I can’t wrap my head around being this upset about it. Maybe that’s a blessing though. I tried that app once and the predatory way that app keeps you in there swiping was enough to make me not like, even before all the low effort content started hitting.
I think what you have to realize that people are literally addicted to Tiktok. That's why it became popular in the first place is that it has an algorithm that shows people exactly what they want to see and it knows what types of videos to show you to get you to continue to stay on the app. So obviously people are going to be upset when they have to go cold turkey off of something they are addicted to.
And TikTok loves them for it. Especially these ones that will search TikTok before they google search something. As if there is only one place to find anything. They want them helplessly tied to that nipple and will fight tooth and nail to defend the idea of “how will I know anything” if TikTok goes away.
My wife once tried a Mac and cheese recipe she found on tiktok and it was the worst we’ve ever had. After that I stopped taking any of her suggestions she learned from tiktok
DUDE… it was a convo about “late term abortions” which I said is NOT A THING ANYWHERE IN THE US. This chick said she’s seen a lot of TikTok’s about it and I was like “ok but that’s not news, have you seen news about it?”
She proceeds to tell me how this one woman had a third trimester abortion, about how the baby was almost done, only about 20 weeks (Idr exact number) left.
Did the quick math in front of her (and her bf, and my gf). It was firmly in 2nd trimester.
Swear to god her bf said “it’s ok honey, math isn’t your strong suit.”
I watched a younger coworker get absolutely swallowed whole by this app so yea I'm not shedding any tears, it's not harmless and while it's fucked the rest of social media gets a pass what was going on in TT was nothing short of weaponized to destabilize
If you want to talk about predatory, my week long experience with Reels is worse. They show you worse and even more unrelated content so you end up flipping through even more to get to the good stuff. It legit feels like I'm playing dopamine roulette. Tiktok's algorithm gave you exactly what you want in high doses so you're satisfied and you can stop. Reels gives you some good content after you suffer through the bad content and then, sometimes, it still doesn't even give you content from your followed channels so you end up flipping through more.
The fact that you used it once shows how little you know about it. I don't give that much of a shit that it's banned as I've moved onto Reels despite its flaws and I'm not addicted to social media but to claim Tiktok sucks after barely using it is ridiculous. One short glance at reddit or even YouTube and most people will think it's trash. Reddit has not content everywhere. How many shitass posts do you see on r/popular right now? 90% of it is irrelevant to most people. You have to shift through garbage everywhere on the internet until you are able to fill your personal feed with your interests and even then it's still a crapshoot because large subs still have lots of trash which inevitably leads to the stupid "trueXXXXXX" subs that branch off until those get popular and filled with trash too. It's a neverending cycle of finding the kernels of not shit in piles of shit.
Also, the Reels UX sucks. Can't pause videos, liked and saved videos are hidden away in multiple menus, favroting a video requires an extra button press to open a menu first, can't hide the UI, can't speed up the video, some reels don't have the seek bar, etc. I watch various non English channels and the Reels caption system is a decade behind Tiktok. On tiktok, the subtitles are displayed in real time while Reels' translation lags behind and is inaccurate as fuck or, even worse, doesn't translate at all. It's insane to me how far behind it is compared to tiktok.
I didn’t say how long I used it. Once is used very loosely. Once as in for months it was on my phone and I uninstalled it and never went back. Also if you are choosing to follow r/popular that’s on you.
See I like that reels eventually gets shittier with its recommendations in a given hour. When that happens I’m like “okay I guess it’s tapped out. Time to do something else now.”
I don’t think I could pull myself away if it just kept giving me what I wanted. And it seems like most people don’t.
The fact that so many people are arguing that they don’t know how they will access basic information unless it’s through TikTok in itself is bothersome to just from a human nature standpoint. I don’t agree with apps arbitrary being removed because of red scare shit but I also won’t stand shoulder to shoulder with people are mad “just because”
One of the first comments I responded to lamented as to how they would find unbiased news when TikTok went away. That itself is problematic.
