Live data from Hacker News

TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

asia.nikkei.com

71–80 of 725 posts

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#71
post #56
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is sculpting, or painting, a step in the march away from language, too? Is dancing? What about videos of people dancing is going to hurt literacy. People will consume Apps instead of TV, neither are literature, but one you can participate in. You may be too old to let yourself like new things. Where's the childlike wonder? I don't use The Tik toks either, but let me not lose mine.

Sculpting, painting, dancing etc is creation. Watching other people do it is not.

Well, in the same way, producing TikTok content is creation, but watching TikTok content of others isn't (just like looking at other people dancing isn't creation either).

What's your point with this?

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#72

The march away from language continues. Facial expressions may be a rich form of communication but the kinds of ideas you can communicate with them are severely restricted. Literacy was hard won and now it seems like we're letting it go. Then again, maybe I'm just too old to understand.

"literacy" itself is not some transhistorical, transcultural "achievement" that is now being lost. we do not live in a civ game, and there is no rubric to compare ourselves against.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#73
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…

Another thing Tik Tok does is get rid of people who are obese, queer, or otherwise the target of harassment. Their stance is it's easier to get rid of the person being made fun of or limit who can see their videos rather than the 10k people harassing them.

> According to Netzpolitik, the social media company instructed moderators to find users who are “susceptible to harassment or cyberbullying based on their physical or mental condition.” These creators would then be marked with a “Risk 4” designation, meaning their videos would only be available to view in the country where it was uploaded. Company documents obtained by Netzpolitik explain TikTok’s reasoning for the ban, pointing to the fact that “bullying has been proven to cause severe emotional and physical distress, especially in minors.”

> TikTok also kept a separate list of “special users” who were considered to be “particularly vulnerable.” Many of the creators on this list, Netzpolitik discovered, made videos with the hashtags #fatwoman or #disabled, or had rainbow flags and other LGBTQ+ markers in their profile. TikTok moderators marked these creators with an “Auto R,” which meant that their videos, after hitting a certain amount of views, would be banned from TikTok’s algorithm of suggested videos that appear in every user’s “For You” feed. As a result, these creators’s videos would reach a much smaller audience than the average user. For many, dreams of going “TikTok viral” and gaining notability on the platform would be squashed by the policies.

https://www.them.us/story/tiktok-suppressed-fat-queer-disabl...

> Social video network TikTok apparently limited the reach of people with disabilities, including facial disfigurement and Down syndrome. According to Netzpolitik.org, which spoke with a source inside the company, the policy was supposed to protect users with a high risk of bullying. In practice, however, it apparently amounted to discrimination — and the problem was compounded by moderators who needed to make snap decisions about users’ physical and mental traits.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/2/20991843/tiktok-bytedance...

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#74
post #49
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…

It would be really interesting if TikTok allowed users to make a sequential thread of videos, and added a scroll control to view "next video in sequence". Currently "part 2" videos are very tedious to find, if they could make a way to continue a sequence from the fyp with a simple gesture or button, I think they could seriously challenge longer form videos as well.

> I think they could seriously challenge longer form videos as well.

Is this like the

Twitter feed readers that take

what should be a blog post on an

external site and stitch them back

into something readable, instead of

a blog post in 40 parts?

There are plenty of sites that focus on long form videos and it might make sense to put long form videos there, if one wants long form video content.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#75
post #49
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…

It would be really interesting if TikTok allowed users to make a sequential thread of videos, and added a scroll control to view "next video in sequence". Currently "part 2" videos are very tedious to find, if they could make a way to continue a sequence from the fyp with a simple gesture or button, I think they could seriously challenge longer form videos as well.

Initially, I'm thinking, "but that's just youtube with a slightly different presentation."

But then I thought about the fact that a lot of significant developements were "just with a slightly different presentation."

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#76
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…

> The China thing is touchy but I want the west to beat them by being better, not by being dismissive and protectionist. I don't think the only question is "who wins at having the most popular social network." The more concerning one is of exerting political influence through manipulative amplification/suppression (which is something the PRC has a lot of experience with). That could be both highly effective and extre…

As opposed to US based networks?

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#77
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…

> The China thing is touchy but I want the west to beat them by being better, not by being dismissive and protectionist. I don't think the only question is "who wins at having the most popular social network." The more concerning one is of exerting political influence through manipulative amplification/suppression (which is something the PRC has a lot of experience with). That could be both highly effective and extre…

What sort of manipulative amplification/suppression, specifically? Maybe a skinner box outrage machine that turns us into hostile tribes sniping over cultural crap while completely unable to govern ourselves as they surpass us?

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#78
post #56
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is sculpting, or painting, a step in the march away from language, too? Is dancing? What about videos of people dancing is going to hurt literacy. People will consume Apps instead of TV, neither are literature, but one you can participate in. You may be too old to let yourself like new things. Where's the childlike wonder? I don't use The Tik toks either, but let me not lose mine.

Sculpting, painting, dancing etc is creation. Watching other people do it is not.

So, what do you think happens to those creations? They just go right into the dumpster, having fulfilled the moral obligation of their creators to constantly be producing things?

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#79

Pro TikTok take. It's easier and friendlier to consume. The algorithm is good at tailoring interests. But, it's more like TV than FB.

It’s also much more positive. If I spend 20 minutes on TikTok I usually laugh and smile a few times. And regularly I’m impressed at human creativity. 20 minutes on Instagram or Facebook is usually either boring or leaves me comparing myself to others. 20 minutes on YouTube and I feel like I’ve watched 10 minutes of ads and 10 minutes of fluff. 20 minutes on Reddit and I hate the world.

For YT, try a client like NewPipe or SmartTubeNext that can be configured with adbock & sponsor block, and which is less "in your face" about suggesting/autoplaying rabbit-hole content.

Re: TikTok overtakes Facebook as most downloaded app

#80
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…

> The China thing is touchy but I want the west to beat them by being better, not by being dismissive and protectionist. I don't think the only question is "who wins at having the most popular social network." The more concerning one is of exerting political influence through manipulative amplification/suppression (which is something the PRC has a lot of experience with). That could be both highly effective and extre…

> exerting political influence through manipulative amplification/suppression

and social influence

there are a few worrying trends on the internet which are difficult to attribute to simply headstrong visionaries concerned with the general progress of our species

Post reply on HN