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TikTok has reached 1B MAUs

newsroom.tiktok.com

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Re: TikTok has reached 1B MAUs

#51

Post by ausudhz »

daptaq wrote: post #33
jdlyga wrote: post #14

TikTok has definitely become the platform for short form video content. It used to be YouTube, but it's since matured into a place to watch more well produced videos in the 20 minute range. If you haven't given TikTok a chance, try it out.

I'll just relink to my last comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28024747 : > My impression is that TikTok is the most shameless exploiter of curating content to maximize attention. You resign all the control and hope to petition "the algorithm" to change what you get to see -- like some kind of a god that ultimatly controls you, no matter what you sacrifice. They are in a position to spread propaganda and p…

I think this is a generic statement that can be applied to any social media nowadays. I wonder what's the solution?

Re: TikTok has reached 1B MAUs

#52

Post by pupppet »

Ekaros wrote: post #37
pupppet wrote: post #35

Just a little scary a Chinese company is shaping the minds of our youth.

That or USA based one... It's kinda toss up. At least the other one isn't bombing civilians in third countries.

Americans can read about those bombings anywhere. Where do the Chinese go to read about what their government does?

Re: TikTok has reached 1B MAUs

#53

Post by thiagoharry »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #16

Am I the only one who sees it as a problem that US and European companies can't really work on China market, but they leave their markets wide open for Chinese companies? Like, no company is allowed in US/Europe if it does not recognize Taiwan as an independent state? Isn't it how conforming to local rules and regulations should work? UPD: clarification due to people mentioning Mercedes, etc: my comment was mostly di…

> Like, no company is allowed in US/Europe if it does not recognize Taiwan as an independent state?

But not even US or most Europe formally recognizes Taiwan as a country. In Europe only Holy See in Vatican recognizes.

Re: TikTok has reached 1B MAUs

#54

Post by rvz »

Ekaros wrote: post #37
pupppet wrote: post #35

Just a little scary a Chinese company is shaping the minds of our youth.

That or USA based one... It's kinda toss up. At least the other one isn't bombing civilians in third countries.

Let’s hope that we still have the freedom of expression to make dancing videos in Winnie the Pooh costumes in Hong Kong then.

Re: TikTok has reached 1B MAUs

#56

Post by wongarsu »

periphrasis wrote: post #31
jdlyga wrote: post #14

TikTok has definitely become the platform for short form video content. It used to be YouTube, but it's since matured into a place to watch more well produced videos in the 20 minute range. If you haven't given TikTok a chance, try it out.

Why would I want to watch short form video content? Genuinely curious here.

It can convey more information than the stationary images that dominate much of reddit, while taking less effort to consume than text (it's really hard to get people to engage with more than the headline in written content).

TikTok is imho one of the closest approximations of a marketplace of ideas, or a penny-university. Every topic under the sun is talked about (even if TikTok tries to censor a bunch of topics), you have various experts from their fields giving insights into their daily lives (like snippets from the daily life on an arctic base) or short tutorials (how to draw an owl kind of stuff), but also discussions about philosophy or how to deal with daily life (e.g. how to declutter your space if you are depressed, or how to arrange furniture). And unlike e.g. YouTube's recommendation algorithm that makes everything seem bland because it only shows you stuff that's like stuff you already know, TikTok's algorithm keeps exposing you to new things tangentially related to what you watched/liked, so it's more like drifting though an ocean of videos, with new stuff happening all the time.

That said, TikTok should totally be enjoyed in moderation, and there are some places on TikTok you should avoid. If you linger on videos showing teens twerking, you will get more videos of teens twerking; and it's easy to see how that kind of content makes it a worse place for teens specifically (plus the extreme prevalence of filters, so everyone on TikTok looks "better" than their real life version)

Re: TikTok has reached 1B MAUs

#57

Post by rvz »

Jazww wrote: post #26

And god knows how much irreversible brain damage. Well done. Congrats to all.

Let’s come back in a decades time and we will see if they continue to complain about it or if all the cool kids moved on to another shiny new social media toy.

Re: TikTok has reached 1B MAUs

#58

Post by wongarsu »

daptaq wrote: post #33
jdlyga wrote: post #14

TikTok has definitely become the platform for short form video content. It used to be YouTube, but it's since matured into a place to watch more well produced videos in the 20 minute range. If you haven't given TikTok a chance, try it out.

I'll just relink to my last comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28024747 : > My impression is that TikTok is the most shameless exploiter of curating content to maximize attention. You resign all the control and hope to petition "the algorithm" to change what you get to see -- like some kind of a god that ultimatly controls you, no matter what you sacrifice. They are in a position to spread propaganda and p…

Newspapers can spread propaganda or keep information from spreading, or you from being heard.

Yes, everyone using TikTok as their only source of news and entertainment is incredibly bad. But that can be said (and has been said) about almost any source of news or entertainment. We should rather teach us and our children healthy engagement with media, how to avoid addiction and how to make sure we engage with different platforms.

If you don't let any one platform monopolize your attention, having a Chinese platform as counterbalance to all the American platforms seems great. A Chinese platform is unlikely to have the same interests as a US platform, so it's easier to see the bias in either if you consume both.

Re: TikTok has reached 1B MAUs

#60

Post by periphrasis »

wongarsu wrote: post #56
periphrasis wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I want to watch short form video content? Genuinely curious here.

It can convey more information than the stationary images that dominate much of reddit, while taking less effort to consume than text (it's really hard to get people to engage with more than the headline in written content). TikTok is imho one of the closest approximations of a marketplace of ideas, or a penny-university. Every topic under the sun is talked about (even if TikTok tries to censor a bunch of topics), yo…

Sounds like a gigantic attention suck designed to stimulate addiction. Moreover, it’s unclear to me why opening the floodgates to more human expression without any concern for the quality of that expression is desirable. The virtue of social media seemed self evident in 2006 when we had little experience of what it would mean in practice; in 2021 however, I think the premise that megaphoning unfettered expression is inherently good requires justification, particularly given the instability it has introduced at the societal scale and the addictive behavior, poor mental health, and loss of concentration it has often imposed at the individual level.

Individual humans got along just fine for millennia without being able to broadcast the minutia of their thoughts for likes and subscribes: what are we really gaining by suddenly being able to do so in the course of two decades, and is it really worth the trade offs?

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