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TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack

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Re: TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack

#12

Maybe it's because I haven't used it, but a lot of the language around TikTok feels exceptional in ways that aren't justified: Twitter has (tens of?) millions of "terminally online" users, but we don't compare it to "digital crack." This isn't to say that TikTok isn't addictive; it clearly is. But I think there are strong recency (it's the New Thing) and exoticism (it's a weird Chinese app) biases in how we talk abou…

Maybe, but TikTok is an order of magnitude above other social media apps when it comes to learning what you like. It’s both scary and extremely impressive. Twitter on the other hand seems to promote monoculture, and tends to push you towards what everyone else likes. It essentially pushes whatever is popular. Some of the most interesting content and users on Twitter are shadow banned, either intentionally or through…

Certainly. I had a friend (and TikTok user) describe it as the "Monsters Inc. effect": TikTok is showing that you really can win engagement with honey instead of vinegar, at least in the context of all other social media providing constant negativity.

Re: TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack

#13

Maybe it's because I haven't used it, but a lot of the language around TikTok feels exceptional in ways that aren't justified: Twitter has (tens of?) millions of "terminally online" users, but we don't compare it to "digital crack." This isn't to say that TikTok isn't addictive; it clearly is. But I think there are strong recency (it's the New Thing) and exoticism (it's a weird Chinese app) biases in how we talk abou…

Maybe people are using different language to describe it for a reason? Try it and develop your own informed opinion.

Re: TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack

#14
I gave it a shot last night and selected three topics: Comedy, Pets, Science and Technology. It gave me a lot of garbage.

Maybe it requires much more frequent use than the 10 minutes I gave it, or it somehow infers a good jumping off point. I feel like there's something I'm not seeing, or maybe I'm just too old?

Re: TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack

#15
post #14

I gave it a shot last night and selected three topics: Comedy, Pets, Science and Technology. It gave me a lot of garbage. Maybe it requires much more frequent use than the 10 minutes I gave it, or it somehow infers a good jumping off point. I feel like there's something I'm not seeing, or maybe I'm just too old?

It takes more than 10 minutes

Re: TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack

#16
"If people have the right to be tempted - and that's what free will is all about - the market is going to respond by supplying as much temptation as can be sold." - Eliezer Yudkowsky, LessWrong, "Superstimuli and the Collapse of Western Civilization, March 2007

https://www.lesswrong.com/s/MH2b8NfWv22dBtrs8/p/Jq73Gozjsuhd...

Re: TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack

#17
tiktok has great features that make its content more addicting to return to than any other platform:

- it’s all video means it’s higher quality than an image

- every video is guaranteed views which lets anyone go viral

- when anyone can go viral you get more organic content. depends on your patterns but i think most people see majority videos by regular people. the content is much more relatable

- no need to follow

- algorithm is good at finding videos you will like

- keeps you up to date on latest trends (improves your social perception)

- easy to make videos. great editor, pick any music

and you can just scroll down forever. i had it about a year but recently deleted it. it was the ultimate time filler. and honestly too good

Re: TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack

#18
No wonder Facebook is spooked. They tried to get it banned in the US so as to buy some time, but it didn't work. I actually think Facebook would have banned the previous guy earlier but Peter Theil probably promised he could get TikTok banned in the US. When they couldn't deliver the TikTok ban, facebook didn't need him anymore.

Re: TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack

#19

tiktok has great features that make its content more addicting to return to than any other platform: - it’s all video means it’s higher quality than an image - every video is guaranteed views which lets anyone go viral - when anyone can go viral you get more organic content. depends on your patterns but i think most people see majority videos by regular people. the content is much more relatable - no need to follow -…

This is a great insight. I think this might mean tiktok may have in some sense found some alternative to the "winner-takes-all" dynamic we tend to see in social media, like twitter.

Re: TikTok is scary good. It's digital crack

#20
Maybe it's me but tiktok content is boring to me. Videos too short to care. Finding videos by your keyword is difficult. The camera angles are too zoomed and the thin width and increased height creates ugly looking videos. The videos themselves are people picking an action or movement and isolating it for effect.

I wonder how many others haven't been bite by the tiktok bug.

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