6 ms·
On TikTok, There Is No Time
- UserIsUnused 7y agoTemporarily, eventual all social media evolves into the same thing.
- curiousgal 7y agoA CLT[0] for social media platforms. Nice. 0.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_limit_theorem https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_limit_theorem
- UserIsUnused 7y agoAlso this[0]: >Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Zawinski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Zawinski
- imgabe 7y ago> Grosser also points out that unlike Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook, TikTok prevents users from keeping track of the time by covering the clock displayed at the top of their iPhones. Oh, just like how casinos don't have any clocks or windows. I guess it's a step towards social media admitting that it's just there to milk users without providing anything of value in the same way a slot machine does.
- SmellyGeekBoy 7y agoI don't gamble or particularly use social media, but surely these things provide entertainment? Or does that have no value?
- cjslep 7y agoYou're ignring the other half of the "balance equation". For example, "providing entertainment to someone who is gambling with a set-aside specific amount of money they can afford to lose" and "providing entertainment to someone who is addicted to gambling and will lose money needed for housing and food". Sure, both provide some positive value, but that's ignoring the negative side of the balance equation. That makes it where one is net positive on someone's life and the other is net negative on someone's life.
- kdmccormick 7y agoThat's a philosophical question, and I think most agree that for their personal definiton of "value", it depends on the type of entertainment. To build on the slot machine analogy, do you think an RNG that occasionally gives you money (but generally takes it) in a windowless, clockless room has value? And is that value worth the issues caused by them? Does the answer differ for social media? I don't know the answer, but I think they're questions worth asking.
- monkeynotes 7y agoDepends on the person in the Casino. Some people go in, feed the slots a couple of times for the thrill of what could be and then they move on somewhat entertained by the experience. Other people get addicted to that thrill and their lives suffer as a result. Same goes for many things in life, not just casinos. It isn't simple.
- JoeAltmaier 7y agoThat may be disingenuous. Casinos rely almost entirely upon the latter category of patrons for continued existance. It matters what the demographic is. Something about the instigator's intent can be discerned from that.
- georgyo 7y agoI think the point of the parent and in general that the casino is catered to make the addicts have even less control, stay longer, and have no concept if they been there two hours or two days.
- spoovy 7y agoI see quite clearly that these kinds of apps cause/contribute to many well-documented personal and social problems but it's much harder for me to see any positive value. About the best thing I could say about them is that they make time pass more quickly, which can be useful if you're on a long flight or something. But that feels like damning with faint praise.
- puranjay 7y agoI don't know how much value this "entertainment" has. No one I know feels truly good about their social media usage. A good movie makes people walk out of theaters with a smile. Yet most of my friends who are heavy social media users treat it almost like smoking
- jedieaston 7y agoNetflix on the iPhone does the same darn thing, and its super annoying. The whole top bar is just hidden unless you swipe down the notification shade.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoI don't see that as comparable. When viewing professionally produced media, the goal would be to immerse you in the story as much as possible, so hiding everything except the media itself seems like a no brainer. One wouldn't expect a status bar on a TV or movie theater, I don't see why it's different for any other screen.
- mwyah 7y agoI think they are reading too much into what basically is a question of design, to be honest. They just want to display videos fullscreen.
- jonlucc 7y agoOn my screen (iPhone XS; iOS 13), the video is fullscreen, but the clock and battery/signal icons are both still there.
- css 7y agoThis is completely false, TikTok does not hide the clock. Here are some screenshots as proof: https://imgur.com/a/vQxzA82 https://imgur.com/a/vQxzA82
- dsjoerg 7y agoYou are 100% wrong, here is a screenshot as proof: https://i.imgur.com/aMmVAR7.png https://i.imgur.com/aMmVAR7.png EDIT: Looks like some tabs hide the clock, others don't.
- mrunseen 7y agoWhat is your phone? Maybe apps cant modify X series statusbar?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- css 7y agoI posted screenshots of all the tabs and all of them have a clock.
- dsjoerg 7y agoI posted a screenshot of a tab where the clock was hidden.
- badwolf 7y agoWhat model iphone are you using? Maybe it's not possible to hide on "x" type phones - here's an 11-pro: https://imgur.com/UPrpSOc https://imgur.com/UPrpSOc
- jmkni 7y agoDoes Apple let you hide the clock? I would have thought it would have been rejected from the App store for doing that?
- est 7y agoI think it's (pretending) playing a video in fullscreen mode.
- chvid 7y agoTikTok is brilliant design. Very well done how they break with “conventional” thinking in media. For example that it should be orientated around discussion (conflict), followers, novelty etc.
- tekkk 7y agoI dont quite understand. Could you explain further?
