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TikTok as a whole is insanely overrated, at least in my opinion. I've really given it multiple tries, hours at a time, but it consistently fails to serve me any

TikTok as a whole is insanely overrated, at least in my opinion. I've really given it multiple tries, hours at a time, but it consistently fails to serve me anything that even remotely entertains me. My biggest gripe with it is that half of the content appears to be of the "build some tension up by hinting at a certain conclusion of the video, then simply ending the video before it comes to that conclusion and leave the viewer clueless" type, and TikToks famed algorithm seems to be entirely unable to discern that I hate this crap. Maybe it's because I watched some of these fully in the beginning until I understood the pattern. However, afterwards I swiped this kind of video away immediately once I notice the pattern, but the famed algorithm appears to be unable to re-learn that I really, really, really hate this kind of content.

octoberfranklin 6y ago
> build some tension up by hinting at a certain conclusion of the video, then simply ending the video before it comes to that conclusion and leave the viewer clueless" People who expect a neural network to identify stuff like this have drunk WAAAAY too much ai kool-aid.
adventured 6y ago
It's without question aimed at and useful primarily for a young demographic with an extremely short attention span. It's also really hard to create long-form quality content, the short clips remove that pressure, which is exactly what short tweets accomplish (the typical TikTok user is creating absolutely nothing original, they're all directly copying eachother; you have a tiny number of originators, and then everyone else is a clone (a mimic), which is humanity in a nutshell). It's mostly about status battling, young people fighting for some attention, trying to put a stake in the ground to claim status among peers to position themselves. It's why so many of the most popular users live in nice locations, in mansions or otherwise huge very nice homes, they're envied, they're pitching/riding status to a million followers. The sex selling, faux-dance cloning and ass shaking (WAP WAP WAP) that the majority of of the non-celebrity popular users use it for, tells you everything you need to know. It's the same thing that made Snapchat popular, sex always sells. TikTok of course derived from Musical.ly and was popularized first in the US among teenagers. The content that fills up the platform is still similar to what originally made Musical.ly popular. TikTok is the Kardashian effect brought down to the masses of people, to roll around in. Mimic in just the right way and you too can be Kim for 15 minutes (if your house is big enough and or you're attractive enough, as you have to be able to sell it). TikTok's most popular non-celebrities are pitching exactly the same thing that made the Kardashians so popular, in the exact same way. It's a cultural wasteland, celebrated. What the hell is anybody going to say in 10-15 seconds that is going to be valuable outside of a quick clip of music and some status pitching (show a big house, shake your ass, take off your shirt, dive into a pool, show seven seconds of a party)? Absolutely nothing. It's the same thing Instagram is mostly used for: status positioning, signaling. There is a reason why the evidence overwhelmingly points to all of this as being unhealthy - it's all built around intentionally amplifying an addictive, desperate aspect of human nature that is a big negative at its extremes (status seeking, narcissism, bullying, social competition, selling sex, all in a swirl together and pumped up).
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  You are seeing a very different FYP than I just saw on tiktok.com. Is TikTok a SSCly Scissor Service? https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/10/30/sort-by-controversial/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/10/30/sort-by-controversial/
- throwaway2245 6y ago
  TikTok kept trying to show me rich people dancing in their mansions for about 2 days when I first downloaded it (and so: I couldn't understand the hype about it), but hasn't shown me that since. Now I understand the hype.
0x008 6y ago
I, on the other hand, have a totally different experience. I used tik tok for a day and was really frustrated with the not very interesting content, but after explicitly disliking a couple of videos I got an amazingly interesting stream of funny videos from there on out. Given that all the information the algorithm has is rather indirect and negative feedback compared to classic news feeds were you positively select the creators in the beginning and the huge amount of new content that comes to the platform every day, I found the training time rather short and the result really good.
throwaway2245 6y ago
> "build some tension up by hinting at a certain conclusion of the video, then simply ending the video before it comes to that conclusion and leave the viewer clueless" These videos are certainly pervasive - they are an attempt to trigger reactions to show that you like this content: for example, by getting you to watch through the end of the video, click on the creator's name for follow-up content, checking the comments for clues. You can understand the videos as an attempt to game the algorithm, and I also think they are playing on themes which humans are genuinely addicted to and find it hard to fully control. Long click will allow you to 'remove content from this creator' (excuse my translation): that will help.

