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Yeah, no. TikTok's algorithm has introduced me to my (now) favorite neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ content makers. Some of them have hundreds of thousands of follow

Yeah, no. TikTok's algorithm has introduced me to my (now) favorite neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ content makers. Some of them have hundreds of thousands of followers, some a few hundred. I've learned more about these subjects (and myself!) than from most other sources. The value of TikTok for me was that it linked up a bunch of neurodivergent/lgbtq+ people into a vibrant, supportive community. Honestly, if they decide to keep it a clique... I don't mind at all. All the people I interact with there get me. I've never felt this anywhere else. If my content is seen only by a small subset of people who are on the same page with me — awesome! That's who I'm making content in the first place. I don't care about the ominous fear mongering. TikTok has made my life better already. It brings a lot of people together now in ways that other places don't. More importantly, it inspires people not just to make content, but simply being themselves. And it takes away so many barriers for creating, it's insane. Anyway, we are talking about specific things we like about TikTok as a platform that make it unique (so far), and you are talking in abstract. Anything can be potentially bad in the future. But currently, TikTok is the best thing to have happened to the Internet. I can give my long list of reasons why if anyone is interested.

teawrecks 5y ago
The social media functionality is the secondary purpose of the app, the first being surveillance and data collection. Of course Google, Facebook, and a million other companies do the same thing, all completely disregarding user privacy in favor of selling your information for a quick buck, thereby making the internet a more hostile environment for taking advantage of the technologically uninitiated than ever before. TikTok is just the latest in a line of the worst thing to happen to the internet.
- romwell 5y ago
  >The social media functionality is the secondary purpose of the app That's like saying that providing people with groceries is the secondary purpose of grocery stores, the first being collecting money in exchange for them. Duh! How horrible! Everyone would be better off if they just grew their own food on their own farm, like in the good old days Saying TikTok is the "worst" thing is absurd given the article we're discussing. The people clearly see value for them in TikTok that hasn't been provided by other services, and adding that to the Internet is unambiguously great. So the value to the users TikTok brings is unique and novel, whereas any potential harm to the users doesn't really change (as everyone and their grandma are collecting all the data already). Yesterday, an average user had, say, 11 data-collecting apps — and today, it's 12. It's not great, but very little changes for the user. Hardly the worst thing IMO.
  - rualca 5y ago
    > That's like saying that providing people with groceries is the secondary purpose of grocery stores, the first being collecting money in exchange for them. No, not really. Like Facebook or Google, TikTok's revenue comes from selling ads. The advertisement business quite literally is based on how much personal info they can gather on yourself, and how they can leverage it to allow themselves and third parties to exploit that info to make you more vulnerable to their goals.
    - romwell 5y ago
      In case I didn't make it clear, providing data about yourself and making yourself more "vulnerable" to advertisers is the currency you pay with for using the platform. As far as I care, letting random people know random facts about me so that they're more likely to peddle me stuff that I actually like is not "exploitation", but that's merely an opinion.
      - rualca 5y ago
        > In case I didn't make it clear, providing data about yourself and making yourself more "vulnerable" to advertisers is the currency you pay with for using the platform. No, not really. No one uses a platform like TikTok because they are eager to share their personal data to marketers, and most are entirely oblivious even to which personal data is the service gathering on them. Just because a platform or service or system is free to access that does not mean that we are allowing mysterious third parties to spy on us.
      - namaria 5y ago
        The problem with data collection is not what they companies doing it use it for at the moment. The problem is making so many details of your personal life discoverable by someone simply buying some data and cross referencing databases. When you lose privacy willingly saying "but I have nothing to hide" you also lose the ability to hide from bad actors.
      - teawrecks 5y ago
        You have almost no control over what information you're giving them though. It's more like having to pay the mob for "protection" and then turning to me and saying, "What? That's the price for safety in this neighborhood. I'm choosing to pay."
- rvz 5y ago
  Precisely. The first purpose is pure invasive data collection of everything on the platform; otherwise how else is that so-called 'legendary recommendation algorithm' supposed to work? That and your data is the key asset that is being sold over and used by other companies as well, which is a violation of user privacy. The news here is reassuring to investors and the users like the parent comment are once again the prime product addicted under a para-social relationship with other addicted influencers working for the 'legendary recommendation algorithm'. They will continue to deny how social networks like TikTok keep screwing over their users repeatedly, even when they pretend that they are 'supporting the users' when in fact the investors are waiting for their giant exit for ByteDance's IPO. After that, we will see who ByteDance (TikTok) really listens to. To the GP comment: > Anyway, we are talking about specific things we like about TikTok as a platform that make it unique (so far), and you are talking in abstract. It is not 'abstract' and the comment [0] (and this related comment [1]) you replied to, has evidence of their claims and is factual. It is your 'anecdotes' which are in denial of these facts. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28134880 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28134880 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28133855 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28133855
  - modo_mario 5y ago
    One thing of note is that them collecting everything on the platform doesn't really hit me in the same way as facebook doing. Somehow tho tiktok gets more hate. Facebook being a more traditional social media has people dropping info and stuff about their plain personal life whilst tiktok is more of a content platform like youtube. Also unlike facebook and google tiktok has a thougher time following people all around the internet which is probably by far the biggest invasion of privacy.
