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Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

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Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#51

Post by jfengel »

jsbdk wrote: post #38
kevinventullo wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My humble advice to you: start with reflecting on why you refer to women as “females”.

What's the difference? Some people make a big deal out of males/females vs men/women and I don't get it.

"Male" and "female" sound clinical; they're terms you apply to animals. When applied to humans, not only does it sound demeaning, but it sounds deliberate -- as if trying to present a false objectivity.

If nothing else, note that words do have shades of meaning. Even if you don't know what they are, you should assume that people "making a big deal" out of it are being honest about it. If you start with the assumption that they're doing so just to hurt you, then that relationship is in a dangerous place before you've even begun it.

They may not even be able to explain why they think the word is a problem. They mostly just know that they've heard the word before in unpleasant contexts. Look up any incel group and you'll hear them talk about "females" in a derogatory way, presenting them as the enemy -- as a separate group to be treated with distance. People know what words are used by people who dislike them, and that taints those words in other contexts.

So whether you get it or not, just trust that they do. Use the words they prefer, and avoid the ones they don't. It's just friendly and polite. If corrected say, "Oops, I didn't mean to do that," and then move on with the word they've asked for. It doesn't have to be a big deal if you don't make it a big deal; it can be over with just a quick change. It becomes hostile if you assume it's hostile.

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#52

Post by jasonlotito »

rchaud wrote: post #31
captainmuon wrote: post #4

I doubt TikTok's algorithm is really so awesome. It's a legend they promote to hype up their brand. I know I'm not their target demographic as I'm in my 30s, but it fails completely to show me interesting stuff. Instead, it shows what it thinks I could like. I get a lot of odd videos that start of sexualized and then turn into a prank (its a TikTok genre apparently). Or videos of woodworking. Or asian cooks. It is ve…

The only place I've ever heard about the TT algorithm is in news pieces attempting to explain why it took off the way it did. For years we were hearing that social media startups were DOA due to FB and IG domination. And then BAM, TT swooped in sometime in 2018 and became huge. I'm in the same age group as you and TT is also not of interest to me. It's possible that I just don't get it for the same reason I didn't ge…

> The only place I've ever heard about the TT algorithm

It's talked about quite frequently on TT itself by people who are not programmers, and more well understood by those people then most people here on HN.

I'd be wary of applying anything you think you know to the community of people using TT today. You aren't familiar with it enough to make any judgement. You don't get it, and it has nothing to do with your age or anything other than your unfamiliarity with TT.

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#53

Post by paulcole »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #40
paulcole wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the fathers are bad at sex and relationships maybe doing nothing and hoping for the best is the right idea?

Evolutionarily, can you consider them a failure though? They've procreated. That checks the box for being "successful" but it doesn't mean your offspring will be.

I mean look at the world. Evolutionarily we've all failed.

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#55

Post by icandoit »

rchaud wrote: post #31
captainmuon wrote: post #4

I doubt TikTok's algorithm is really so awesome. It's a legend they promote to hype up their brand. I know I'm not their target demographic as I'm in my 30s, but it fails completely to show me interesting stuff. Instead, it shows what it thinks I could like. I get a lot of odd videos that start of sexualized and then turn into a prank (its a TikTok genre apparently). Or videos of woodworking. Or asian cooks. It is ve…

The only place I've ever heard about the TT algorithm is in news pieces attempting to explain why it took off the way it did. For years we were hearing that social media startups were DOA due to FB and IG domination. And then BAM, TT swooped in sometime in 2018 and became huge. I'm in the same age group as you and TT is also not of interest to me. It's possible that I just don't get it for the same reason I didn't ge…

Well they acquired musical.ly (buying it's very young audience).

from the wiki:

"TikTok was launched in 2017 for iOS and Android in most markets outside of mainland China; however, it only became available worldwide after merging with another Chinese social media service, Musical.ly, on 2 August 2018."

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#56

Post by throwaway316943 »

zpeti wrote: post #2

I'm pretty sure Google and Facebook know the same. This isn't really news. Google Chrome's FLOC I believe sorts people into 5000 person groups with similar interests. I assume google picked this number for a reason. I imagine you can probably sort the world's population into groups of 5000 people with almost exactly the same interests and motivations.

If that’s what they’ve been doing with YouTube recommendations then it’s definitely nowhere close to identifying interests or motivations. Whatever they started changing in 2016 has been making the recommendations less and less personally relevant and increasingly generic and boring. Probably helping a whole lot of people spend less time on YouTube though.

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#57

Post by psychomugs »

rchaud wrote: post #32
etherwaste wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tik Tok also automatically edits your appearance with default filters.

And front-facing cameras now come with face-smoothing features right out of the box. I have a Galaxy A51 (2020 phone) and even with the default settings, the FFC photos are much more generous in smoothing out your skin, than the regular rear camera.

There's an insidious element present even at the optical hardware level: the limited arms-length distance necessitates wide-angle lenses, which exaggerates the foreground elements and caused an uptick of people thinking their noses were bigger than they "actually" are (at typical viewing distances with our own organic eyeballs) [1]. Perhaps the aggressive smoothing is an attempt to rectify this, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's some automatic computational photography pincushion warping to compensate for the larger-than-reality nose effect.

I sometimes ponder over the alternate timeline where front-facing cameras selfie cams were never invented.

[1] https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/3/1/17059566/pla...

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#58

Post by [deleted] »

rchaud wrote: post #35
siscia wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it is not always simple, we need empathy when dealing with this kind of problem, not brushing off people that may be having difficult times.

It's not "brushing off" to suggest that someone use their phone less. If picking up the phone is an automatic behaviour to fill moments of dullness, then that's a problem. All the empathy in the world won't save anyone here. On one side of that screen is you, alone. On the other side are an army of designers, developers and behavioural experts whose job it is to keep you looking at the screen for as long as possible.

[deleted]

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#59

Post by PrefixKitten »

thrwawytiktok wrote: post #6

For me tiktok is so depressing. I am single 25+ guy and seeing all those beautiful girls my age or younger makes me so sad. Than I can go to Tinder and match with pretty but not stunning girls and feel like I am getting robbed. And according to my friends I am easily in top 20% of attractiveness. Feel bad for rest of guys I guess this is life in 21 century. Governed by algorithms and feeling empty inside

in my past I have dated a women of a wide range of attractiveness and of all those girls the less attractive ones are actually the ones I'd put the most effort into getting back with...

If the girl I'm with is pleasing to look at I'm content with that. How pleasing hardly matters

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#60

Post by hluska »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #45
hluska wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fatherhood is way more than transferring genes. That’s the fun part. The real work starts ~ 9 months later.

That is my original argument. The parent to my recent comment is saying not teaching your kids is somehow going to make your kids more successful.

Oh shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t do a very good job that comment.
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