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TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

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Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#171

Post by somenameforme »

roguesherlock wrote: post #111
somenameforme wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This claim is regularly repeated, but strongly and directly contradicted by literally every study on the topic. Here [1] is one from Pew in late 2019. 81% of Americans believe the potential risks of companies collecting about them outweighs and benefits. 79% are very/somewhat concerned about how the data collected on them is used. The big issue 81% also believe that little or no control over the data collection. Inte…

I hear you. It’s just that the rise of TikTok contradicts all the survey results. I.e. I don’t see their sentiments reflect in their actions. I mean if you’re concerned about your data and feel helpless, simply don’t use the app. But TikTok keeps rising doesn’t it.

It really doesn't.

Nearly every single major site is tracking you alongside enabling tracking by third parties. Something as innocuous as a call to Google fonts works as a sufficient tracking source. Your phone, regardless of who you pick, is not only tracking you but also readily forwarding everything on over to various government agencies with effectively 0 accountability. "Smart" cameras and other server connected street view cameras are even gradually destroying real life privacy - even being able to create effective real life tracking thanks to those handy OCR friendly license plates we all have.

Trying to preserve your privacy by not using TikTok is like trying to combat climate change by not barbequing. It will have a non-zero impact, but even if literally every single person did this to the point that TikTok went out of business - absolutely nothing would meaningfully change.

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#172

Post by jryhjythtr »

novalis78 wrote: post #155
MikePlacid wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> TikTok (Douyin) also operates in China. No kid is spared. Can’t vouch for the following observation, since I’ve never used either one, but: "In their version of TikTok, if you're under 14 years old, they show you science experiments you can do at home, museum exhibits, patriotism videos and educational videos," said Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology. "And they also limit it to only 40 m…

Who would have thought that WW3 is fought via social media apps.

WW3 started years ago, and we have only just started to realise. The objective of this war is to turn the citizens of your enemies' countries into useless, self-absorbed, self-hating nobodies.

For those of you who have read The Hobbit, I see the "Culture War" as something more akin to the scene in that book where the trolls were turned to stone. That is - while we may think we are involved in some great "culture war", fighting the (online) forces of anti-democracy, bigotry, racism, etc etc - actually all that is intended is that we are arguing amongst ourselves.

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#173

Post by jojo259 »

lozenge wrote: post #169
asutekku wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any kind of amusing content for kids is time restricted in china. If a western game company wants to get into the market, they need to implement time limits & age checks.

Are they linked at all? Otherwise if you add up all the time limits they must exceed a day...

Yes, they're linked by some form of government ID. Of course, it's probably very easy to get around that in some manner by just playing offline games or using a parent's ID.

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#174

Post by theCrowing »

nagonago wrote: post #89

After hearing so much about TikTok's addictiveness, I decided to give it a whirl. I spent a good few hours trying to get a feed that was interesting to me by searching for various keywords. I was mostly looking for weird, abstract, absurdist videos, but also anything else that interested me. Unfortunately it was quite difficult to find anything I actually liked. Most of "weird tiktok" seemed to be a teenager's idea o…

exactly the same for me. What I would love to see is someone screenrecording their phone while scrolling one of these miracle algo feeds.

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#175

Post by RHSman2 »

cinntaile wrote: post #134
RHSman2 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interviewed for a data science product manager role (I am one) at a games company. They were doing very interesting things with generative models however the person running it’s speciality was a Phd in addiction (and plenty of work in the field) Was so interesting from an intellectual stand point but so very very evil.

What was the company name?

