Always interestings to know how other social media works!
As I wrote last year when TikTok released its 2022 recap, counting down the top-performing content illustrates just how disparate our individual experiences are on one of the most influential platforms of our age. What I’m seeing on TikTok isn’t necessarily what you’re seeing — and according to this recap, the overlap is slim between my For You page and the net average of all TikTok users. How do we make wide-ranging conclusions about an app where a consensus doesn’t exist? And what counts as “viral” on a platform where anyone can rack up half a million views and it would still be a drop in the bucket of attention and not at all representative of “what’s happening on TikTok”? (This spring I posted a video to TikTok that went “viral” — it has had no long-term impact. All that happened was a bunch of people came across it at one point.)
That context laid the groundwork for the claim that followed: that teens are suddenly really into Osama bin Laden because his infamous and violent “Letter to America” manifesto “surged in popularity” on TikTok. But the so-called surge was actually just a trickle: prior to media coverage and the recirculation of the video on Twitter, a few hundred TikToks contained a #lettertoamerica hashtag, amounting to 1.8 million views, according to The Washington Post. Again, it’s an imperfect metric. How many of those viewers watched for more than a few seconds before scrolling past? Does using the hashtag mean you’re co-signing bin Laden?
TikTok is pretty interesting due to how different it is from other video platforms and there are loads of new forms of interaction that it enabled. Even if you’re not interested in using it I can recommend this video essay by Errant Signal to explain some phenomena that emerge from how TikTok works, like music being core part of their memes and weird niches that their algorithm can move you to.
I’m nearly 40 but gave it a try not be that old geezer complaining how D&D promotes satanism and found it pretty neat after calibration period. That meant dismissing plenty of videos with teens twerking but now it’s just one of the places I visit to watch videos, among YouTube and Nebula.
Yeah, it probably spies on you, and so do other tech giants. If you think that your data is worth more to CCP than your own government I have a bridge to sell you. And if you believe that for-profit company like Meta won’t sell your data to CCP when TikTok can get away with this then how about one more bridge?
I hear similar things about twitter feeds and algorithm as well, more politicial though.
Difference with Twitter, if you tend to have many discussions with people/posts you disagree with, the algorithm will tailor your feed to have more of those you disagree with.
I avoid algorithmic feeds on Twitter and Facebook because of that exact reason, it was just pure outrage bait and run of the mill entertainment I had no interest in. I use both with chronological feed because they still have their uses - Twitter for following war in Ukraine and Facebook for some niche groups and local events.
What interested me in TikTok initially was that their algorithm supposedly didn’t suck. It’s pretty subjective but I think it learned my interests very quickly and now keeps me in that warm outrage-free bubble. It’s also pretty obvious that it tries to switch up things every now and then, for example sometimes it shows very obscure videos with barely any views, other times you get pulled into a string of gypsy weddings (and comment section shows you’re as confused as others). Ultimately it’s quite fun and harmless if used in moderation.
Always interestings to know how other social media works!
TikTok is pretty interesting due to how different it is from other video platforms and there are loads of new forms of interaction that it enabled. Even if you’re not interested in using it I can recommend this video essay by Errant Signal to explain some phenomena that emerge from how TikTok works, like music being core part of their memes and weird niches that their algorithm can move you to.
I’m nearly 40 but gave it a try not be that old geezer complaining how D&D promotes satanism and found it pretty neat after calibration period. That meant dismissing plenty of videos with teens twerking but now it’s just one of the places I visit to watch videos, among YouTube and Nebula.
Yeah, it probably spies on you, and so do other tech giants. If you think that your data is worth more to CCP than your own government I have a bridge to sell you. And if you believe that for-profit company like Meta won’t sell your data to CCP when TikTok can get away with this then how about one more bridge?
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
this video essay by Errant Signal
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Thank you for explaining and for the link!
I hear similar things about twitter feeds and algorithm as well, more politicial though.
Difference with Twitter, if you tend to have many discussions with people/posts you disagree with, the algorithm will tailor your feed to have more of those you disagree with.
I avoid algorithmic feeds on Twitter and Facebook because of that exact reason, it was just pure outrage bait and run of the mill entertainment I had no interest in. I use both with chronological feed because they still have their uses - Twitter for following war in Ukraine and Facebook for some niche groups and local events.
What interested me in TikTok initially was that their algorithm supposedly didn’t suck. It’s pretty subjective but I think it learned my interests very quickly and now keeps me in that warm outrage-free bubble. It’s also pretty obvious that it tries to switch up things every now and then, for example sometimes it shows very obscure videos with barely any views, other times you get pulled into a string of gypsy weddings (and comment section shows you’re as confused as others). Ultimately it’s quite fun and harmless if used in moderation.
Thanks for the further explaination on the diferences and uses of social media!