    - namaria 5y ago
      Might be just me but I'm way more scared of the CCP then of the FB board of directors. The latter hasn't really used online data for genocide purposes yet...
  - romwell 5y ago
    >the users like the parent comment are once again the prime product addicted under a para-social relationship with other addicted influencers That's quite a leap from what I said, not to mention a personal attack. Comment [0] doesn't make any factual claims about TikTok (please, go and read it). Comment [1] is outdated, as the policy they has changed since then. "That wall was black two years ago" is a factual claim, but the wall has been repainted since, and anyone with a pair of eyes can go take a look. Also, as a member of the several demographics mentioned in that comment - and, ostensibly, oppressed by TikTok -, me saying that my experience was the opposite and extremely valuable should make you reconsider your words. Have you been affected by TikTok's policy towards vulnerable people? If not, please do not speak on our behalf.
mbesto 5y ago
I think you missed the parent's point. Their point wasn't that these experiences aren't possible today, it's that these wonderful and joyful experiences are all nice now but will quickly fade as the company scales its commercial operations, just like what has happened at Facebook, Twitter and now Instagram and Snapchat.
- romwell 5y ago
  If that was the point, what's the point of stating that point? "The thing y'all enjoy now will be crap in a few years, get off my lawn?" I didn't come here for fortune-telling.
  - random314 5y ago
    You might not care about the future. But others on this forum do.
    - romwell 5y ago
      I care about the future, I don't care much for reading other people's Magic 8 Balls. If you like doom prophecies so much, I have one for you! Looks like the effects of climate change will take us all out before TikTok goes down the drain, so enjoy it while it (and the humanity) lasts.
      - rualca 5y ago
        > I care about the future, I don't care much for reading other people's Magic 8 Balls. Sorry but that assertion makes no sense at all. Caring about the future does not mean naive wishful thinking. Caring about the future means analysing the likely outcomes and act so that the best ones are the most likely outcomes and the worst ones are least likely. TikTok has a very clear and obvious attack surface. This attack surface has been known to be exploited in a certain way. Intentionally turning a blind eye to the clear and real threat it poses is the exact opposite of caring about the future because you are thus actively engaged in enabling the worst possible outcome to become a reality. You do not make problems go away by pretending they don't exist.
whoknowswhat11 5y ago
Some people want tiktoks algo to exposure folks to the right wing militia folks and jam up the interaction heavily (offsense / counter offense). Tiktok (arguably) doesn't do this, but keeps people exposed to happy bubbles. If you click away quickly from LGBTQ+ you'll see less of it? Maybe? I'm not LGBTQ myself but I get plenty of that content. I can imagine tiktok also paying attention to this country by country (ie, Saudi Arabia probably not getting as much?). I read these types of things as the outrage / offense response, and at least from what I can see plenty of interesting (and diverse) folks are on tiktok. My feed feels MORE diverse their then facebook for example (including more unusual things relative to my FB feed including viewpoints) Comments seem more positive as a result.
dspillett 5y ago
> TikTok's algorithm has introduced me to my (now) favorite neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ content makers. But when did that start? Possibly earlier before the “people who attract trouble” filters were added in to the algorithms or tweaked. Now you've shown engagement with those families of content other parts of the recommendation system will be taking precedence over the negative filters. A newer user than yourself may have quite a different experience, only finding those groups through external recommendation. > Honestly, if they decide to keep it a clique... I don't mind at all. So now you are in the clique, you are fine with it being a clique (not just that: a clique born of external pressure to keep it quiet, not through the cliques choice) and other like you but not there yet can fend for themselves? [I'm deliberately pulling your words towards an extreme a little here to make a point: being happy with your position in the status quo does not mean it is a good status quo, just that you exist near a local maxima] As the userbase continues to grow, these artificial cliques will become increasingly more minority and the whole system will become a more unpleasant place for people who don't fit the supported pattern (and as they are filtering the bullied not the bullies, the supported pattern, the future majority if it isn't already, implicitly includes the bullies). > All the people I interact with there get me. I've never felt this anywhere else. While the filtering described above (stop bullying by hiding the people who might be bullied because it is easier than actually dealing with the bullies) can be seen to have a positive effect of keeping the knuckle-dragging numbskulls away from your communities, it also hides your communities from others like you who might need their support or could otherwise benefit from being part of them. > but simply being themselves As long as you don't mind being yourselves to a limited audience, where the limits are set by external pressures not your needs/desires. If you'll forgive another appeal to the extreme: tiktok filtering differences that might attract bullying seems to me not dissimilar to allowing you to be yourselves but only if you wouldn't mind terribly, being who you are in just those specific seats at the back of the bus, thanks. --- Not that I have an axe to grind for myself here (straight, white, middle class, middle-aged, native English speaker, approaching financially comfortable, ..., about as divergent as an entirely undivergent thing) other than a bit of bullied-for-being-different as a kid (being a geek/nerd type wasn't fashionable back then) but I have friends & other contacts all over the various spectra and from what I know of their experiences and how tiktok is run and how similar things have played out over the decades, what you describe sounds to be a very short term good thing that is (and will continue to be if unchecked) an increasingly closed off part of the system, a walled garden built not to keep you safe but to keep you out of sight. Allowing yourself to be kept out of sight is not how to encourage society to move forward and be more accepting.
