tiktok

[BUTCHBONEZ]

I know that most of the web revival community is against tiktok, myself included. I'm against it because one, its run by a large corporate. company two, it barely enforces age restrictions .three, it has a horrible "community". four, its layout sucks. five, its groomer central. I was wondering what you guys think about it?

[EdenInTheGardens]

On top of all that you said, I find that tiktok (as I did use it a lot some time ago, and still use it sometimes mostly for my friends) has absolutely destroyed my attention span on some things, I still think there's some very good parts of the community like there's a lot of talented people that use the app and post there too, but it's still not that good in my opinion.
 I think the algorithm there is also absolutely horrendous, and because it's such a fast paced environment it's difficult to really build anything of value there ? Like, from my point of view as an artist online, I never would post anything I make over here because it's fundamentally a place that makes it hard to do so, and from my point of view as a tumblr user, there's no real culture or anything that ties every tiktok user together the way tumblr has, so for me, personally, it's really not what i'm looking for at all, but considering we're all here I think that's to be expected ┐(︶▽︶)┌

[honowo]

Agree that Tiktok is filled with toxicity, but disagree with the reasons for why the government in the US wants it gone. We know they don't care about any of the actual safety concerns. That's as political as I'm going to get I think, but hope we all can agree the attempts at censorship are bad.

[Melooon]

I wanted to add that while I do agree that the actual culture on TikTok is no good (I did try it a few years ago and after getting sucked into junk for a few days I deleted it  ) - I do find the format actually quite interesting for experimental videos. The super short format makes creating art videos really easy and fun, and one of my major video artworks that ended up in a gallery actually started as a TikTok video!

The reality is that TikTok is not interested in experimental art, but it does make me wonder what a platform that was interested in inspiring short-form art videos and games could become 

[Paprika]

I joined tiktok quite early when it wasn't a thing yet. There was interesting stuff, it reminded me about Vines that were mostly fun. I tried some videos but got quickly harpooned into making content for likes. I remember waking up one night and thinking I'd get more views if I did one very late in Europe so it would gather more views in USA. A few days later I got a reality check from a friend and took some distance. I wasn't sure about what to do and how to do it, because I believed I could get an audience, monetize my free time etc etc. In the end I deleted everything and moved away from it.

These days I commute with public transport and most of the late teens/young adults are scrolling tiktok and from the corner of my eyes I sometimes look at the way the scroll (not the content, juste the pace of their fingers tapping and scrolling) and it's rather impressive.

I have an acquaintance that I know from many years ago and he's full into Tiktok, his channel apparently rather popular. I noticed that his behavior was like a firework, he was excited every few minutes, thinking he had new ideas and everything. While discussing a bit with him I struggled to follow his speech pattern because he was mostly talking to himself loudly rather than responding to me and when I stopped talking, he kept going. With a bit of concern I asked others about this and got a couple of round eyed stares and "Tiktok leading to a shorter attention span ? lol stop thinking too much about it !"

I pushed it back in my mind thinking that yes, I probably thought too much about it and it turns out there's definitely something. I remember a very long post with videos from a scientist that joined some sort of influencer school and he tried if there was something with influencers and short attention span. I can't find the article, I think it was on Medium. I've came upon this article that I thought was well written.

I do not adhere to Tiktok but I won't get mad at someone who's hooked to it. I'll probably try to talk about it with them or see if it's a problem. I think people should have a warning before installing the app or something.

[garystu]

I've never used Tiktok. I tried following some people with Proxitok RSS Feeds, but it didnt work out. Proxitok playback is slow, and the people I tried to follow were just not interesting whoops. I'm bringing this up and being specific in case it would help somebody else.

I do like shortform video. I don't think its good that web video is in a length and aspect war - web video is good for its flexibility in presentation and its all good. Wouldn't assign a mental toll to video length, short vids rule [OR] I can rot my brain using Flash Loops on z0r just fine.

Web video can do more than YouTube AND Tiktok.............

I do hear about drama and flame wars leaking from the site, some of it genuinely awful. What a snafu.

