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TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

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Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#511

Post by agumonkey »

rjh29 wrote: post #199
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Especially places like Twitter and Instagram are outrage and depression inducers for me, consumed together it feels like the society is collapsing It's been interesting to watch the steady decline of Reddit and Twitter since they launched. They've always had a significant amount of doom-and-gloom clickbait headlines, but in the past it was far easier to filter out the bad and follow subreddits or Twitter people wit…

Reddit is still good, you're likely subscribing to popular subreddits. Don't subscribe to anything that appears in r/popular or r/all. Try subreddits that intentionally ban politics or have Part of what keeps Reddit free of such nastiness (in my experience at least) is the downvote button. Sure, it creates an echo chamber that ruins the popular subreddits, but on the smaller subreddits, it means that anything toxic,…

Reddit subs are still ok but I sensed a slow down, a little decrease in energy even there. Maybe the migration to the new UI bored people too. Strange

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#512

Post by IkmoIkmo »

em500 wrote: post #101
mrtksn wrote: post #25

I'm a huge fan of TikTok because after years of content stagnation and dullness, the internet is fun again. Especially places like Twitter and Instagram are outrage and depression inducers for me, consumed together it feels like the society is collapsing but everyone is living a perfect life at the same time. The China thing is touchy but I want the west to beat them by being better, not by being dismissive and prote…

I agree that many Youtube videos are tedious and needlessly dragged out, probably caused by focussing on time spent as KPI. Too many Youtube videos nowadays give a strong vibe of creators being made only for the money. For TikTok I feel it's still at the stage where the makers, above all else, just want to be seen. But maybe it's only a matter of time before it devolves into aggressive monetization.

> I agree that many Youtube videos are tedious and needlessly dragged out, probably caused by focussing on time spent as KPI. Too many Youtube videos nowadays give a strong vibe of creators being made only for the money.

Yep, and honestly I can't blame them. But at this point every video I watch I immediately press '1' to skip to 10% of the video as a start, then correct if I went too far or if I haven't gone far enough.

The first 10% is usually spent on an intro which is entirely useless to 90% of the audience. e.g. there'll be a video called 'How to add a screen protector to your phone' of 10 minutes, at least the first minute will be a talking head asking if you remember how scared you get every time you drop your phone because it may have cracked the screen, explains how much that sucks, then explains that screen protectors reduce the chance of that blablabla. Stuff everyone knows, which is why they probably bought one, and after wondering how to put it on their phone looked up your video and clicked it... then after they explained the problem, they'll tell you that in this video they'll be providing an answer.

It's okay once but it gets super tedious. Imagine for every search on Google you first get a minute of speech on what the typical reasons were that you likely searched for this, and that this google search is going to provide you with possible answers...

That having been said, I see this on TikTok too. There'll be some music playing and a 'wait till the end' comment, and you're just staring at your screen and nothing happens until quite a bit later, and it's often disappointing too. At least on YT you can skip through easily.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#514

Post by tablespoon »

refenestrator wrote: post #443
tablespoon wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Effective and stealthy manipulation" were your words I believe. Short hop from there for someone else to go further. A hop you took, not me. > We just watched people spend 3-4 years claiming that 50 Russian internet trolls were responsible for beating a billion dollar presidential campaign. Fifty Russian internet trolls (likely more), were working to put their finger on the scale, but it's an exaggeration to say d…

It's a scale with a billion dollars on either end, and we were asked to believe a small office of internet trolls from Russia tipped it. BS detector engaged. If we're so fragile that some marginal stuff can steer our culture, then we deserve it.

> It's a scale with a billion dollars on either end, and we were asked to believe a small office of internet trolls from Russia tipped it. BS detector engaged.

No, we were not asked to believe that, at least not by anyone worth listening to.

You're missing the point. The attempt to put a finger on the scale is threat that warrants a response. It doesn't matter if the scale was tipped or not. It's like if someone shoots at you and misses. Would you have no problem with that? Should you proceed like nothing happened?

Similarly, the capability to make an attempt is also a threat. It's like if someone hands you a time bomb, are you going to carry it around and act like it's not dangerous, just because it hasn't gone off yet?

