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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

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally as a zoomer ('98, so I guess that's technically just on the precipice of being a zoomer), I definitely feel like a lot of my friends and colleagues my age have some form of attention deficit disorder, myself included (I've got pretty massive ADHD, but it mostly doesn't affect me other than making me hyper to the point of being annoying to others around me with my constant fidgeting and shifting). It's not…

Two issues may be at play here. Both tech and Medication Madness, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2492547.Medication_Madne... I agree it seems more prevalent in your generation. We are quicker to diagnose with pills, perhaps due to their availability and our lack of understanding about long term effects.

I think this is true in the US (from the stories I've heard/read about at least), I grew up in Southeast Asia though, there isn't much of a culture for over-prescribing (or prescribing anything really :p) people medication there. I've never even been medicated for my ADHD, and only 1 or 2 of my friends have as well and that was well after they turned 18.

I think tech really does have a bigger impact than we'd like to think, and certainly prescribing kids things like Ritalin at young ages when they're naturally a bit hyper definitely doesn't help either.

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

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can both be right. It doesn’t take much for TikTok to show 20% learning content to Chinese people and only 5% to westerners. And no one would know. But I think it’s much worse. TikTok is clearly the goto place now for divisive content on LGBT issues, it’s provoking massive political arguments. And I’m sure this is just scratching the surface. I have no doubt it’s a global sentiment manipulation tool for the CCP.…

Maybe what the CCP believes is bad for us (LGBT rights?) is exactly what we need to move forward? They say divisive content, I say lively political debate. They say stability, I say stagnation. They say decadence, I say liberty. If there is a masterplan to blow up the west with silly music videos, then maybe our society deserves to be blown up and replaced by something freer and stronger?

>If there is a masterplan to blow up the west with silly music videos, then maybe our society deserves to be blown up and replaced by something freer and stronger?

I'd be much more sympathetic to this line of thought if society getting blown up - even if it ultimately results in improvement - didn't usually involve unbelievable amounts of suffering and death.

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

#113
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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You're right, total false equivalence. Plain clothes thugs hired or forced to show up in person, and you can assume plain clothes users are hired or forced to comment online too.

It's how they stay in power, a living army ready to deploy for anything that makes them look bad.

Sure I'd do the same for my country, but the difference is I am not forced to do it. I choose to defend our values while earning a decent living.

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

#114
post #89

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…

We have moved from a people focus to a content focused UX design. TikTok is this in perfection as while "creators" get millions of views, remembering them on scale is hard and following usually doesn't alter the experience much. The reality is that a "people directory" doesn't have the same level of engagement.

The assertion wasn't that that model was somehow better or "more engaging" (as if that even means something is better...): it was that it is essentially now missing as Facebook pivots from being a social network to trying to do this other thing that is competing with their strategy to force people to "engage" more with their friends (which I 100% agree doesn't scale as well as engaging with dedicated creators).

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

#115

Tiktok is a far superior social network compared to Facebook and the others. Good that it is taking over the US.

Yeah, I don't understand all the negativity here. I met one of my friends on TikTok, on a post about an event going on in the city (when I'd just moved). It's much more social than Instagram, etc. IMO.

Oh my God. You met one of your friends on TikTok and that's reason enough to absolve it of any negatives?

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

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two issues may be at play here. Both tech and Medication Madness, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2492547.Medication_Madne... I agree it seems more prevalent in your generation. We are quicker to diagnose with pills, perhaps due to their availability and our lack of understanding about long term effects.

I think this is true in the US (from the stories I've heard/read about at least), I grew up in Southeast Asia though, there isn't much of a culture for over-prescribing (or prescribing anything really :p) people medication there. I've never even been medicated for my ADHD, and only 1 or 2 of my friends have as well and that was well after they turned 18. I think tech really does have a bigger impact than we'd like to…

> I think this is true in the US (from the stories I've heard/read about at least), I grew up in Southeast Asia though, there isn't much of a culture for over-prescribing (or prescribing anything really :p) people medication there.

Yes, in some ways Asia has the opposite problem, not prescribing strong enough meds for emergency situations.

> certainly prescribing kids things like Ritalin at young ages when they're naturally a bit hyper definitely doesn't help either.

Yeah, I don't get this. Kids can't sit in class all day, with two parents working and too tired at home to bring them out after hours. People need exercise for their brains to work.

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

#117
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

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> why you AREN'T afraid of this?

I think the trick is to understand it, and once you realize what your choices are, then it's an easy decision not dictated by fear. That is, you either work towards a future where choice remains, or you concede choice until you have none left.

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

#118

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…

> And this narrative that big companies are sucking up data and ruining society was pushed by "old" media in a struggle to remain relevant

A quick dismissal of the fact that this data collection was and is happening and has already had massive effects on society.

Just because it is in the interest of "old" media to point this out doesn't mean they're wrong.

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

#119
I could never get Twitter. I remember friends being excited by it, but to me it was just adding short text to a page that probably nobody is going to see anyway. Then Instagram - I couldn't get that either. I put my photos up and what? I could do that on a forum with people with common interest. Eventually forums got closed so I realised you can add a # with the topic you photos / videos are about. But this is so limited and there is no guarantee people who are interested in it are actually going to see (because algo won't show them). Then I installed Tik Tok to see what's the fuss about. So it's clearly aimed at people with short attention span. It was entertaining, but you can quickly catch the patterns of a typical Tik Tok video and it becomes boring. Basically the same themes just different people, locations and music. I couldn't watch that. Then Facebook filled the niche of forums with their groups, but this is a dumpster fire - they hide comments, posts are not coming up chronologically and so on. These platforms are not for you to learn anything or enterntain you, they just want your money.

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

#120

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…

As long as people are unwilling to pay for social media the Insta's and Tiktok's will have to make money with ads which leads to data collection.

Make no mistake the very fact that these services are free lead to their popularity.

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