[zzzzz]

i think tiktok encourages the worst in people in a way that other social media doesn't, by nature of its design.

twitter and reddit have their own (massive) issues with mob mentalities, but tiktok takes it to another level with the short-and-fast format of the content and hyperaggressive algorithm. when i used it actively for work, i did a few different tests where i'd make a new account on a VPN and just swipe through the FYP liking videos of one kind or another, to get a better idea of how the FYP worked and how i could use it right?
within a week each time it would start feeding me extremely insular feeds of progressively more reductive videos, on increasingly more severe topics, and even if i tried to backpedal on what content i interacted with, it wouldn't let up so easily.

i don't doubt for a second that it's just the result of corporate greed and that being the most addicting/profitable model tbh.
like, sure, it could be more sinister and i wouldn't be shocked at all, but with how big tech works and how easily exploitable the human brains pattern recognition can be,

[Void]

i agree with what you said ,  i personally dislike it because of how it began to ruin my attention span and how unhealthy and toxic most of the community's on there were, i used a lot in 2020 and tbh it was a mistake...

I don't have anything to say on the possible ban the US wants to put on tiktok, i don't live in the US so I don't actually know much about it, still, im sure their reasons aren't the best considering how the US treats anything that comes from china as a "threat"

[petrichoran]

i think shortform content can be interesting in some cases, but i don't really like how tiktok has made it the norm! going off that, i really hate how shortform content [tiktoks, youtube shorts, reels, etc.] is portrayed in such an addicting format.

i don't like tiktok as a company because they're a large corporation, but i think it's hypocritical that people want specifically tiktok banned when american companies also have iffy privacy practices.

[prismatic]

i mostly pretend tiktok doesn't exist. i don't have an account there, it doesn't really affect me in any real way, and i'd prefer not to really think about it beyond the occasional funny tiktok that appears on my twitter feed.

[larvapuppy]

I don't use TikTok, but up until recently I was guilty of getting sucked into using Instagram Reels for multiple hours a day (it's pretty much just a TikTok clone). It always left me with a feeling of emptiness after I realized how much time I'd wasted scrolling through videos. I didn't even enjoy watching the videos, but it was so easy to scroll through them when I was bored rather than doing something more enriching or productive that may have taken a little more thought or effort. Happy to say that I got fed up and deleted the Instagram app from my devices a few weeks ago. I can still access my group chats through the Instagram website, which was the main reason I still had an account at all. Somehow the reels section is a lot less tempting on desktop.

I agree that short-form video isn't inherently harmful, and there were certainly a lot of creative and interesting videos to see. But the format of these apps is designed to grab your attention and waste your time. The digital world is an amazing place, but whether we are online or offline, our time is better spent doing things that enhance our lives. I'd much rather spend my time online doing something creative, talking to my friends, or reading/watching something that I specifically seek out. That way it's my choice what I'm doing and thinking, rather than the algorithm's.

[sig]

Something I personally don't like about it is that there seems to be no 'permanence' to the content on there, the 'default state' is just steady stream of personalized content to watch and then forget about (if that makes sense)

[wygolvillage]

Never used Tiktok but the brief period before I blocked Youtube shorts was honestly kind of scary, I would just lose an entire hour without meaning to @_@ Infinite scroll is absolutely a huge factor in what makes these sites feel so addictive. It's so slippery and polished in a way that's meant to keep you watching and watching...

[garystu]

i think shortform content can be interesting in some cases, but i don't really like how tiktok has made it the norm! going off that, i really hate how shortform content [tiktoks, youtube shorts, reels, etc.] is portrayed in such an addicting format.

Shortform video is the normal state of web video. An odd blip in the 10s due to a quirk with the Youtube algorithm was exceptional, not normal (AND it was encouraged by an algorithm).

changing the topic

I think there's a conversation to be had about the Tiktok format, especially when a lot of the attention grabbing is outrage-based. I just think it needs to be discussed as a continuation of old phenomenon like channel surfing. Tiktok is different and the differences are important to discuss, but the similarities also need highlighting. Use context to reflect that Tiktok isn't a uniquely new threat or something. Decent odds that Tiktok will be just a passing fad. People have been banging the "television lowers your attention spans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" gong for decades and its still nebulous if its true. If it is true, you and your parents and your grandparents (and for younger folk, your great grandparents) have all been hit by a low attention span causing menace. I'm just a bit sceptical after hearing the same song and dance for decades. Or even if having a low attention span is a bad thing in general life.

[BUTCHBONEZ]

i agree with what you said ,  i personally dislike it because of how it began to ruin my attention span and how unhealthy and toxic most of the community's on there were, i used a lot in 2020 and tbh it was a mistake...

I don't have anything to say on the possible ban the US wants to put on tiktok, i don't live in the US so I don't actually know much about it, still, im sure their reasons aren't the best considering how the US treats anything that comes from china as a "threat"

Same here . I forgot to mention the damage it does to your attention span in my op. I used to be a tiktok addict and my attention span had been completely wrecked I ended up having to go to therapy to get my attention span back to at least semi-normal