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TikTok’s Poison Pill

calnewport.com

161–170 of 430 posts

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#161

I do hate the equivocating between Tiktok and other social media services. (eg: "Well, isn't TikTok just as bad as what Facebook is doing?") But that said, the use of the term "poison pill" is excellent, and something that I've been using to describe modern tech in general. It'd be wrong to say that Google maps is "bad." Really, it's incredibly convenient. But it's got a poison pill: it tracks you obsessively, it can…

You can still use the ways of the past (paper maps, etc).

The fact that we don't, show we think the new ways are, on balance, better.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#162
post #153

TikTok makes me incredibly angry and I need to vent about it somewhere so I am going to vent about it here. I have ADHD. TikTok is almost certainly designed in a way to directly exploit that fact. It really makes me angry. It feels like they are making a real attempt to take my agency away and to create a product that triggers me so viscerally that I can't keep away from it. I feel like I am intentionally being taken…

You could have left the ADHD part out of your comment and your argument would stand just as true.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#163
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

>Nestle Pure Life? According to google "Nestlé Pure Life is a brand of bottled water". What's so morally bankrupt about selling bottled water?

Not sure what the GP was referring to, but...

There are some serious concerns about bottled water in the US, particularly with how the manufacturers (like Nestlé) often get the water for free or at preferential rates, then sell it with a huge markup, and how some of it is (from what I've read) sourced from places like California, which need the water very badly.

There are also very serious concerns about Nestlé in particular as a company; the big one I always remember (because it's been going on basically as long as I've been alive) is how they aggressively push baby formula on mothers in developing countries despite knowing that the water in their area (needed to reconstitute the formula) is unsafe to drink. There are a number of other problems with their business practices, but I don't recall what they are off the top of my head.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#164
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, as an European it almost feels nice to diversify, so US agencies&companies don't know everything about me..

In this situation the diversification means also the CCP will know everything about you.

Yes, but in the last 20 years, US has actually invaded foreign countries (Afganistan, Iraq and Lybia), while PRC is only threatening to invade Taiwan.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#165

I do hate the equivocating between Tiktok and other social media services. (eg: "Well, isn't TikTok just as bad as what Facebook is doing?") But that said, the use of the term "poison pill" is excellent, and something that I've been using to describe modern tech in general. It'd be wrong to say that Google maps is "bad." Really, it's incredibly convenient. But it's got a poison pill: it tracks you obsessively, it can…

You can still use the ways of the past (paper maps, etc). The fact that we don't, show we think the new ways are, on balance, better.

Maybe so, but I think a sugar/calorie analogy is useful here.

"The fact that we [on average prefer unhealthy foods], show we think the new ways are, on balance, better."

We might think so, but our preferences are often short-sighted and destructive.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#166
post #153

TikTok makes me incredibly angry and I need to vent about it somewhere so I am going to vent about it here. I have ADHD. TikTok is almost certainly designed in a way to directly exploit that fact. It really makes me angry. It feels like they are making a real attempt to take my agency away and to create a product that triggers me so viscerally that I can't keep away from it. I feel like I am intentionally being taken…

I installed it for one day, then I removed it. Came back a few days later, then I removed it again, And I've been in this (vicious) cycle for a while now. Whenever boredom hits, something in me thinks of TikTok. It's impressive. Never had that feeling with other platforms, not even Reddit. To fight TikTok, i'm trying a different approach, getting to know what my bored self really wants and feed it something else.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It exposes our 'hypocrisy', and failure to live up to our own democratic standards. That fuels the narrative of the western nations as corrupt. I don't know why though. It should be clear by now that nobody in the west cares about hypocrisy, democracy, standards or corruption.

I care.

I do too, but statistically we are "nobody".

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#168
post #153

TikTok makes me incredibly angry and I need to vent about it somewhere so I am going to vent about it here. I have ADHD. TikTok is almost certainly designed in a way to directly exploit that fact. It really makes me angry. It feels like they are making a real attempt to take my agency away and to create a product that triggers me so viscerally that I can't keep away from it. I feel like I am intentionally being taken…

Yeah but to be fair the internet has been like this for awhile now. TikTok just takes what the internet offers and gives you a respective hit of dopamine or adrenaline to persuade you to swipe more.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#169

I do hate the equivocating between Tiktok and other social media services. (eg: "Well, isn't TikTok just as bad as what Facebook is doing?") But that said, the use of the term "poison pill" is excellent, and something that I've been using to describe modern tech in general. It'd be wrong to say that Google maps is "bad." Really, it's incredibly convenient. But it's got a poison pill: it tracks you obsessively, it can…

You can still use the ways of the past (paper maps, etc). The fact that we don't, show we think the new ways are, on balance, better.

I don't think anyone's arguing that the new ways are better. However, it's not clear that we're going in the right direction and instead we're stuck in a local maximum. Maybe if we took a step back and had mapping provided as an open source service with offline maps then we wouldn't have the current problems with Google Maps (real-time traffic data can be queried anonymously). Or maybe if we designed streets that were easier to navigate we wouldn't need maps in the first place.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#170
post #153

TikTok makes me incredibly angry and I need to vent about it somewhere so I am going to vent about it here. I have ADHD. TikTok is almost certainly designed in a way to directly exploit that fact. It really makes me angry. It feels like they are making a real attempt to take my agency away and to create a product that triggers me so viscerally that I can't keep away from it. I feel like I am intentionally being taken…

Or how people with body image issues feel about instagram? Or how people with social injustice fixations feel about facebook? Or how people with porn addictions feel about pornhub?

These platforms are clearly utilizing super-normal stimuli to overwhelm our brains and elicit addiction-like behavior. Is that legal? Yes. Is that moral? Hell no.

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