octoberfranklin 6y ago

> build some tension up by hinting at a certain conclusion of the video, then simply ending the video before it comes to that conclusion and leave the viewer clueless" People who expect a neural network to identify stuff like this have drunk WAAAAY too much ai kool-aid.

adventured 6y ago

It's without question aimed at and useful primarily for a young demographic with an extremely short attention span. It's also really hard to create long-form quality content, the short clips remove that pressure, which is exactly what short tweets accomplish (the typical TikTok user is creating absolutely nothing original, they're all directly copying eachother; you have a tiny number of originators, and then everyone else is a clone (a mimic), which is humanity in a nutshell). It's mostly about status battling, young people fighting for some attention, trying to put a stake in the ground to claim status among peers to position themselves. It's why so many of the most popular users live in nice locations, in mansions or otherwise huge very nice homes, they're envied, they're pitching/riding status to a million followers. The sex selling, faux-dance cloning and ass shaking (WAP WAP WAP) that the majority of of the non-celebrity popular users use it for, tells you everything you need to know. It's the same thing that made Snapchat popular, sex always sells. TikTok of course derived from Musical.ly and was popularized first in the US among teenagers. The content that fills up the platform is still similar to what originally made Musical.ly popular. TikTok is the Kardashian effect brought down to the masses of people, to roll around in. Mimic in just the right way and you too can be Kim for 15 minutes (if your house is big enough and or you're attractive enough, as you have to be able to sell it). TikTok's most popular non-celebrities are pitching exactly the same thing that made the Kardashians so popular, in the exact same way. It's a cultural wasteland, celebrated. What the hell is anybody going to say in 10-15 seconds that is going to be valuable outside of a quick clip of music and some status pitching (show a big house, shake your ass, take off your shirt, dive into a pool, show seven seconds of a party)? Absolutely nothing. It's the same thing Instagram is mostly used for: status positioning, signaling. There is a reason why the evidence overwhelmingly points to all of this as being unhealthy - it's all built around intentionally amplifying an addictive, desperate aspect of human nature that is a big negative at its extremes (status seeking, narcissism, bullying, social competition, selling sex, all in a swirl together and pumped up).

082349872349872 6y ago
You are seeing a very different FYP than I just saw on tiktok.com. Is TikTok a SSCly Scissor Service? https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/10/30/sort-by-controversial/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/10/30/sort-by-controversial/
throwaway2245 6y ago
TikTok kept trying to show me rich people dancing in their mansions for about 2 days when I first downloaded it (and so: I couldn't understand the hype about it), but hasn't shown me that since. Now I understand the hype.

0x008 6y ago

I, on the other hand, have a totally different experience. I used tik tok for a day and was really frustrated with the not very interesting content, but after explicitly disliking a couple of videos I got an amazingly interesting stream of funny videos from there on out. Given that all the information the algorithm has is rather indirect and negative feedback compared to classic news feeds were you positively select the creators in the beginning and the huge amount of new content that comes to the platform every day, I found the training time rather short and the result really good.

throwaway2245 6y ago

> "build some tension up by hinting at a certain conclusion of the video, then simply ending the video before it comes to that conclusion and leave the viewer clueless" These videos are certainly pervasive - they are an attempt to trigger reactions to show that you like this content: for example, by getting you to watch through the end of the video, click on the creator's name for follow-up content, checking the comments for clues. You can understand the videos as an attempt to game the algorithm, and I also think they are playing on themes which humans are genuinely addicted to and find it hard to fully control. Long click will allow you to 'remove content from this creator' (excuse my translation): that will help.