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#515

Post by yason »

mrtksn wrote: post #25

I'm a huge fan of TikTok because after years of content stagnation and dullness, the internet is fun again. Especially places like Twitter and Instagram are outrage and depression inducers for me, consumed together it feels like the society is collapsing but everyone is living a perfect life at the same time. The China thing is touchy but I want the west to beat them by being better, not by being dismissive and prote…

I think this is because of the short and fast phased nature of the TikTok content. Instead of publishing 10 to 30 min videos...

Thanks, you just revalidated my opinion. I had vaguely understood TikTok to be more transient in communication, with less substance, but I never bothered to find out myself. However, I had slowly grown an inkling of curiosity whether there might be something in there in TikTok, actually. You just saved me an hour of eventually signing up and seeing it for myself.

You see, it's exactly the 30-90 minute videos from good people, that I like on Youtube... My kind of fun, I suppose.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#516

Post by mrtksn »

reggieband wrote: post #359
linspace wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the algorithm is that good, it's simply that the content is better. I used TikTok for a couple of weeks and the product is very good. I uninstalled it not because I didn't like it but because I think it's another step in the wrong direction, for society and for me personally.

I believe the amazing content and algorithm go hand in hand. It isn't like humanity suddenly became more creative in 2019. TikTok has two things going for it that I believe create a feedback loop. First, their algorithm is good. Those same memes and ideas are on reddit, YouTube and even Facebook but often they are buried. TikTok algorithm manages to surface them extremely well, finding the right audience for the cont…

> low barrier to entry for creating new content

This is because the TikTok app has a very good toolset for creating the content. For YouTubers, creating a content means hours of filming and days of editing because high production requires that and AFAIK YouTube leaves all the implementation details to you. Many YouTubers have Hollywood level production workflow.

On the TikTok app you have all the means to edit the video on the spot. It's not Hollywood level production but it is still good. When TikTokers do something with high grade production, it feels off.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#517

Post by oblio »

romwell wrote: post #404
mbesto wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you missed the parent's point. Their point wasn't that these experiences aren't possible today , it's that these wonderful and joyful experiences are all nice now but will quickly fade as the company scales its commercial operations, just like what has happened at Facebook, Twitter and now Instagram and Snapchat.

If that was the point, what's the point of stating that point? "The thing y'all enjoy now will be crap in a few years, get off my lawn?" I didn't come here for fortune-telling.

The thing is, I think it's more than fortune telling. The social media business model is very dirty, it's an addiction machine coupled with selling your data to the highest bidder. The end result will invariably be the same.

It's like free image hosting or free file hosting. A "better", "cleaner" hoster appears and then they either go bankrupt or they sell out.

Some stuff is just predictable at this point.

Social media should be an utility, we just haven't leveled up our civilization enough to know how to manage social media utilities. It took decades for us to do it for electricity & co.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#518

Post by jstummbillig »

rualca wrote: post #477
romwell wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I care about the future , I don't care much for reading other people's Magic 8 Balls. If you like doom prophecies so much, I have one for you ! Looks like the effects of climate change will take us all out before TikTok goes down the drain, so enjoy it while it (and the humanity) lasts.

> I care about the future, I don't care much for reading other people's Magic 8 Balls. Sorry but that assertion makes no sense at all. Caring about the future does not mean naive wishful thinking. Caring about the future means analysing the likely outcomes and act so that the best ones are the most likely outcomes and the worst ones are least likely. TikTok has a very clear and obvious attack surface. This attack sur…

However, you can make problems appear by pretending they do exist.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#519

Post by oblio »

droptablemain wrote: post #407
ALittleLight wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thesis for America exceeding China in the near term future that I have heard is "Our Chinese will beat their Chinese." [1] 1 - https://alphastar.academy/us-team-wins-1st-place-at-internat...

Sometimes the jokes just write themselves.

Well, it could work. After all, your Germans beat their Germans twice.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#520

Post by oblio »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #301
aerosmile wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had an issue with Zuck calling early Facebook users "dumb f**ks," wait until you find out what's going on behind the closed Tik Tok doors. You have to remember - we're still in the honeymoon phase with Tik Tok and haven't learned to hate them yet. Once the media and all your friends start sharing hatred about Tik Tok, leaks are going to start coming out, and there will be all the other fun ways through which w…

China was supposed to start overtaking the US, but the one child policy knee-capped that route. Now their workforce is getting much smaller and the burden of care for the elderly is growing fast.

> workforce is getting much smaller

"Much smaller" will still be about 3x the US one. If that's your best bet, it's not a good one :-D

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