[hb-robo]

The kids flocking to another Chinese app just to avoid using Reels, Shorts, or whatever abomination is on X continues to be so funny to me. Looks like a long game of whack a mole starting.

[diggan]

Any parent (and even us non-parents who've spent a lot of time around kids) know that the best way to get teenagers to stop doing something, is to start doing it yourself. If you forbid them to do something, it's basically inviting them to try their hardest to do it anyways.

[bartread]

This is exactly why I’ve started slinging gen alpha lingo at our daughters: even doing it jokingly makes them cringe enough to stop using it themselves.

[ranger_danger]

This is how I got mine to stop saying slay, preppy and sigma. The look of horror and cringe on their face when I say crap like "skibidi ohio rizz" in front of them and their friends, is a chef's kiss.

[ok123456]

There are tons of people over 30, 40, 50 even over 90 on TikTok.

[nickthegreek]

Under a million kids moving over to RedNote for a week or 2 means nothing. There is no whack a mole. Tiktok algo is the sauce, nothing else has the sauce. People enjoyed the sauce.

[xnx]

> Tiktok algo is the sauce, nothing else has the sauce.

Tiktok algo is nothing special: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/05/business/media/tiktok-alg...

The volume of interaction data from good interface design and huge user base is the core of the success.

[skyyler]

Xiaohongshu has better sauce than youtube shorts or instagram reels.

Using Chinese social media is cool now.

[est]

> Tiktok algo is the sauce

What makes you think the Bytedance chefs who cooked the sauce wont join the Redbook company? Their HQ were both located in China anyway.

[johnnyanmac]

"the sauce" is for the audience to figure out. The sauce was disgusting to me, but that didn't matter to those 100m consumers.

And yes, this begs the question of "when does something become a matter of national security". 10 million? A million moving over before the day of reckoning isn't a small thing.

[xnyan]

The big one is called RedNote, and it's actually fairly well done.

[gambiting]

The meme I'm seeing everywhere is that with so many Americans joining RedNote, Americans are discovering how much Chinese people are paying for healthcare, food or property, and Chinese people are discovering things like 40 hour work weeks and actually having a holiday from time to time - so now the question is whether US or China bans it first.

[hb-robo]

Oh, wasn't meant at any dig in terms of quality, I don't believe in that kind of characterization. Besides, ostensibly, Chinese developers have been much more successful in this space and seem to deliver better products. I just wouldn't know myself as I stay off of shortform video platforms.

[NickC25]

The irony of Americans flocking to a CCP-approved app whose Chinese name is translated to "little red book" is just a bit too on-the-nose. For those who don't know, Little Red Book is also the literature spread during the Cultural Revolution in China that was a collection of quotes and sayings by Chairman Mao.

There's gotta be a joke in there about the communists selling the capitalists the rope the capitalists eventually hang themselves with. But, I digress.

[ajross]

The Red Note nonsense is just a meme, somewhat fittingly. First, because the only place you see coverage of all the "kids flocking" is... on TikTok itself. It's always a red (heh) flag when your source for big important events comes only from the affected parties.

But secondly because Red Note is subject to exactly the same regulation as TikTok, for exactly the same reason. There's no protection or loophole there, this app is just a district court injunction away from a ban too. Literally no one cares, they just love to meme.

[ok123456]

https://www.xiaohongshu.com

[diggan]

Am I missing something obvious, or is that only available in one language? How do American teenagers use that?

Don't get me wrong, I consumed American media and played American video games before I understood English, so clicking around eventually led you down some path.

But isn't most of that content meant to be consumed by people who understand the language said content is made with?

[nujabe]

Can confirm. I had no idea about RedNote till my 18yo niece sent me a link to download it.

[EA-3167]

It isn't really whack-a-mole though, because despite the media coverage there is no "TikTok ban bill." Instead it's a "Hostile nation can't own majority stakes in media companies in the US" bill, and this SCOTUS ruling sets the precedent that can be enforced on as many entities as required.

On a more amusing note the Chinese did NOT expect a bunch of Americans to show up on RedNote, and they're not thrilled so far. It seems that sharing details of how to organize labor unions, protest against your government, 3D print weapons, and so on wasn't what they were hoping for either. There's allegedly talk of them siloing off the new joins from abroad.

[johnnyanmac]

So how big does Rednote need to be to "majority stakes in media companies in the US"? I don't like this ruling at all, but it feels very American to see another looming threat and say "well, I'll just wait until it gets too big to deal with it".

[vehemenz]

I think it's a troubling sign that American cultural decline is much broader and deeper than Trumpism.

[hb-robo]

Kids are born into a world where the last generation is already essentially locked into lifetime servitude, the world is burning, and the "adults in the room" are a circus. How could they not indulge in alternatives? What is there to look forward to, identify with, or love about this place?

Culture thrives when the people are able to live meaningful lives.