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TikTok Remix Culture

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Re: TikTok Remix Culture

#211

Post by anon_tor_12345 »

eumoria wrote: post #162

The endless praise for TikTok here is very confusing. I don't think it's in bad faith the account age of the commenters all seem normal and the like. I don't have any strong hatred of TikTok myself but usually HN are a privacy concerned skeptical bunch and this is very weird.

yea bytedance has seen slowdown in user growth so they're growth hacking by targeting potential users on... hn.

how about it's a fun app and there are so many shitty apps that that makes it remarkable (worthy of remark)? i know that's why i posted what i posted.

Re: TikTok Remix Culture

#212

Post by bonoboTP »

DanBC wrote: post #156
bonoboTP wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, this thread looks astroturfed. I can't believe the readers of usual HN articles would be so all over Tiktok. All I see on Tiktok is brain damage. Pretty people doing "slipping in banana peels" level humor, weird childish stuff like how to use scissors, "mindblow" recipes that make no sense. Various junk "lifehacks" etc. Its all garbage after scrolling for like 30 minutes. But I'm also not the target demograph…

You can control your tiktok feed. If you make no attempt to control it you get an eclectic mix. If you use the tools that tiktok gives you you'll end up with a curated feed. TikTok is very good at giving you the content you're interested in, if you take a small amount of time to train it.

How much time does it need? How do I even tell the algorithm what to show if nothing comes up that I'd want? All I see is lame pranks, ass, tits, dancing with nipples showing through the clothes, a banana being sucked into a vacuum cleaner, fishing with weird bait, a guy jumping on the conveyor belt to do push-ups at the supermarket checkout, it's all lowest common denominator garbage.

Maybe I could train it better though, because I realize YouTube is also cancer in incognito mode. But honestly I can't imagine 5-10 second snippet videos being worth watching however "good" they may be.

Re: TikTok Remix Culture

#213

Post by gabaix »

defaultname wrote: post #163
dash2 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this invalidates GP's point. Sure, if you don't want the seedy content, you won't see it, but it's still there and that's still a large part of how they make money.

If a site has user contributed content there will usually be the "seedy" content. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit...if it gets big enough, a certain segment will monetize it. Usually as an advertising vehicle for their more overt content on adult sites. It's actually an interesting complaint because TikTok takes a lot of heat for taking down a lot of benign content. "that's still a large part of how they make mo…

I have the opposite impression. I only like niche content about tools and life hacks, but every time seedy content is pushed back into my feed.

It has gotten worse in the past year.

I am actually surprised people see positives about Tik Tok. IMO it has a much worse societal impact than competition.

Re: TikTok Remix Culture

#214

Post by ehsankia »

herpderperator wrote: post #42

I think part of TikTok's success is the fact that they have a public/guest browser platform[0] that doesn't restrict you from seeing content without an account. It means people who wouldn't usually have the mobile app can still be a part of the action, and that may eventually drive them to sign up. It's actually almost unbelievable that you can browse endlessly and never once be prompted to sign up unless you try to…

That definitely plays a role, but I think the much bigger factor is how it lets anyone download & share the video file (at least by default, which most don't change). These days, half of reddit, twitter and discord is just filled with TikTok videos. Even Reels and Shorts are full of TikTok videos, you can tell by the watermark. So much so that Reels had to forcefully derank videos with the TikTok watermark on them.

This has helped Tiktok spread and grow very quickly. Hell the very link on this post is from Twitter and has almost 100k retweets...

Re: TikTok Remix Culture

#215

Post by ehsankia »

mseepgood wrote: post #73
buryat wrote: post #60

I have never seen so many to say "average" people on tiktok like on any other social platform, in a sense that I can relate to those people and don't feel like a celebrity is trying to feed me some content down my throat. There's so much of normalization of everything that I'm blown away by how normal Tiktok is, you can see teenagers struggling in a school, you can see people hating their 9-5 jobs, you can see crafts…

> I have never seen so many to say "average" people on tiktok like on any other social platform, in a sense that I can relate to those people and don't feel like a celebrity is trying to feed me some content down my throat. Youtube was like that before ads and monetization were introduced.

Absolutely, I keep saying this, but TikTok reminds me of early Youtube, pre-monetization. The random homemade videos going viral, people not trying too hard, or trying to hyperoptimize every second of the video.

I know it won't last, but I am enjoying it while it lasts.

