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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

#241

Post by afpx »

MikePlacid wrote: post #123
clement_b wrote: post #115

I think TikTok and similar products are garbage and will lower the average IQ, especially of younger generations. I am deeply concerned when I see kids hooked on that crack, because they are burning their potential. It's scary, and if I had one far fetched easy theory to make, I'd say TikTok is a way for China to mitigate the threat coming from the west's upcoming generations, by ensuring their collective capabilitie…

> 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…

opium wars?

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

#242

Post by MichaelCollins »

nemothekid wrote: post #106
MichaelCollins wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> lectures and talks, historic films, documentaries and instructional videos Please point to such content on Instagram. Instagram has the same qualities you ascribe to TikTok but the only difference is you cannot point to a chinese boogeyman. > happily allows Bytedance to export it. This is nonsense. TikTok produced crap is produced locally . It's not Chinese influencers generating "vapid shallow trash"; and if Tikto…

You are insinuating that I have defended Instagram, but Instagram and the entirety of Facebook can die in a fire as far as I'm concerned. Fuck off with the strawmen; my comment above is a defense of youtube, not instagram. You're trying to change the subject because you have no rebuttal to what I actually said.

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

#243

Post by MichaelCollins »

schroeding wrote: post #130
MichaelCollins wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Use a VPN and download the british / european version of the app? US legislation will probably not be enforced in the rest of the world, in the case of TikTok.

Unless you plan on sideloading it, the two major app-stores are both controlled by American companies. Either way, whether you're sideloading or using a VPN, requiring users to jump through such hoops will easily kill the mainstream use of any social media company.

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

#244

Post by slashtab »

dagenix wrote: post #150
clement_b wrote: post #115

I think TikTok and similar products are garbage and will lower the average IQ, especially of younger generations. I am deeply concerned when I see kids hooked on that crack, because they are burning their potential. It's scary, and if I had one far fetched easy theory to make, I'd say TikTok is a way for China to mitigate the threat coming from the west's upcoming generations, by ensuring their collective capabilitie…

> I think TikTok and similar products are garbage and will lower the average IQ, especially of younger generations. I have lots of concerns about TikTok and refuse to use it myself. But this is ridiculous - and that upsets me quite a bit because is delegitimizes the actual problems with TikTok. TikTok will not lower anyone's IQ. This is straight up just old man yelling at cloud. And that does us all a disservice.

I don't know about IQ but it does reduces people's attention span and that's the reason to limit the video length to few seconds.

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

#245

Post by MikePlacid »

petesergeant wrote: post #138
clement_b wrote: post #115

I think TikTok and similar products are garbage and will lower the average IQ, especially of younger generations. I am deeply concerned when I see kids hooked on that crack, because they are burning their potential. It's scary, and if I had one far fetched easy theory to make, I'd say TikTok is a way for China to mitigate the threat coming from the west's upcoming generations, by ensuring their collective capabilitie…

> What they collect is literally nothing special I added my local pharmacist on WhatsApp once when I was waiting for an order to come in. Instagram is very keen for me to be his friend and frequently suggests him. He hasn’t posted anything, but I did look at who he follows, and it’s a collection of glamour models in skimpy clothing, which given the amount of Jesus paraphernalia in his store I’m not sure is something…

> probably knows the sexuality of its users

Nope, they think I prefer brunettes, while actually I’m an equal opportunity uhm.. watcher.

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

#246

Post by barbazoo »

Firmwarrior wrote: post #25
barbazoo wrote: post #11

I'm finally in a place where the only website I religiously check is HN. Because of it's nature, for me, it never takes up more than a few minutes every couple of hours. It took hard work to get there. I use Nextdns to block domains of websites and apps when I realize I spend too much time on them. Could I just allowlist domains, sure, and sometimes I do that when I need to look at something on Reddit for instance. B…

Damn man, I was just thinking about how annoying it is that I can't find anything fun to do on my phone. I just check HackerNews and painstakingly slowly type comments in on here at 20 WPM. I can get a tiny glance at the world news through news.google, but that site gets worse every time I load it up. I tried paying for Apple News, but it was all low-quality clickbait. What were some of the things you had to wean you…

I'm still in the phase where I pick up my phone and then don't really know what to do with it. Mobile games are mostly garbage I found. Hopefully sometime soon my brain will internalize the fact that the phone doesn't provide a torrent of hormones anymore and let me not pick it up in the first place.

One thing I'm trying is to put books in places I would previously do my doomscrolling in, coffee table by the couch for instance. Sometimes I pick up the book instead of the phone, read a page or 5 and then go do something else. Small win, yay me.

The thing I have to learn is that the phone is a tool, not a way to spend time because I don't know what else to do, at least not the default way.

To anyone working on maximizing user engagement, think about what you're doing to all of us, please.

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

#247

Post by Firmwarrior »

dumpsterdiver wrote: post #84
Firmwarrior wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn man, I was just thinking about how annoying it is that I can't find anything fun to do on my phone. I just check HackerNews and painstakingly slowly type comments in on here at 20 WPM. I can get a tiny glance at the world news through news.google, but that site gets worse every time I load it up. I tried paying for Apple News, but it was all low-quality clickbait. What were some of the things you had to wean you…

> Damn man, I was just thinking about how annoying it is that I can't find anything fun to do on my phone. I feel your pain. As I've grown older I've found it more difficult to enjoy video games no matter what the medium is, and likewise the news seems to all read the same these days except for the "who" in the story. I used to think that no video game or movie could scare me, and I craved to find that, but then I pl…

Haha, yeah, VR horror is way too much for me too. Wow, it's like I'm actually being ripped apart by zombies!

I still have a blast playing games on my consoles/PC FWIW, I just don't like any of the ones I've found on phones lately

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

#248

Post by slashtab »

sofixa wrote: post #161
mrweasel wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What they collect is literally nothing special. For the most part I agree, but it depends on the owner of the phone. Danish politicians have increasingly been using TikTok. It doesn't take a Chinese genius to correlate the location of two or more MPs during the current talks, regarding how to form the next government, to gain insights into how that could possibly pan out. They've basically stuffed a tracking device…

Isn't this one of the reasons why phone permissions (at least on Android) have the option to share location data with an app only when it's in use?

I don't know for sure but sneaky apps stills gets the location data through scanning nearby devices, looking for nearby wifi addresses, bluetooth, network traingulation etc. Few of these doesn't give them the exact location but still if you're a person of interest thar may be enough to connect the dots.

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

#249

Post by Firmwarrior »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #77
Firmwarrior wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's full of beans, man. This site loves contrarian views, so long as they're even slightly supported by facts or anecdata. The main thing that gets downvoted is angry tirades without evidence, and it happens to most political views/religious views no matter what side they're on.

You’re assuming everyone in HN downvotes just like you. How do you know that?

I'm just going by the posts I've seen dead and grayed out

Usually it's flame wars and nonsensical rants where the commenter appears to be off their medication

Meanwhile people are happy to have all sorts of conversations that will get you canceled elsewhere about gender, race, and vaccines (so long as the conversations are analytical anyway)

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

#250

Post by haider_a »

As someone who was born and grew up in a so-called 3rd world country, I was used to hearing this narrative from official media that the west is poisoning our children with their movies, fast food and so on. Interesting that now the west is complaining with same narrative
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