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Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

wsj.com

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Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#71

Post by axaxs »

bongoman37 wrote: post #16
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

The difference between pretty and stunning is a lot of work with makeup, lighting, dressing and so on. I dated a model briefly, she could change from and 8 to a 10 depending on how much effort and time she wanted to put in. This is true for guys too.

Yeah I think the infamous Jenna Marbles video where she puts on makeup really was the first time it opened my eyes to it. She goes from average or less to amazing in short time.

Link for those who haven't seen it. Can't believe it's been 11 years...

https://youtu.be/OYpwAtnywTk

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#72

Post by ramoz »

What's special about tiktoks algo is timing IMO. The general segmentation/profiling probably isn't as special as people suggest.

Like all social apps, the engagement is key. TikTok already has a simple UX, and there is zero burden for users to watch videos, vs figure out what tweet you want to write, or click through a bunch of pages on any other social app.

One swipe every however many seconds to 3min (used to be one min) is all you need for instant reward ... video plays.

TikTok needs to schedule some series of videos in advance,which includes video timing. Im sure videos themselves are a key part as well... videos where users lost interest within 3 seconds are probably ghosted.

TikTok has to keep all of this in mind along with the user profile. From there the user is being navigated by the algo which is trying to keep only one thing true -- keep the user engaged and measure the risk of a user leaving, when a user seems to be on the path of exiting the app, thats when you notice the algo throwing more random content out.

TBH ... Im not sure if TikTok cares about the information propagated. Its such a mix of culture, politics, whatever, and its all generally crowdsourced. A lot less innocent that Twitter.

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#73

Post by fattestjay »

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…

I'm in my 30s, and my TikTok feed is amazing. It's mostly STEM folks spreading their expertise, with the occasional funny/viral video. If you hold down on a video you don't like, you can select "not interested" to get less videos like that.

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#74

Post by ramoz »

ramoz wrote: post #72

What's special about tiktoks algo is timing IMO. The general segmentation/profiling probably isn't as special as people suggest. Like all social apps, the engagement is key. TikTok already has a simple UX, and there is zero burden for users to watch videos, vs figure out what tweet you want to write, or click through a bunch of pages on any other social app. One swipe every however many seconds to 3min (used to be on…

I mean, did WSJ even consider the sound? its a key part of the experience. Hashtags are very gamed on tiktok

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#75

Post by DLay »

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…

Bytedance spent a billion dollars acquiring Musically’s user base and burnt a couple more billion on marketing for TikTok to take off.

Social media startups are still DOA in my book.

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#76

Post by rvz »

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…

Well the ones hyping the algorithm are the users here heavily addicted to the TikTok videos manufactured by the influencers on it. They are clever at crafting these videos as they take multiple attempts created at 'hype houses' and get their viewers addicted to wasting their time on it to the point where they think it is 'worth it'.

Replace 'TikTok' with 'Google' and the 'algorithm' is nothing more than 'personalisation' with mass data collection; Gamed by the influencers to compete for your attention and the same dark patterns used to track your actions and attention. No different to any other social network which the exception of the number of users on there. Nothing has changed.

They are all working for the algorithm and that governs whatever is seen or unseen on the platform. When TikTok decides to change that, well the users will complain once again as they did on other platforms.

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#77

Post by iotku »

ramoz wrote: post #74
ramoz wrote: post #72

What's special about tiktoks algo is timing IMO. The general segmentation/profiling probably isn't as special as people suggest. Like all social apps, the engagement is key. TikTok already has a simple UX, and there is zero burden for users to watch videos, vs figure out what tweet you want to write, or click through a bunch of pages on any other social app. One swipe every however many seconds to 3min (used to be on…

I mean, did WSJ even consider the sound? its a key part of the experience. Hashtags are very gamed on tiktok

I suspect given their emphasis on hashtags that was the primary transversal method.

When I watched the video my fist thought was "ok but how are their bots determining what kind of video they're watching?"

While maybe the best you can do in an automated way, I don't think it's representative of how a real human uses social media. ("I'm feeling depressed, guess I'll check out the depressed hashtag.")

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#78

Post by rvz »

ramoz wrote: post #72

What's special about tiktoks algo is timing IMO. The general segmentation/profiling probably isn't as special as people suggest. Like all social apps, the engagement is key. TikTok already has a simple UX, and there is zero burden for users to watch videos, vs figure out what tweet you want to write, or click through a bunch of pages on any other social app. One swipe every however many seconds to 3min (used to be on…

> TBH ... Im not sure if TikTok cares about the information propagated.

They don't care unless it affects the interests of the shareholders waiting for the IPO of the parent company ByteDance.

As for the algorithm itself, I won't be surprised to see the complaints from many users as a result of changing the algorithm down the line since it is already gamed by the large users on the platform; just like how YouTube was.

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#79

Post by guerrilla »

mandmandam wrote: post #3

"We programmed bots to go down rabbit-holes. Watch as TikTok's algorithm makes our bots go down rabbit holes!" Not saying TikTok isn't spooky. But: The effort that went into making the viewer feel anxious while watching this was extreme ; and the effort that went into actual explanation of the TikTok algorithm was minimal.

It was FUD from the first minutes: Look at it highlighting security cameras at ByteDance and the ominous music.

Re: Inside TikTok’s Algorithm [video]

#80

Post by guerrilla »

imbnwa wrote: post #48
mherrmann wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is a huge problem for many people born in the past 30 years. We see all these amazing people on (social) media and compare ourselves to them if they're the same sex, or feel attracted to them. I can only imagine what it does to the body image of 14yo girls. In a somewhat similar vein, boys in puberty masturbate to porn that sets completely unrealistic expectations with regards to their partners and exper…

Really doesn't help that American porn imports a lot of the ideas from Japan, wager its not a coincidence they're dealing with a more severe version of the same "gender gap" issue here amongst people under 35.

> Really doesn't help that American porn imports a lot of the ideas from Japan

What now?

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