have read this comment and haven't seen Stalker - it is still worth it.
I'm the same age as you. I remember downloading Snapchat years ago and and thinking "I don't get this, you take pictures and add ugly stickers to it and send it to people?".
With TikTok, I've seen some good videos, so I get the appeal. At the same time, no app has turned me off the way TT has.
- The Grammarly voiceover is like nails on a chalkboard.
- Your feed will always have some fixed % of videos which are nothing but bandwagoning on some contrived trend (usually a dance, but could be style of video too).
- Samples of popular songs, autotuned and pitched up to within an inch of its life.
I'm 35 and definitely too old for tiktok. Sometimes people send me links to videos or ppl to follow, and when I'm trying to play this stuff both their website and the app fight me hard with terrible UI. Like I can't even figure out how to go back to the beginning of a video because it started playing but the sound was off and I had to turn it on, meaning I want to go back to the start. It's also full of random text everywhere and taking control of your back button or I dunno, everything is just all over the place.
>Don’t get me started with all the 20something ”Influencers” humble bragging about their cars and homes.
Not sure about that, if they have the car, but I only watch one influencer. called Supercarblondie, I am not sure if she has that expensive car, when she gave her lover a sweet Suzuki Jimmy. (I forgot the name of the car, but it's expensive.
I must say, I got Instagram too, I have no clue what to do with it. I am too lazy to upload and too lazy to touch the app. It isn't easy to upload pictures from the desktop to Instagram.
I'm baffled by the glowing endorsements of TikTok on Hacker News of all places. TikTok content comes across as completely vapid. It's like the worst possible mashup of bad television and social media. As a company TikTok seems to have zero goals beyond increasing engagement.
Honestly, from a social media perspective, TikTok feels like the least toxic environment. Nobody is showing off their new homes, cars, kids, spending. It feels like a significantly reduced pressure to produce. Many of my friends are just consumers of content. Most of the content I'm seeing are memes and are funny. Even the advertising is more light hearted.
Con. The algorithm seems to dish out similarly structured videos for all users. For example, it generally includes music that is extremely annoying. (That "No no no" song that is on every other video). At the same time, I also recognize how addictive the app is and because of it I would never download it myself.
I don't use it, but it looks so painful to me. I couldn't imagine having to 'stage' my life so frequently for the temporary enjoyment of people I do and don't know.
There is a time and place for everything. Connecting with all your friends and relatives (over Facebook) was a novelty but is cooling down. We are rather going back to the "celebrities model", admiring influencers on better suited platforms for asynchronous (fan>star, rather than friend<>friend) interactions: YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok.
There are plenty of arguments and issues with the politics and moderation of Facebook, but TikTok is more simple than Facebook, and it appeals at that level in the same way Instagram does.
It's fascinating to see Facebook threatened by a company they can't just acquire to put down their competition. Their response in the form of Reels is consistently much worse at recommending quality content than Tiktok is and generally just comprises re-uploads from Tiktok, which is a bad look (people aren't making their content for Reels first). Tiktok is also addictive in a way that no competing app has managed to capture.
I'm still optimistic Facebook can recover based on the quality and abundance of talent they have working on the product, but it's been a year and Tiktok only continues to strengthen their position while Reels doesn't appear to have improved, at least from the customer-facing side. We may be witnessing the early stages of a shift in social media apps that Facebook cannot stop.
The march away from language continues. Facial expressions may be a rich form of communication but the kinds of ideas you can communicate with them are severely restricted. Literacy was hard won and now it seems like we're letting it go. Then again, maybe I'm just too old to understand.
I think one of the reasons for TikTok’s success is that the content exists outside a timeline. Every tried to figure out when a particular TikTok was posted? It’s very hidden. That means two things:
* More content for the algorithm to present. It’s quite happy to reach way back into the past to show you something you’ll like.
* No time-sensitive content. This suppresses a lot of the political and outrage-driven content that plagues Twitter and Facebook (and to a lesser extent, YouTube, which does seem to favor recent content)
As a result, like others I find TikTok a breath of fresh air on the internet.
I still have a lot of friends that use it daily but it's all for things that don't hold a company with a 1T market cap.
Anecdotal data:
- Facebook usage from my feed it's just older family members posting cheesy political posts and selling items on marketplace
- Instagram became a selling channel for brands, be it with their accounts or with "partnerships" with meme/influencer pages. I see less and less content from friends. SO has a professional account there, she always has the feeling that if she doesn't pay them her posts are rarely seen, even by people that follows her. I'm using it less and less every week.