smoldesu 5y ago
TikTok has a lot going for it as a platform, but you should always understand a company's motivations when using their product. TikTok wants you to spend more time with your digital friends, because they make money from peppering ads in your experience with them. So sure, much like Facebook, Twitter or any other platform with the same business model, they will tacitly encourage users to spend as much time as possible on the platform. I've seen this comment echoed with Tumblr, Instagram, Musical.ly and about every other social media platform. The issue with them? Corporate interests superseded user control, and the whole thing went sideways. Nobody's telling you that you can't like TikTok, and I don't doubt you have an extensive list of all the things you like about it. Undeniably though, TikTok is stepping on the exact same banana peel that every other network did, even if they do a damn good job of controlling their western narrative. Keep using TikTok if it makes you happy, but remember that happiness doesn't come from apps, it's a state of mind. There are healthier, less destructive ways to surround yourself with the content you love, trust me.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- romwell 5y ago
  Too many to unpack here, but I'll start with this. Repeat after me: digital friends are friends. Personally, TikTok takes a very small fraction of my life (I go there when I don't feel I can do anything else), and I have many "real world" friends to interact with offline. And I met some of them through social networks. Question to consider for you: during the pandemic, when one probably couldn't see most of their friends and had to interact with them remotely, did they cease being friends? Also, just an FYI, your comment comes off as patronizing, missing my point, and making a lot of assumptions about me. And remember, there are healthier, less destructive ways to surround yourself with the content you love than writing such comments on HackerNew, trust me.
- romwell 5y ago
  Just wanted to add: aside from assumptions you seem to be making about me and my usage of TikTok, I agree with your points. >TikTok is stepping on the exact same banana peel I wouldn't count on TikTok being great in a few years too. But what I've seen with many products, platforms, and ideas is that something good comes along, perishes, and then the uniquely good parts are gone for good because people didn't get what was good specifically, and so nobody took the torch to carry it forward. When Facebook started, the novel idea was creating a social network that connected people who already had something in common: namely, going to the same school. That's why it blew up. Because it facilitated bonding within those communities. It was exclusive by design (no .edu email = no Facebook, not same school = no seeing info), and that's what made it great for the initial wave of users that made it big. TikTok blew up for a similar reason. It connects people who are already related in some way really well: either by a common interest, or - as in the case I am highlighting - by sharing the experiences of being adults with ADHD / ASD / OCD / BPD / depression / anxiety / burnout / trauma / abuse etc -- a demographic for which it's hard to connect (and be open!) with people in general, people who can't relate doubly so (and unless you know someone really well, it's not something that you can openly discuss in this society). This is the idea I want to highlight. I want that on other platforms. I want someone to make it when TikTok goes down the drain. And so far, few seem to understand what it is that TikTok gave us -- so we might be left without a platform again in a few years. Which would suck. >Nobody's telling you that you can't like TikTok Many people in the thread shamed me for liking TikTok. If you scroll up, I've been accused of (quote): * being an addict to parasocial relationships with content creators (with many implying that I only consume that content) * enabling oppression and exploitation of underprivileged content creators * etc So yes, people here are literally telling me that it's bad to like using TikTok, equating it to a moral transgression. >There are healthier, less destructive ways to surround yourself with the content you love, trust me. It's not about content. It's about people. And what basis do you have for telling me to trust you here? Do you have credentials in mental health to back that up, or are you just being patronizing? Relatable experience? Genuinely curious. Note that I am not telling anyone here what they should do, I only give my perspective as a user of the platform. But if you do know of "less destructive" ways, pray, do tell, how would one go about connecting to a couple of dozen people who would be willing to openly talk (with voice! while showing their faces!) about how they experienced the symptoms of surviving narcissistic abuse, how they spotted it within themselves, and what helps them personally? Without paying a dime, I must add? I'll be checking this comment for responses, because either I'll learn something new (great!), or I see no response, and conclude that you learned something new (even better!).
mygo 5y ago
I'd love to hear your long list of reasons why. This is coming from someone who has heard of Tik Tok but has never used it. I'm a late adopter to social platforms, joining Twitter in 2014 and not really using it until last year.
