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The TikTok War

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Re: The TikTok War

#31

Post by newswasboring »

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.

> What wrong with people smiling, laughing and dancing?

There is nothing wrong in it, but there isn't much alluring there too. Its available from so many other platforms.

Re: The TikTok War

#32

Post by bkruse »

teekert wrote: post #8
azatris wrote: post #6

I absolutely love using TikTok, but would give it up in a heartbeat for a Western replacement. It has absolutely brought more positivity into my life. I am specifically feeding the algorithm with this intent and I get what I asked for. It is a psychological tool.

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…

Having used tiktok for a total of 10 hours now, I get programmer humor, car videos and funny animal videos - exactly what I want

That's the whole point - the ability to curate content that you will like is phenomenal, especially given the non-obvious inputs to their model. Like a video? Sure you'll see more of that kind of stuff. You may not think about scrolling up/down to restart the video, watching it multiple times, sharing it, opening/closing the comments (and I'm sure 10,000 other inputs) all feed into it's ability to curate

Re: The TikTok War

#33

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

Re: The TikTok War

#34

Post by djohnston »

netcan wrote: post #29

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 chine…

i think if anything tiktok's rise will probably bolster US domestic support for big tech. who wants to be the senator that creates a power vacuum filled by chinese tech?

Re: The TikTok War

#35

Post by esperent »

Pandabob wrote: post #19

I guess the sentiment that TikTok should be sold is gaining ground. It's pretty clear from a regulatory perspective that Facebook won't be allowed to buy it and probably Google neither. The app also seems to be kind of a wonky fit to Amazons, Microsofts or Apples portfolio (although Amazon does own twitch, so who knows). I can't make a solid argument for it, but I wouldn't rule out either Netflix or Disney making a b…

If it does get sold, hopefully it's not to an US company. The web is already far too dominated by US socal media companies.

Re: The TikTok War

#36

Post by bstar77 »

RspecMAuthortah wrote: post #22
bstar77 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is one of the most depressing comments I've read in a long time.

Re: The TikTok War

#37

Post by bzb3 »

chvid wrote: post #30
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.

In what way exactly are you comparing tiktok to HN?

Re: The TikTok War

#38

Post by baron_harkonnen »

azatris wrote: post #6

I absolutely love using TikTok, but would give it up in a heartbeat for a Western replacement. It has absolutely brought more positivity into my life. I am specifically feeding the algorithm with this intent and I get what I asked for. It is a psychological tool.

> give it up in a heartbeat for a Western replacement.

It's important to recognized that it's not a coincidence that TikTok exists and is run by a Chinese company.

In the West that replacement would have been immediately purchased by FB or Twitter and then summarily destroyed. This is literally what happened to the closest Western equivalent: Vine.

The Chinese government has many faults, but unlike the US government, the Chinese government still enforces the idea that Chinese companies should operate in the interest of the nation.

Facebook did try to buy Musical.ly, the company that became TikTok, and would have likely destroyed it just like Twitter did Vine.

If the US government was remotely functional it would put a little effort into challenging the ability of near monopolies to simply destroy any competitor through acquisition. I agree that it's not ideal that the Chinese government is tightly connected with TikTok/ByteDance, but the reason there is no Western TikTok is because our governments (particularly the US) are so deeply aligned with the interests of larger corporations that a viable competitor to these cannot exist.

Re: The TikTok War

#39

Post by chvid »

As an European I am happy that someone is finally breaking the American monopoly on social media.

It just feels wrong only being surveilled by the NSA.

Re: The TikTok War

#40

Post by jsterSC »

bstar77 wrote: post #24
mschuster91 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I highly recommend anyone that has this initial reaction to what these companies are benefiting from their surveillance models check out

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Surveillance_Capita...

Which does an excellent job helping to stimulate thought of just what the power and purpose of these types of apps as well other structures (alphabet) are able to do...

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