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TikTok’s Poison Pill

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Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#201

Post by cinntaile »

root_axis wrote: post #173
lghh wrote: 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…

It's just a video app, exercise some self-discipline and self-accountability and uninstall the app.

Imagine something you have struggled with for a very long time. Now apply (the spirit of) your reply. Good luck, I hope it helps!

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#202

Post by _fat_santa »

lghh wrote: 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…

TikTok is an interesting case because on the one hand they have some fantastic content, cooking videos, explainers, etc. On the other hand how that content is delivered is absolute garbage (from the POV of sucking out attention).

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#203

Post by hiq »

system16 wrote: post #197
Sparkle-san wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They clearly did uninstall it but "use some some-discipline" is pretty disingenuous given companies are abusing biological mechanisms to get people hooked on their apps. This is especially true for teenagers who are underdeveloped in the self-discipline department.

Replace TikTok with food, porn, or drugs. At some point the individual has to take responsibility for their actions and seek support if it's something they can't do on their own. Or we just ban everything.

I'm not sure what your point is, we do ban some of these (with various successes and failures), so why wouldn't we do the same for social media?

Yes we shouldn't ban everything, but there's a large spectrum of acceptable regulations with different tradeoffs and it's fine to discuss what your society wants in that regard instead of precluding any kind of regulation.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#204

Post by mal-2 »

jrm4 wrote: post #184

Broadly, it's fascinating that I think we've definitively moved out of the age of "social media theory" (what might this new form of media do) into "experimentation and iteration" (in which we are absolutely the guinea pigs, but at least for now we mostly know it?") TikTok is especially a wildly mixed bag for me. I fully acknowledge that its manipulation of attention is disgusting and the data it holds is wildly dang…

This is the real reason behind the FUD in my opinion. Despite all these articles presenting TikTok content as vapid and mindless time wasting, in my experience it's been the opposite. TikTok is full of authentic policial commentary, anti-racist education, historical analysis, and anti-capitalist content. It's doing a lot to give people a voice who otherwise haven't been well-represented on other platforms. It's a big reason why Reels has been a failure imo, there's just not any important conversations happening there. Gen Z is not being given enough credit, they're not just addicted scrollers, they're using a better platform to organize and share culture more effectively.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#205

Post by SinParadise »

raverbashing wrote: post #194
jrm4 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great if you're able to do that easily. Please understand that some of the most brilliant minds in the world get up in the morning usually somewhere in California, and work many hours in the day, and their literal job is to figure out how to subvert this.

reminds me that "the greatest minds at 1600 Amphitheater Parkway" made it harder to open your list of apps on Play Store but never mind Open the list, select 'TikTok' and click 'Uninstall' This is not to be demeaning. But if you're having too much trouble disconnecting from it, then that should be the way. You can still see videos in a browser.

this is the personal responsibility or bootstraps argument in a poorly made sheep's clothing.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#206

Post by [deleted] »

amerkhalid wrote: post #188
lghh wrote: 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…

As an ex-smoker, I never felt any anger towards cigarette companies. Only anger I felt was towards government regulations like banning smoking indoors or high taxes on cigarettes. Also felt a bit annoyed with society judging the smokers. Even when I was trying to quit, I didn't blame cigarette companies. Now in retrospect, I am glad that those regulations, taxes, and judgmental stares slowly nudged me towards quittin…

[deleted]

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#207

Post by smoldesu »

amerkhalid wrote: post #188
lghh wrote: 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…

As an ex-smoker, I never felt any anger towards cigarette companies. Only anger I felt was towards government regulations like banning smoking indoors or high taxes on cigarettes. Also felt a bit annoyed with society judging the smokers. Even when I was trying to quit, I didn't blame cigarette companies. Now in retrospect, I am glad that those regulations, taxes, and judgmental stares slowly nudged me towards quittin…

Perhaps the real culprits are the digital "gas stations" that make money hand-over-fist with TikTok's engagement loop. Apple, Google, and to an extent, Microsoft are all complicit in letting people make addictive experiences that promote their respective platforms. Much like the gas station, the smartphone is ubiquitous. Everyone passes by the TikTok aisle on their way to texting their mom or Googling a pie recipe, rich or poor. Worse yet, the guilt they feel for their addiction causes people to hide it. Nobody wants to address it, they just want to scroll their For You Page, enveloped in the comfort of homogeneous content. I normally don't glean empathy from people who make bad choices, but social media just makes me sad.

I think, ultimately, the only solution will be stripping platform owners of their power. Google and Apple have both undeniably abused their market position to promote harmful content and shelter the problems that TikTok causes. We'll either die in the shackles of our own corporations, or live long enough to watch them topple over.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#208

Post by dislikedtom »

lghh wrote: 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 find it hard to try to blame the cigarette (or any) companies in a world where maximizing money is encouraged. Don't hate the player, hate the game. I'm not trying to justify anything, but there would be another tiktok instantly exploiting the opportunity if tiktok would vanish.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#209

Post by cylon13 »

puppymaster wrote: post #171
nonrandomstring wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just make one rule for all. This is the correct solution of winning the moral high ground. What Russia has been doing for several decades (see Yuri Bezmenov [1]) is leveraging the "west's" inner discontent. Every time a Watergate or Snowden happens it's a gift to them. It exposes our 'hypocrisy', and failure to live up to our own democratic standards. That fuels the narrative of the western nations as corrupt. We'r…

while many struggles with the mental gymnastic, for me it has always been clear-cut. Government might be bad, and if they did bad, can we criticize it? Did any harm come to Joseph Gordon-Levitt or Adam Driver for portraying real life events depicting US government in lesser light? Can the same be said to Fan Bing Bing if she is to portray Li Wenliang in a movie? Or Viktor Bychkov playing Navalny in some sort of biopi…

I want more freedoms than just the ability to complain about not having freedom though.

Re: TikTok’s Poison Pill

#210

Post by JasserInicide »

nixcraft wrote: post #5

There is lots of talk going around TikTok, especially now geopolitics has been added to this kind of discussion due to ongoing tensions between two giants. Instead of banning or removing the TikTok app, how about the US government put a firm privacy policy that forbids TikTok, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter and co from collecting excessive data on users? That would be a better solution, IMHO. Let users download…

from collecting excessive data on users

Nothing's going to happen for at least a generation. Boomers/Gen Xers in power need to die off, they don't/refuse to understand the Internet.

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