The TikTok War • Hacker News Board

Re: The TikTok War

#21

Post by ideals » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #13

bstar77 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a bit critical of my wife using TikTok until I realized that she replaced the negativity of Facebook with something that, in its current form, is pretty harmless. It's replaced rants and frustration with laughter and positivity.

> It's replaced rants and frustration with laughter and positivity. ... and Chinese spyware in the pockets of children.

Ya only Uncle Sam is allowed to spy on our kids.

This line of reasoning is getting old. All social media apps are data collection driven platforms

Re: The TikTok War

#22

Post by RspecMAuthortah » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

bstar77 wrote: post #16

teekert wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I see is girls putting their phone somewhere, dancing in front of it, then getting back into being absorbed by their phones. Can you describe more specifically what is so positive about it? My kids are about to enter the age at which they get a smartphone and these things make me a bit afraid (like, who's watching? Why do they stare at that app for so long? etc). I don't understand the alure, but I want to keep a…

You don't need to understand the allure. Are you not also absorbed by your phone in other ways? What wrong with people smiling, laughing and dancing? I'm an old parent trying to be open minded as well.

Are you not also absorbed by your phone in other ways?

> I would argue it is one thing to be absorbed by reading in your phone HN or other productive sources. Laughing and dancing on the other hand, after a certain period of time not so much useful.

Re: The TikTok War

#23

Post by alextheparrot » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #13

bstar77 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a bit critical of my wife using TikTok until I realized that she replaced the negativity of Facebook with something that, in its current form, is pretty harmless. It's replaced rants and frustration with laughter and positivity.

> It's replaced rants and frustration with laughter and positivity. ... and Chinese spyware in the pockets of children.

Can you explain the threat model you're using here to assess Facebook vs TikTok? This sounds like just emotional language as I could call most of the modern web spyware and not be too far off the mark

Re: The TikTok War

#24

Post by bstar77 » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #13

bstar77 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a bit critical of my wife using TikTok until I realized that she replaced the negativity of Facebook with something that, in its current form, is pretty harmless. It's replaced rants and frustration with laughter and positivity.

> It's replaced rants and frustration with laughter and positivity. ... and Chinese spyware in the pockets of children.

Since the copy/paste exploit was addressed (in ios) I'm not sure what useful information "chinese spyware" can gather from this app. As long as it's being used for goofy dance and lip sync videos, I don't see the harm.

Re: The TikTok War

#25

Post by duxup » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

kpennell wrote: post #11

I'm not sure how I got sucked into Tiktok but I was quickly hooked. There's something so refreshingly playful, authentic, and raw about so much Tiktok content compared to Instagram. Instagram (explore/discovery) is generally pretty people with pretty things in pretty places. That was fun for a while but it's just not that interesting after a while. I don't need to see more pretty pictures of women doing yoga. I don't…

I feel the same way about a lot of social media personalities, YouTube ... there's all these youtube-isms that every youtuber eventually adopts. You follow someone, they get popular, then they do some reaction videos, or they decide to evolve into some sort of lifestyle / social media pundit / etc... I really don't care to watch folks react to things or any of that other stuff.

They all encourage a lot of nasty / outrageous content over time as that's what gets eyeballs.

I think much more positive, authentic, curated / focused content would be great. I'm done with filtering twitter, youtube, instagram ... endlessly as content eventually goes sour.

Re: The TikTok War

#26

Post by actuator » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

vorpalhex wrote: post #20

actuator wrote: post #12

Ben is absolutely right and something needs to be done to fight for the values of liberalism, democracy etc we hold dear but I don't see how this will happen. The world seems more divided than ever. Just 2-3 countries unilaterally acting on these issues isn't going to make a difference, how I wish there were strong leaders in some of the nations who knew how to work well for those ideals in the long term together wit…

Speak with your money, call in complaints to advertisers, communicate the importance of these actions to your friends.

I am all for activism but does this work unless it reaches a sizeable mass, look at how FB brushed aside the impact of protests by their advertisers.

Re: The TikTok War

#27

Post by manishsharan » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

kpennell wrote: post #11

I'm not sure how I got sucked into Tiktok but I was quickly hooked. There's something so refreshingly playful, authentic, and raw about so much Tiktok content compared to Instagram. Instagram (explore/discovery) is generally pretty people with pretty things in pretty places. That was fun for a while but it's just not that interesting after a while. I don't need to see more pretty pictures of women doing yoga. I don't…

Instagram seems to be evolving into Home Shopping Network or QVC.

Re: The TikTok War

#28

Post by jjuel » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

I recently deleted TikTok from my phone. I didn't have it for too long, and until the recent press I had no idea it was a Chinese app. Honestly, I understand companies will mine my data, but I have an issue with those companies being forced to submit my data to the Chinese government on a whim. And it was really all the same thing. People doing the same skits or dances. Most of which were just chicks doing it in bikinis to get more views and likes.

Re: The TikTok War

#29

Post by netcan » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

This tiktok "war" is, ultimately, changing the way people politicians think about media tech.

With Twitter or Facebook, it's a lot easier to dismiss the magnitude of their influence. After all, they're not in business to influence politics. They just want to make tech & sell ads and make money. They don't care what becomes news, who wins elections etc. Benign commercial interests, that's all

With tiktok and the chinese government's explicit approach of combining public & commercial interest... That argument falls apart. That and the fact that it is a foreign entity potentially affecting american politics.

Ultimately, the argument will swing back to FB & such... hopefully.

Re: The TikTok War

#30

Post by chvid » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 2:55 PM UTC

kpennell wrote: post #11

I'm not sure how I got sucked into Tiktok but I was quickly hooked. There's something so refreshingly playful, authentic, and raw about so much Tiktok content compared to Instagram. Instagram (explore/discovery) is generally pretty people with pretty things in pretty places. That was fun for a while but it's just not that interesting after a while. I don't need to see more pretty pictures of women doing yoga. I don't…

I am also deeply fascinated by TikTok. It is really next generation social media.

Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Hacker News all look seriously dated in comparison.