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TikTok and the Fall of the Social-Media Giants

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Re: TikTok and the Fall of the Social-Media Giants

#71

Post by ivanche »

askafriend wrote: post #36
timeimp wrote: post #19

I've heard (anecdotally) that the attention span of all the younger users has taken a dramatic shift south. Educators and employers are noticing they cannot keep students / new employees engaged. Makes me wonder what damage is happening, long-term, with all these short bursts of dopamine that TikTok gives it users.

Why default to blaming the students/employees? The educational system and employers have a responsibility to be engaging and enriching if they want interest and passion back from their students/employees. I'm not saying there's no problem with overconsumption of cheap media. But I think we're too quick to jump to blaming individuals. We can just as much flip the question around and ask what educators and employers ar…

Not every one, and maybe not even majority, of our actions can be "engaging" and "motivated". When you finish the school and start working, don't expect that all work will be engaging or that someone exists in the company to motivate you. Probably nobody is engaged while doing grocery shopping or running errands. Deep work? It is _not_ fun, trust me, but often very rewarding _in the end_.

Re: TikTok and the Fall of the Social-Media Giants

#72

Post by mrex »

Ekaros wrote: post #67
zarzavat wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok doesn't just show inane dance videos in America. It shows them throughout the world. If China had some evil plan to poison the minds of youth they are not just targeting American kids. In reality, Hanlon's razor applies. It's better explained by apathy rather than an evil masterplan. China simply doesn't care about non-Chinese kids, they consider that the American government is responsible for American kids' w…

In someways China is ultra-capitalistic. They will sell what people want. And it seems that many people want to see dancing teenagers. Maybe China isn't doing anything. They just allow a company to deliver exactly what people want and people eagerly lap it all up.

>In someways China is ultra-capitalistic. They will sell what people want.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Pornography, anything deemed prurient by the government, anything deemed corrosive to social values, even trivial things like the depiction of zombies and ghosts in media, is strictly controlled by the communist government of China without respect for corporate profits.

Re: TikTok and the Fall of the Social-Media Giants

#73

Post by stackbutterflow »

fragmede wrote: post #56
zarzavat wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok doesn't just show inane dance videos in America. It shows them throughout the world. If China had some evil plan to poison the minds of youth they are not just targeting American kids. In reality, Hanlon's razor applies. It's better explained by apathy rather than an evil masterplan. China simply doesn't care about non-Chinese kids, they consider that the American government is responsible for American kids' w…

When an APT like China is concerned (or, eg the CIA), you'd be foolish to wantonly apply Hanlon's razor. I'm not saying it never applies, but some of the lengths nations go to in order to gain an advantage over their adversaries is astounding. Think NSO iPhone hack†. It's been documented that the CCP requires a party member be allowed to see into the company's private business dealings, or else face the same fate as…

What's an APT?

Re: TikTok and the Fall of the Social-Media Giants

#74

Post by bobsil1 »

timeimp wrote: post #19

I've heard (anecdotally) that the attention span of all the younger users has taken a dramatic shift south. Educators and employers are noticing they cannot keep students / new employees engaged. Makes me wonder what damage is happening, long-term, with all these short bursts of dopamine that TikTok gives it users.

They probably said this about paperbacks.

Re: TikTok and the Fall of the Social-Media Giants

#76

Post by throw_m239339 »

askafriend wrote: post #36
timeimp wrote: post #19

I've heard (anecdotally) that the attention span of all the younger users has taken a dramatic shift south. Educators and employers are noticing they cannot keep students / new employees engaged. Makes me wonder what damage is happening, long-term, with all these short bursts of dopamine that TikTok gives it users.

Why default to blaming the students/employees? The educational system and employers have a responsibility to be engaging and enriching if they want interest and passion back from their students/employees. I'm not saying there's no problem with overconsumption of cheap media. But I think we're too quick to jump to blaming individuals. We can just as much flip the question around and ask what educators and employers ar…

> The educational system and employers have a responsibility to be engaging and enriching if they want interest and passion back from their students/employees.

I disagree. A business isn't a summer camp or a YMCA, and while schools should obviously help a student to find their own way, it also exists to instruct without the teacher being required to act like a tik tok influencer in front of a class of 30+ students.

What with the constant infantilization of employees or students in US? My boss or my teacher aren't there to entertain me like I'm in a daycare.

Re: TikTok and the Fall of the Social-Media Giants

#77

Post by captainmuon »

Modern social media leaves a very big gap - that was filled by old Facebook, or to some extent MySpace: The "people directory" where basically everybody has a page, and you can see what friends are doing, or look up acquaintances and strangers. For me, social media feeds were never addicting, but more tedious. I found visiting friends pages and sometimes finding an update, sometimes not, like a slot machine, more addicting. And there was a whole culture around what it meant if you saw somebody (a crush?) visiting your profile, sending a "poke", or commenting on a picture.

I think it would be hard to start something like this again, because people are afraid of data collection now in a way they weren't in 2006. And this narrative that big companies are sucking up data and ruining society was pushed by "old" media in a struggle to remain relevant, and I believe it was also not inconvinient for FB as they moved from home pages and Farmville to newsfeeds and now videos (which probably earns them more).

Maybe a Mastodon-derivative which deemphasizes the feed, but lets you design your personal page more creatively would be a cool thing.

Re: TikTok and the Fall of the Social-Media Giants

#78

Post by dr_dshiv »

captainmuon wrote: post #77

Modern social media leaves a very big gap - that was filled by old Facebook, or to some extent MySpace: The "people directory" where basically everybody has a page, and you can see what friends are doing, or look up acquaintances and strangers. For me, social media feeds were never addicting, but more tedious. I found visiting friends pages and sometimes finding an update, sometimes not, like a slot machine, more add…

“Once the FOAF standard gets adopted, blogs will take over Facebook!” 2006

Re: TikTok and the Fall of the Social-Media Giants

#80

Post by treyfitty »

throw_m239339 wrote: post #76
askafriend wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why default to blaming the students/employees? The educational system and employers have a responsibility to be engaging and enriching if they want interest and passion back from their students/employees. I'm not saying there's no problem with overconsumption of cheap media. But I think we're too quick to jump to blaming individuals. We can just as much flip the question around and ask what educators and employers ar…

> The educational system and employers have a responsibility to be engaging and enriching if they want interest and passion back from their students/employees. I disagree. A business isn't a summer camp or a YMCA, and while schools should obviously help a student to find their own way, it also exists to instruct without the teacher being required to act like a tik tok influencer in front of a class of 30+ students. W…

I’ve heard people refer to work (half jokingly) as “adult daycare.” At face value, I dismissed it, but if you think about it from a societal perspective, it’s not completely false. Most of us are toiling away so that society keeps running. It’s like being in a fiefdom and our overlords need to supply bread & circus for our pleasure- difference being were being issued tokens to find bread & circuses on our own.
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