- I still use WhatsApp a lot, and I'm quite scared how they could leverage their ad network with my private communications to improve bottom line
- I don't use and don't see the point of downloading Messenger, Threads, Reels, Lasso and any of the other weird knockoff apps they release every few months
I remember the last chapter of Chaos Monkey and the author hit a very good point that Facebook bought their extension ticket of relevance two times with Instagram and WhatsApp, since then (if you disconsider Oculus) the company didn't manage to create or acquire their next ticket. Maybe they're going the same route as MySpace?
I'm really curious if China will go after bytedance next in its crackdown.
My guess would be no. Alibaba, Tencent, DiDi, Meituan all are either local champions that have no competitive advantage overseas - and thus does not help China's growth. But TikTok actually represents that China might have a competitive advantage in deep learning algos that takes massive amount of data - therefore it would be spare from crackdowns.
FB, Google, AWS, and Azue all have a competitive advantage that China don't - English.
I am honestly stunned that so many people apparently use both HN & TikTok.
What does it offer you? Why isn't it the reserve of teens and younger that I thought it was? (I'm in my twenties, it's not news to me that I'm out of touch with the modal person my age/younger, but I'm not totally obliviously removed by generations or anything, and seemingly it's not just used by people my age/younger anyway.)
TikTok is great because it values good content above else. Every other social media platform tends to value followers and popularity over content to reach people.
Facebook: Number of friends
Instagram: Number of followers
Twitter: Number of followers
Snapchat: Number of friends
YouTube: Unsure exactly, but hard to go viral
TikTok: Value of your content
Consistently on TikTok you see very popular users with millions of followers only get a few thousand views.
That’s the best part of TikTok. You make good content, and the platform puts you to the top. Your popularity does not matter. Everyone gets a fair chance. It’s absolutely fantastic.
In a dystopian world, where algorithms judge everyone by some arbitrary metric, you get to decide which algorithm will choose your fate. Which one will it be?
Here in Germany, I have not seen much quality content on TikTok yet.
Every time people praise the service like in these comments, I give it another try. I start the app and see unfunny scripted jokes, barely dressed girls singing and today even covid denial. I try to swipe it away as quickly as possible, but the algorithm doesn't seem to adjust. Yes, there are some funny or interesting clips in between, but what exactly is the content that keeps you in the app?
I think after reading a ton of comments here, the one thing that most people overlook is that each user's experience on social platforms is now completely different because of all of the algorithmic "funnels" they implement.
Some people get funneled into depression spirals, some people find great new music, the paths are implemented by companies bent towards profit and engagement, while as a result the people driven by reckless experimentation can be driven to madness, suicide, and even doing harm to others including animals in hopes of being seen.
I only use social platforms in small spurts because I noticed most of these short video platforms are wrecking my patience and attention span in real life... They are truly good when search works properly and when each user is in full control of what they want to see and the content is properly categorized and tagged, but that doesn't make them enough money... apparently.
Funny this crops up today: I was in line just a couple of hours ago behind a 20-ish lady who was using TikTok on her phone, and I got to watch her use it for a good 10mn.
This was both frightening and sad.
Specifically, the speed at which she was switching from content to content without ever (in the span of 10mn) actually settling on one piece to actually watch it.
The longest she stuck to one piece of content was on the order of 10 seconds.
Besides the fact that her brain didn't (couldn't possibly) register anything useful out of the whole usage stretch, the only think I could think of after witnessing this was pavlov's dog.
I am genuinely happy for those who feel they have found a place online that has less doom, gloom and hatred then other corners of the internet.
For my part though, I am aware (and concerned) of the potential for social networks to use their troves of data for ML/NN training (see the Cambridge Analytica scandal).
What could the largest social video platform in the world with strong ties to a totalitarian regime do with their data, if they so wished?
Call me a cynic, but I do not believe that the potential for misuse will be left untouched. The allure of it is simply too strong.
[+] [-] mrtksn|4 years ago|reply
The China thing is touchy but I want the west to beat them by being better, not by being dismissive and protectionist.
I guess by now everyone has heard of their legendary discovery algorithm so I'm not going there but recently I noticed that some of my favourite creators from the Youtube etc. are on TikTok and their material is much nicer to consume there. Why? I think this is because of the short and fast phased nature of the TikTok content. Instead of publishing 10 to 30 min videos(AFAIK Youtube encourages that, it is also good for the revenue), they put together a short video that shows the gist of the subject. They will also be much more responsive, quickly replying with short videos to the comments. It's a very dynamic place.
One exception for me is Nile Red, I love watching his 40 min chemistry videos. Actually, there are a few more YouTubers who's content works best on YouTube but I'm watching far less and I have more spare time now.
