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TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

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Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#261

Post by asdff »

nbardy wrote: post #49
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First there was text, both Facebook and Twitter. Then images with instagram. Now people want videos that they can consume in short bits of time en mass. What you are describing is the continued fall to smaller and smaller bits of stimulation and information. I’m worried about the consequences of this on the human mind and humanity in general. Our tech is gradually eroding our ability to focus on anything for more t…

At the same time we have the rise of long form podcasts. Producing quite the opposite effect.

Podcasts that many people have playing constantly. In the car or on the train. In the elevator. At work. In the bathroom. At the store. At home. For many people, it's mindless banter they put on in the background while doing other tasks. Youtube, but you can use your eyes.

But when do you get a free thought that's entirely your own? Just a moment when someone or something isn't barking at you to listen to this or buy that. I at least can't think clearly about something else if someone is reciting a story to me. Scary when most podcasts also have advertising, so you are getting a subconscious dose of that during all your waking hours.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#262

Post by dang »

akfanta wrote: post #229
oarabbus_ wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You are being downvoted because you are talking nonsense. > Reddit is overrun with pro-PRC shills and trolls I challenge you to link one example in any popular post. My experience is that if you dare to say anything remotely pro-China, you will get downvoted to oblivion.

Please don't respond to a bad comment by breaking the site guidelines yourself. That only makes this place even worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#263

Post by asdff »

m_ke wrote: post #58
nbardy wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the same time we have the rise of long form podcasts. Producing quite the opposite effect.

90% of podcasts these days are just people rambling on without much thought while trying to sell you something. I have a feeling that most people who listen to podcasts do so for background noise, as a way inject some dopamine into their boring commute or routine chores. I used to listen to podcasts a ton but switched to listening to lectures or conference talks.

I'm not sure why you've picked up downvotes, it's exactly right. Most podcasts, just like youtube videos, have matured to specific lengths optimized for interspersed advertising opportunities.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#264

Post by asdff »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #255
RandallBrown wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Videos encode way more information than a snippet of text. If anything, social media is moving the opposite way, where people are requiring more stimulation and information.

More information, at least in the information-theory sense, but much less knowledge. I.e. videos are much less efficient than text, or even static pictures. Take a second of the most insightful video you can find, and in the same space, you could easily cram an entire textbook on the same topic, complete with high-resolution images.

Just pulling a transcript of a given video, timing your reading, and comparing it to the length of the video would make this evident. And that's if the information delivery is perfectly optimized, which in most cases it's not. Compare 1hr of CNN to a 1hr college political science lecture, for example.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#265

Post by dang »

themagician wrote: post #87
komali2 wrote: post #51

Aight, conspiracy theory time. I'm becoming concerned about PRC influence in my country (USA). From my perspective the PRC (government) is blatantly evil, and happily engaging in cultural warfare, and nobody seems to be fighting back. I see absurd astroturfing and shilling on social media here (Reddit, Twitter, Facebook). It's always obvious - whereas a genuine criticizer of the Hong Kong protestors might ask about v…

Why is the PRC evil?

Please don't take HN threads on flamewar tangents. Nothing good can come of this.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#267

Post by Nagyman »

dxl32 wrote: post #202

Here's my writeup on why TikTok is doing so well: https://www.danielxli.com/posts/why-im-obsessed-with-tiktok

I enjoyed this, thanks!

I think they also nailed the music aspect of content creation. Whereas other platforms are actively hostile to users using unlicensed audio, TT licenses popular music which saves a boatload of effort on the content creation side and just makes it all more compelling to watch. Contrast that with takedown notices and little support for including sound at all.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#268

Post by jzymbaluk »

authoritarian wrote: post #256
parliament32 wrote: post #146

The metrics make sense: as a user of both platforms, I'm spending far more time on TT these days than IG. My biggest gripe is Instagram is absolutely filled with ads: you get ads in between stories, ads in between posts, then a good portion of actual posts are "sponsored" (so ads from the posters themselves)... it's just a really bad mire of advertising and people trying to sell me stuff. Meanwhile TikTok is still fa…

In the past I used IG to interact with people from niche communities (primarily aquarium related) but I left both because it was acquired by Facebook and I was seeing the huge increase of ads and sponsored posts/accounts as you describe. From what I've seen of tik tok it seems it's mostly young kids and teenagers lip syncing music, dancing, and doing comedy sketches. Are there communities in tik tok where people from…

>Are there communities in tik tok where people from niche hobbies can share information and communicate? If I could join and find other serious aquarium hobbyists, for example, I may actually consider giving tik tok a try but I was under the impression that doesn't really exist or fit the use case for the app

Tik Tok doesn't have formal interest groups the way that reddit has subreddits, but there are definitely niche communities that congregate around hash tags. The big ones include visual and audio artists, and there are big pet communities there too. I haven't seen aquarium enthusiasts (mostly because that's not my niche), but I'm sure they're out there. Tik Tok is in the middle of a huge ferret craze because of this cute video of a dancing ferret [1] for example.

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QGVytQMUmE

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#269

Post by _s4uu »

neonate wrote: post #227
kp98 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not an obvious example of 50 cent army; in fact you're unlikely to find anything that you can incontrovertibly call the CCP. This was an example of Chinese nationalism in general. I watch a ton of US China trade war stuff, the closest thing I could give you to an example of what legitimately appears to be a state actor was triggered by something like this: 'yeah China might be good but gdp per capita america…

You said "The level of infiltration of the 50 cent army on YouTube is absurd" and gave an example which you now say "is not an obvious example of 50 cent army". If the infiltration level is absurd, and you and your friend have been analyzing it for a long time, why not give a clear example in the first place?

Sorry you are right, I refer to the 50 cent army as Chinese nationalists in general. Given that there is no way to literally verify, to me it’s all the same. My definition would be closer to “those who go out of the way to champion the ccp party line.” For example, going on a multi paragraph rant about the glories of the chinese communist party, or complete non sequiters.

So yes by absurd infiltration I’m talking about Chinese nationalists in general. Why not give a clear example? Because there is no verification of identity on YouTube or any social media

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#270

Post by mgbmtl »

dang wrote: post #226
mgbmtl wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Canadian, random examples: Indifference to violence, hypocrisy on nudity, monetizing privacy (no respect for privacy), monetizing medical care. (I don't mean to start a flame war, but they are topics where EU and Canada tend to disagree with major US trends)

Please don't take HN threads further into nationalistic flamewar. This is insanely off topic and can't end well. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

sorry :)
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