Re: TikTok Remix Culture

#216

Post by ehsankia »

Graffur wrote: post #119
buryat wrote: post #60

I have never seen so many to say "average" people on tiktok like on any other social platform, in a sense that I can relate to those people and don't feel like a celebrity is trying to feed me some content down my throat. There's so much of normalization of everything that I'm blown away by how normal Tiktok is, you can see teenagers struggling in a school, you can see people hating their 9-5 jobs, you can see crafts…

Tiktok is full of girls dancing with very little or very tight clothes on for likes and attention. It's really seedy. There's subreddits dedicated to posting about these accounts. On top of that it is designed to be addicting for the sake of addiction. It doesnt matter what the video is about once it will keep the user on the app. The algorithm will work out the perfect way for each person to be sucked in. We all kno…

> Tiktok is full of girls dancing with very little or very tight clothes on for likes and attention

Said every single person who has never tried TikTok and forms their entire opinion based on things they read on online and a few subreddits dedicated to posting very specific kind of content.

Re: TikTok Remix Culture

#217

Post by ehsankia »

akkawwakka wrote: post #71
buryat wrote: post #60

I have never seen so many to say "average" people on tiktok like on any other social platform, in a sense that I can relate to those people and don't feel like a celebrity is trying to feed me some content down my throat. There's so much of normalization of everything that I'm blown away by how normal Tiktok is, you can see teenagers struggling in a school, you can see people hating their 9-5 jobs, you can see crafts…

It’s definitely a pro-social, social platform. It shows that you don’t have to rely on polarizing or adversarial content to drive engagement (_ cough , like Facebook & Twitter cough )

Eh, it still exists. I have gotten in a few cohorts that were quite toxic, especially near the election. There's still quite a lot of vaccine/mask vs anti-vaccine/mask content, and you general political crap. It's easy to get off of those, the dislike button is definitely your friend, but if you don't have the willpower and self-control I do think you can fall into the same rabbit holes as Youtube or any other platform.

Re: TikTok Remix Culture

#218

Post by [deleted] »

dang wrote: post #210
mrtksn wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very appreciative for the elaborative answer. The lack of it on some platforms that rely on AI or scripted moderation a bit too much is one of my grievances, so a human who reads reasons and provides answers is nothing short of admirable. Thank you so much for the human touch and care in moderation. I think I get your point but my writing style often includes some degree of provocation to elevate feelings for mor…

I feel like I understand your answer from within, because it's similar to how I looked at commenting in years past. I've written about that before: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... (the earliest of those posts was one month after I became public as HN mod). The problem is that you're only referring to what's going on inside yourself—that is, your ideas about debate, provocation, livelin…

[deleted]

Re: TikTok Remix Culture

#219

Post by ehsankia »

syoc wrote: post #110
buryat wrote: post #60

I have never seen so many to say "average" people on tiktok like on any other social platform, in a sense that I can relate to those people and don't feel like a celebrity is trying to feed me some content down my throat. There's so much of normalization of everything that I'm blown away by how normal Tiktok is, you can see teenagers struggling in a school, you can see people hating their 9-5 jobs, you can see crafts…

I don't use TikTok myself but I guess you see what you want to see. Kinda hard to make general statements about content on a platform that is built around curating to individual tastes. I would be surprised if people more interested in celebrities and rich people would not be able to get an endless stream of "professional influencer" content on TikTok as well.

This is true for every platform. I always find it strange when people complain their Twitter feed is toxic, when they have quite a lot of control over who's on there or not. Admittedly I use Tweetdeck which is less algorithmic, but still. I think even default twitter lets you block retweets from certain people you follow?

Re: TikTok Remix Culture

#220

Post by ehsankia »

hellbanTHIS wrote: post #152
mujina93 wrote: post #89

Basically every comment here says positive things about tiktok. Is this a bot invasion on HN or is it really that good? The few times I tried it it gave me loads of crappy content. No thank you, I'm not in for another doom scrolling addiction. The world has already enough addictive dopamine-f**ing time-sucker almost contentless social medias. I don't have the energies to fight against or maniacally curate my feed for…

No I think these people are either being paid or are smoking crack, I haven’t used it much but when I have all (edit: “much of”, not all obviously) I’ve seen is soft-core porn and white nationalist or men’s rights propaganda. It’s actually really awful. Even the soft core porn made me disgusted with humanity because of the terrible music. Someone will probably pop in and say “oh you have to let it learn what you like…

You haven't used it much yet you somehow in your very short experience know everyone's experience with it and anyone who has had a different experience must be paid or on drugs? I hope you realize how bad that sounds...
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