Maybe the medium is the message still holds? Maybe people are now ready to hear the message of the TikTok?
[+] [-] reggieband|4 years ago|reply
When I visit reddit now it feels behind in the same way Facebook used to feel behind. Facebook's video feature (which they shove into my feed as the third or fourth card during scrolling) is 90% stuff stolen from and that I already saw a few days ago on TikTok. But absent their algorithm it isn't nearly as effective.
I often have to remind myself how good TikTok's algorithm is. After using it for just a couple of days I can tell it knows more about me than I am comfortable with, even though I just scroll the FYP (For You Page) without logging into an account. The unbelievably narrow category of content it serves me clearly panders to my personality in a way that almost lets me believe I have a majority opinion. It creates a nearly perfectly personally tailored media bubble.
A lot of people from my generation (Gen X) and even from the older Millennial's don't use it, thinking it is just for the kids. That is probably for the best. If you are susceptible to media addiction I suggest never downloading it. TikTok: Not Even Once.
[+] [-] cruano|4 years ago|reply
I'd compare it more to something like coffee, somehow every time I leave TikTok I'm happier than I was before. This did not happen with Facebook, Instagram, etc.
[+] [-] smoldesu|4 years ago|reply
>If you are susceptible to media addiction I suggest never downloading it.
These are the two big takeaways I've had from using the app for a day. Everything about it is designed to be a sinkhole, like a modern casino where they're gambling with your attention. I know a lot of people who use Facebook/Instagram/TikTok compulsively, and it ruins them to a degree. I think (or hope, at least) the future is headed towards more personal communique (a-la Discord, Slack, Matrix, etc.)
[+] [-] linspace|4 years ago|reply
I used TikTok for a couple of weeks and the product is very good. I uninstalled it not because I didn't like it but because I think it's another step in the wrong direction, for society and for me personally.
[+] [-] mrtksn|4 years ago|reply
According to iPhone's screen time I use TikTok 29 minutes a day on average. For contrast, it says 2 hours 15 minutes for Twitter.[0]
I need to cut Twitter down, I mostly doomscroll on Twitter whenever I get bored. TikTok is great before sleep, I don't get the urge to check it all the time, I don't feel FOMO.
[0]: Here is my usage data: https://ibb.co/Ytb6Hbt
[+] [-] Causality1|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bodge5000|4 years ago|reply
Even in as so much as the denial of it. A lot of "its not as bad as the other social drugs" in this thread.
I get it, people want to enjoy the thing they like and don't want to be made to feel bad about it. We're all guilty of that to some extent.
But outright denial that the thing you enjoy isn't absolutely pure and harmless is never healthy.
[+] [-] systematical|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seph-reed|4 years ago|reply
Like... it was all so staged and television like. It felt like watching TV did, back before I could see through the tropes.
There's only so many forms of arc you can fit into 15 seconds though.
[+] [-] ridaj|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] jasondigitized|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rvz|4 years ago|reply
The news about it being the most downloaded app is great news if you are an investor in ByteDance; I don't know what you get out of it if you're a mere user. As always you're basically the product (again), providing them with shareholder value by being addicted and posting continuously to other addicted users. Making your data and their algorithm more valuable.
Since we're comparing these platforms to being like drugs, and given you are saying that TikTok is proven to be even more potent, the description of such a drug sounds more like heroine, than crack. Addictive and dangerous. That isn't going to end well.
[+] [-] jjice|4 years ago|reply
As a recent grad, so many of my friends are heavily invested in TikTok and have been since quarantine began, some of them for a bit before. The amount of time they spend there is absurd. Consuming 30 second content for three hours can't be good for concentration, right? It helps add to the 'always online' mindset that has grown more popular with social media and smart phones.
Instead of going for a walk, some of my friends would opt to lie in bed and watch TikToks, creating empty, basically non-existent connections with people across the world. Connections with people across the world are awesome, and one of the best things about the internet, but TikTok connections are basically UDP.
Most TikTok content I've been shown is shallow, the same way so much social media content is shallow. My having to get to the point immediately, we leave out key details and we want to catch your attention before you scroll away. Of course there is the other end of the spectrum with YouTube where a 2 minute tutorial takes 15 minutes.
I try not to use much social media, and honestly, I probably should limit my time on HN more as well. Doom scrolling is a real thing, and TikTok is not immune to that. I've seen plenty of dread inducing content that comes from TikTok as well.
TikTok keeps you logged on, as it's supposed it. I just don't think that's a good thing. If you can control and limit your usage to something that's healthy for you, then I don't think there's a problem. For me though, that healthy limit is 0, because I know myself and I have little self control with social media in the past.