Playtika

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#176

Post by scarface74 »

MichaelCollins wrote: post #96
scarface74 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes because the War on Drugs has worked wonders. Any law that is passed to restrict people from doing something that only harms themselves ends up being applied unevenly and usually only affects the poor/minorities. See “the War on Drugs”

What are you going to do, grow a social media network with hydroponics in your closet? Drug/alcohol prohibition doesn't work because production is inherently decentralized. Other forms of prohibition do frequently work. Conflating any form of prohibition with drug/alcohol prohibition specifically is a common libertarian trick, one they trick themselves with. What about prohibition of asbestos? That seems to be workin…

> Conflating any form of prohibition with drug/alcohol prohibition specifically is a common libertarian trick

The parent poster

>> It's about time we made some social network legislation akin to tobacco/gambling restrictions.

But more to the point, how are you going to “ban” social media?

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#177

Post by jayd16 »

lzooz wrote: post #167
bakuninsbart wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When have we ever expected companies to do the right thing? Governments are needed to come up with regulations for that, but restricting which content or how much someone can consume, even kids, would be touted as deeply authoritarian in our societies. So the otus is then on parents...

Yeah, no, I do not want the government rearing children, thanks.

You probably just meant you don't want a nanny state but as stated it can be interpreted as abolish public schools.

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#178

Post by DiogenesKynikos »

MichaelCollins wrote: post #102
nemothekid wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it encourages harmful behaviours both while using the app (aka mindlessly hollow crap TV couldn't dream of) and off-app (by showing you stupid shit that gets promoted to the top, therefore implicitly approved by society). I don't see how TikTok is any different than YouTube, Twitter and Instagram in this regard. The Cinnamon Challenge is almost 10 years old at this point. > he kind of activities that the "TikTok al…

Most of the content on youtube is trash, but some of it isn't. On youtube you can find lectures and talks, historic films, documentaries and instructional videos. Tiktok's short-video format does not support any of that. The videos purporting to be educational are vapid shallow trash, necessarily, because of the short-video format. > Because the Chinese government has regulations against it. The same government, conv…

> They view it as revenge for the Opium Wars; they're deliberately exporting poison.

First, do you have any evidence that the Chinese view it this way? Do you have, for example, any statement from a ByteDance executive or a Chinese government official to this effect?

Second, the reason why TikTok and Douyin (TikTok in China) are different is that there's regulation in China about what digital media children can consume. Nothing is stopping the US from passing such legislation, other than its own lack of desire to do so. During the Opium Wars, the British and French forced China to accept opium at gunpoint. China isn't forcing the US to do anything.

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#179

Post by mcculley »

jojo259 wrote: post #173
lozenge wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they linked at all? Otherwise if you add up all the time limits they must exceed a day...

Yes, they're linked by some form of government ID. Of course, it's probably very easy to get around that in some manner by just playing offline games or using a parent's ID.

The question is asking about multiple apps coordinating.

Wouldn’t this require a central database and an API for querying/updating time spent in an app per ID? Where is that API?

Re: TikTok’s greatest asset isn’t its algorithm, it’s your phone

#180

Post by emptyfile »

filoleg wrote: post #99
nagonago wrote: post #89

After hearing so much about TikTok's addictiveness, I decided to give it a whirl. I spent a good few hours trying to get a feed that was interesting to me by searching for various keywords. I was mostly looking for weird, abstract, absurdist videos, but also anything else that interested me. Unfortunately it was quite difficult to find anything I actually liked. Most of "weird tiktok" seemed to be a teenager's idea o…

> If anybody has any tips about how to get a better feed, I'm willing to give it another go. I do. Don't waste time by trying to find the stuff you want by explicitly searching for specific tags (aside from maybe for the purpose of the initial seeding, but that's not a must at all). That would indeed bring up just tons of kinda trashy content that seems like it is tailored to either teenagers or the lowest common den…

>A friend of mine who is very seriously into bodybuilding gets some crazy useful (according to him) exercise technique/regimen videos that are very far from the mainstream "exercise routine/fitness advice" videos.

yeah, getting "non-mainstream" fitness advice from freaking short form videos is just about the dumbest thing I've heard this month

tell your friend to read a book sometimes, there's a reason why they exist and it's not to sell more ads unlike some other media ...

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