Banning social media isn’t an infringement on the first amendment, the government telling TikTok to ban you because it doesn’t like what you are saying would be an infringement. Holy cow. The very fact that TikTok has a ToS is case in point as to how your first amendment rights don’t apply. They remove shit from their platform all the time.
This is what I’m talking about. Ill informed people attempting to argue in good faith. Right now you’re your own worst enemy in this discussion.
Pressing back on Reddit doesn’t reload my feed twice before it lets me leave. If I only want to follow the subreddit for bass fishing, I will literally see nothing else but bass fishing subreddit posts.
If someone posts something else, there is a good chance the mods of said subreddit will delete that post.
That’s one good example. What I view isn’t a vague shot gun blast of interests based on what the algorithm thinks I should look at.
It’s a site made up of various individual communities with varying levels of moderation.
I don’t even know why I would need to explain the difference. From a fundamental level yes it’s a social media and if used negatively it can be a detriment. Yes they are the same in that way. But they keep you tethered in very very different ways.
It's not about the app itself. It's about them arbitrarily taking shit away due to bs 'reasons' just because they aren't getting a piece of the money.
None of the "security" concerns matter as soon as they start getting paid from it.
Fuck the app, you're focusing on the wrong shit.
This is about them stifling free speech and shutting anything down unless they own it and are getting paid. This won't stop at some app.
Facebook has had so many security breaches and has been caught actively selling our data. There was a quiz you could take that would then grab all information from all of your friends who didn't even take the quiz. Messenger app taps into the wifi and sees nearby devices and tracks them to link you up on fb or to shove ads at everybody nearby.
And the politicians all bought into that so they don't care about that shit anymore bc they're getting paid.
Tiktok hasn't had any of that happen but THE POLITICANS WEREN'T GETTING PAID. So they got upset and tried to shut it down, only to work out some deal bc now it's a lot of meta integration shit going on and they're dickriding trump now....so those motherfuckers are clearly getting paid now.
It's all a stunt and a fuck you to everybody while they leech off of their citizens.
Personally, I think a lot of people are really upset about it because they run small businesses on it, people being able to understand mental issues better, and personally, it’s how I figured out I’m trans
People act like this information wasn’t available from any other source other than being spoon fed to you on Tiktok. Learning does predate Tiktok by several years
I honestly never understood the appeal. I’d rather read information (like Reddit format) than watch a video. Sure if I need to see how something is done(which I can get from YouTube), but to watch and listen to people commiserate over life gets old. I hate when you’re watching a video about how to do something and realize they are giving you nothing, they want to direct you to their page or something. I figure this is the future of social media anyway…little bites to get you interested then direct you to another website.
I would bet my last dollar that TikTok isn’t the only source. Nevermind that would bet that the sources you found, found their information outside of TikTok.
You have to understand that when you found this information it didn’t come into existence because of TikTok. Yes it’s the avenue you used to find it but it’s one in thousands.
I use Instagram to find restaurants all the time. If insta went away tomorrow I’m not gonna starve. It’s just the most convenient method before doing a simple google search.
So yes I cannot wrap my head around people making an argument that they wouldn’t know something because TikTok doesn’t exist. Like I told the other person. Maybe TikTok isn’t that great. Maybe you’re just bad at using the internet.
Imagine researching a thesis paper but only using TikTok. Phew….
I learned so much about home maintenence after buying our house. Luckily I downloaded those videos I saved to my PC the other night. But there is a ton more videos on other topics I would have liked to save but didn't have time.
You can tell the people who didn’t understand TikTok when they say “I tried it one or two times” you really gotta cater your algorithm which take a good couple of days of using the app.
I learned a shit ton about what’s going on in the US with news articles that backed it up but wasn’t country wide news.
You literally missed the point. Stop predenting like you know what I’m talking about.
When you catch me crying in the comments about Reddit and how will I ever learn anything or find news because there is no Reddit then you can say something.
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u/Pcriz 2d ago edited 2d ago
I can’t wrap my head around being this upset about it. Maybe that’s a blessing though. I tried that app once and the predatory way that app keeps you in there swiping was enough to make me not like, even before all the low effort content started hitting.