[+] [-] mtc010170|4 years ago|reply
Do you remember when Facebook wasn't considered terrible? Twitter? Reddit? Instagram? Snapchat?
This is just the latest one to rise to the top.. following very predictable patterns. It's got something novel (in this case I guess a better algorithm and UX).. an attracts an early community (which largely always seems like the youth rebelling against the current top dog). Then the masses come. Pretty soon.. that original spirit and thing that makes it "better" is taken away by greedy advertisers or "influencers" and the party's basically ruined. And then the next one comes along.
So consider me skeptical of TikTok being any fundamentally different. In another 2-3 years, the next social network will emerge and take over the zeitgeist. Rinse. repeat.
[+] [-] rvz|4 years ago|reply
When ByteDance eventually IPOs, it will be in the interests of the investors and the big money and not the users who still work for the algorithm even when it is already gamed. Another fast growing social network will take their place.
Rinse and Repeat.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28135484
[+] [-] rc_mob|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sorry_outta_gas|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Waterluvian|4 years ago|reply
I love it and hate it.
I love all the creative and ridiculously funny content I find.
But I viscerally cannot stand and get angry over so much attention seeking garbage there is out there too. Just smug unqualified nobodies telling people to “stop it” with a smug meme song regarding health habits or fashion or whatnot. Or “oh no no no no” or “thank you Diane” memes.
I dunno. Maybe I’m a summer child discovering something everyone’s already contending with. I know it’s a biased sample but there’s this whole culture of entirely unearned confidence and narcissism.
Don’t get me started with all the 20something ”Influencers” humble bragging about their cars and homes.
I get angry at night and yet I can’t stop scrolling because there’s always some occasional maniac driving a canoe down a hill into a lake.
I’m just yelling at people to get off my lawn aren’t I?
[+] [-] reggieband|4 years ago|reply
It is a deep film with many themes but one main theme involves a curious plot device. From the Wikipedia article: "The Zone contains a place called the "Room", said to grant the wishes of anyone who steps inside." The theme of that plot device is that once a group of explorers finally get to the room they refuse to go inside. The "Room" isn't a monkey-paw like device that distorts your wishes and gives you a bad outcome, rather it sees inside your soul and gives you what you truly desire. It raises questions about man's conscious desires compared to his unconscious desires. Do you really want to know what you truly desire, even the desires you hide from yourself?
I can't do justice to the film but I think of it often and usually with respect to AI and the unreasonably effective algorithms that drive modern feeds. TikTok is in some ways our first true glimpse into the "Room" of Tarkovsky's Stalker.
All this to say: I don't see any of the things you are saying you see on TikTok. Whether you like it or not the algorithm is sending you what you engage with. You have been sorted into the "desires wild canoe ride" TikTok. You are sorted into the "desires smug fashion gatekeepers" TikTok.
And if you happen to have read this comment and haven't seen Stalker - it is still worth it.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_(1979_film)
[+] [-] rchaud|4 years ago|reply
With TikTok, I've seen some good videos, so I get the appeal. At the same time, no app has turned me off the way TT has.
- The Grammarly voiceover is like nails on a chalkboard.
- Your feed will always have some fixed % of videos which are nothing but bandwagoning on some contrived trend (usually a dance, but could be style of video too).
- Samples of popular songs, autotuned and pitched up to within an inch of its life.
[+] [-] ant6n|4 years ago|reply
I'm definitely too old for this shit.
[+] [-] MonaroVXR|4 years ago|reply
Not sure about that, if they have the car, but I only watch one influencer. called Supercarblondie, I am not sure if she has that expensive car, when she gave her lover a sweet Suzuki Jimmy. (I forgot the name of the car, but it's expensive.
I must say, I got Instagram too, I have no clue what to do with it. I am too lazy to upload and too lazy to touch the app. It isn't easy to upload pictures from the desktop to Instagram.
[+] [-] underwater|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ericcholis|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nostromo|4 years ago|reply
If I spend 20 minutes on TikTok I usually laugh and smile a few times. And regularly I’m impressed at human creativity.
20 minutes on Instagram or Facebook is usually either boring or leaves me comparing myself to others.
20 minutes on YouTube and I feel like I’ve watched 10 minutes of ads and 10 minutes of fluff.
20 minutes on Reddit and I hate the world.