- chvid 7y agoIn journalism a good story is new, it has an element of conflict and it concerns someone relatable (someone famous or someone close to you). That sort of thinking caries over to a lot of modern social media. TikTok breaks that. They don't want conflict. They don't particular care about your social network. And even if stuff is new. They will show me for example some random girl dancing (not particular) well, some koreans doing a magic trick, something local. Lots of bad jokes. You are basically playing with an algorithm; they obviously have some way of measuring feedback. But everything is kept in a certain mood: fast, youthful, cheerful. And also amateurish which just makes you want to participate. It is quite different from Facebook, Twitter and Instragram. And I think it is a major evolution of social media.
- tekkk 7y agoAhh I see. That sounds refreshing indeed. The constant conflict in every media is really quite annoying and I imagine I'm not the only one who thinks so.
- _nalply 7y agoHowever they do what everybody does: try to addict consumers.
- DEADBEEFC0FFEE 7y agoWhat I find most interesting is pace, the iterative nature and the extreme remix culture. It's basically a massive visual generic algorithm.
- cstuder 7y agoAs a sidenote: I'm always annoyed at technical articles and pages on the web without timestamps/dates/any hint that allows you to discern the age of the information.
- melvinroest 7y agoI always go to Web Archive to get a guestimate. It also helps because you can see how an article evolved.
- cstuder 7y agoOh, great tip! Thank you!
- kdmccormick 7y agoTop right of the page.
- gameoflife 7y agoI usually use the element inspector and search for "date". Usually would have the original publishing dates and updated dates.
- DEADBEEFC0FFEE 7y agoSounds like an extension some folk would like.
- brigandish 7y agoVersion numbers and system used is also important, that's rare too.
- science4sail 7y agoI'm not sure if the page has been updated since your comment (ironic!), but there's a timestamp right above the title. 10.03.2019 07:00 AM
- 7y ago
- Izmaki 7y agoI could barely read the page due to adds and banners. I left again.
- EasyTiger_ 7y agoI don't know how people tolerate the web without ad-block
- pollgill 7y agoThey simply get used to it.
- jseliger 7y agoHN readers kept recommending https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/ and when I finally installed it I wondered why I had so stupidly waited so long.
- cerealbad 7y agothere's content creation - which seems to be reducing in length of time. (tiktok is just a vine reboot). and content curation - which is about maximizing viewer-curator interaction (websites like twitch where an intimate experience can be created between one streamer and an audience numbering in the tens of thousands) through chat-streamer and chat-chat feedback loops and the democratic curation of of content on other platforms being re-broadcast and experienced in that shared environment. the most successful streamers are on for 6 to 12 hours a day, every day, and they essentially play the role of friend-babysitter-curator-community leader. often the 'content' being curated is pseudo-creator content, broadcasting walking through a city, videogames being played or scripted podcast/talent shows, but the niche of shared watching is growing. both re-watching of other short content created on the same platform, and long-form shared watching of sponsored documentaries, viewer donated video clips and even loops of watching others watching others. a type of 'best of the internet today' interactive and in real time. this tracks the emergence of reality internet, where it becomes impossible to distinguish between an online and offline person, as online time increases. very similar to what andy kaufman was doing, tangentially related to the society of the spectacle and neil postman's critique of modern technology becoming a prison; fatalistic soliloquy on the doomed nature of mankind, trapped in self-reflection about nothing. the outside becomes another experience on the inside of a screen. the internet is an extremely potent example of an old type of addiction, the 'information drug'. i often find myself listening to things online between 3x and 4x speed, the spread of information has greatly reduced the depth and quality, i might spend 20 minutes researching an the editorial board and journalist of a news piece after a brief 10-20 second glance over the actual piece. heavy users might be the first to see the fraying edges of the future to come. confusion, apathy, opportunistic tyranny to fill the void.
- big_chungus 7y agoMy word, but it must be awfully sad to have such an outlook. Let's take the other side of what you just said. More information today is available than at any other time in human history. Their are those who choose to spend time in a futile fashion, and there are those who choose to learn. Perceptions of which is which vary person-to-person. For instance, I read HN because there are a lot of very smart, technically-savvy people. Others might believe it a waste of time. Maybe someone spends time on pinterest, but wishes to be an interior decorator and does further homework on the pictures found. I think most of us would agree tick tock is an abject waste of time, but so what? Adults have been watching tv long before "kids these days". Now let's consider the benefits that the information age brings. A life expectancy double what we might achieve in the wild, plentiful food, a good job, and so much more. Though some people waste their time, all this information has opened greater orders of learning to those with the inclination. On the whole, I believe "modern technology" to be a marvelous innovation, rather than a prison. While it certainly ought to remain open to critique, this sort of nihilistic opinion has never made sense.
- cortexio 7y agoU don't lose time, only braincells. Seriously, i have never ever in my life seen such a low quality of humor. It's not even humor. It's like, imagine a banana falling on the floor. BOOM. there's your hilarious tiktok video... It needs to go.
- kbos87 7y agoUse TikTok for a few days and I can now imagine a world where people are kidnapped or exploited while singularly focused on and distracted by a screen. It’s scary. The fact that it’s a Chinese owned company is even scarier.
- jeromebaek 7y agoSounds like Hegel's (incoherent) idea that China has space but no time.