[+] [-] thisisnico|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spullara|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] code_duck|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ghawr|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] purple_ferret|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stiltzkin|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MSEmployed|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] minikites|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] deminature|4 years ago|reply
I'm still optimistic Facebook can recover based on the quality and abundance of talent they have working on the product, but it's been a year and Tiktok only continues to strengthen their position while Reels doesn't appear to have improved, at least from the customer-facing side. We may be witnessing the early stages of a shift in social media apps that Facebook cannot stop.
[+] [-] EamonnMR|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nonfamous|4 years ago|reply
* More content for the algorithm to present. It’s quite happy to reach way back into the past to show you something you’ll like.
* No time-sensitive content. This suppresses a lot of the political and outrage-driven content that plagues Twitter and Facebook (and to a lesser extent, YouTube, which does seem to favor recent content)
As a result, like others I find TikTok a breath of fresh air on the internet.
[+] [-] mtrovo|4 years ago|reply
I still have a lot of friends that use it daily but it's all for things that don't hold a company with a 1T market cap.
Anecdotal data:
- Facebook usage from my feed it's just older family members posting cheesy political posts and selling items on marketplace
- Instagram became a selling channel for brands, be it with their accounts or with "partnerships" with meme/influencer pages. I see less and less content from friends. SO has a professional account there, she always has the feeling that if she doesn't pay them her posts are rarely seen, even by people that follows her. I'm using it less and less every week.
- I still use WhatsApp a lot, and I'm quite scared how they could leverage their ad network with my private communications to improve bottom line
- I don't use and don't see the point of downloading Messenger, Threads, Reels, Lasso and any of the other weird knockoff apps they release every few months
I remember the last chapter of Chaos Monkey and the author hit a very good point that Facebook bought their extension ticket of relevance two times with Instagram and WhatsApp, since then (if you disconsider Oculus) the company didn't manage to create or acquire their next ticket. Maybe they're going the same route as MySpace?
edit: small typos, posted from phone
[+] [-] yuy910616|4 years ago|reply
My guess would be no. Alibaba, Tencent, DiDi, Meituan all are either local champions that have no competitive advantage overseas - and thus does not help China's growth. But TikTok actually represents that China might have a competitive advantage in deep learning algos that takes massive amount of data - therefore it would be spare from crackdowns.
FB, Google, AWS, and Azue all have a competitive advantage that China don't - English.
[+] [-] OJFord|4 years ago|reply
What does it offer you? Why isn't it the reserve of teens and younger that I thought it was? (I'm in my twenties, it's not news to me that I'm out of touch with the modal person my age/younger, but I'm not totally obliviously removed by generations or anything, and seemingly it's not just used by people my age/younger anyway.)
[+] [-] rcconf|4 years ago|reply
Facebook: Number of friends
Instagram: Number of followers
Twitter: Number of followers
Snapchat: Number of friends
YouTube: Unsure exactly, but hard to go viral
TikTok: Value of your content
Consistently on TikTok you see very popular users with millions of followers only get a few thousand views.
That’s the best part of TikTok. You make good content, and the platform puts you to the top. Your popularity does not matter. Everyone gets a fair chance. It’s absolutely fantastic.
[+] [-] chansiky|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rc_mob|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] planb|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] winternett|4 years ago|reply
Some people get funneled into depression spirals, some people find great new music, the paths are implemented by companies bent towards profit and engagement, while as a result the people driven by reckless experimentation can be driven to madness, suicide, and even doing harm to others including animals in hopes of being seen.
I only use social platforms in small spurts because I noticed most of these short video platforms are wrecking my patience and attention span in real life... They are truly good when search works properly and when each user is in full control of what they want to see and the content is properly categorized and tagged, but that doesn't make them enough money... apparently.
[+] [-] ur-whale|4 years ago|reply
This was both frightening and sad.
Specifically, the speed at which she was switching from content to content without ever (in the span of 10mn) actually settling on one piece to actually watch it.
The longest she stuck to one piece of content was on the order of 10 seconds.
Besides the fact that her brain didn't (couldn't possibly) register anything useful out of the whole usage stretch, the only think I could think of after witnessing this was pavlov's dog.
TV zapping on steroids.
Ugh.
[+] [-] MrDresden|4 years ago|reply
For my part though, I am aware (and concerned) of the potential for social networks to use their troves of data for ML/NN training (see the Cambridge Analytica scandal).
What could the largest social video platform in the world with strong ties to a totalitarian regime do with their data, if they so wished?
Call me a cynic, but I do not believe that the potential for misuse will be left untouched. The allure of it is simply too strong.
[+] [-] nrclark|4 years ago|reply
It would be much better if we could see metrics on which app is _used_ more, not which is downloaded more.
[+] [-] arminiusreturns|4 years ago|reply