- romwell 5y ago
  OK, I have responded to many people in this thread. The TL;DR is that TikTok connects people who are facing the same struggles, which really helps with dealing with them.

teawrecks 5y ago

The social media functionality is the secondary purpose of the app, the first being surveillance and data collection. Of course Google, Facebook, and a million other companies do the same thing, all completely disregarding user privacy in favor of selling your information for a quick buck, thereby making the internet a more hostile environment for taking advantage of the technologically uninitiated than ever before. TikTok is just the latest in a line of the worst thing to happen to the internet.

romwell 5y ago
>The social media functionality is the secondary purpose of the app That's like saying that providing people with groceries is the secondary purpose of grocery stores, the first being collecting money in exchange for them. Duh! How horrible! Everyone would be better off if they just grew their own food on their own farm, like in the good old days Saying TikTok is the "worst" thing is absurd given the article we're discussing. The people clearly see value for them in TikTok that hasn't been provided by other services, and adding that to the Internet is unambiguously great. So the value to the users TikTok brings is unique and novel, whereas any potential harm to the users doesn't really change (as everyone and their grandma are collecting all the data already). Yesterday, an average user had, say, 11 data-collecting apps — and today, it's 12. It's not great, but very little changes for the user. Hardly the worst thing IMO.
- rualca 5y ago
  > That's like saying that providing people with groceries is the secondary purpose of grocery stores, the first being collecting money in exchange for them. No, not really. Like Facebook or Google, TikTok's revenue comes from selling ads. The advertisement business quite literally is based on how much personal info they can gather on yourself, and how they can leverage it to allow themselves and third parties to exploit that info to make you more vulnerable to their goals.
  - romwell 5y ago
    In case I didn't make it clear, providing data about yourself and making yourself more "vulnerable" to advertisers is the currency you pay with for using the platform. As far as I care, letting random people know random facts about me so that they're more likely to peddle me stuff that I actually like is not "exploitation", but that's merely an opinion.
    - rualca 5y ago
      > In case I didn't make it clear, providing data about yourself and making yourself more "vulnerable" to advertisers is the currency you pay with for using the platform. No, not really. No one uses a platform like TikTok because they are eager to share their personal data to marketers, and most are entirely oblivious even to which personal data is the service gathering on them. Just because a platform or service or system is free to access that does not mean that we are allowing mysterious third parties to spy on us.
    - namaria 5y ago
      The problem with data collection is not what they companies doing it use it for at the moment. The problem is making so many details of your personal life discoverable by someone simply buying some data and cross referencing databases. When you lose privacy willingly saying "but I have nothing to hide" you also lose the ability to hide from bad actors.
    - teawrecks 5y ago
      You have almost no control over what information you're giving them though. It's more like having to pay the mob for "protection" and then turning to me and saying, "What? That's the price for safety in this neighborhood. I'm choosing to pay."
rvz 5y ago
Precisely. The first purpose is pure invasive data collection of everything on the platform; otherwise how else is that so-called 'legendary recommendation algorithm' supposed to work? That and your data is the key asset that is being sold over and used by other companies as well, which is a violation of user privacy. The news here is reassuring to investors and the users like the parent comment are once again the prime product addicted under a para-social relationship with other addicted influencers working for the 'legendary recommendation algorithm'. They will continue to deny how social networks like TikTok keep screwing over their users repeatedly, even when they pretend that they are 'supporting the users' when in fact the investors are waiting for their giant exit for ByteDance's IPO. After that, we will see who ByteDance (TikTok) really listens to. To the GP comment: > Anyway, we are talking about specific things we like about TikTok as a platform that make it unique (so far), and you are talking in abstract. It is not 'abstract' and the comment [0] (and this related comment [1]) you replied to, has evidence of their claims and is factual. It is your 'anecdotes' which are in denial of these facts. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28134880 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28134880 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28133855 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28133855
- modo_mario 5y ago
  One thing of note is that them collecting everything on the platform doesn't really hit me in the same way as facebook doing. Somehow tho tiktok gets more hate. Facebook being a more traditional social media has people dropping info and stuff about their plain personal life whilst tiktok is more of a content platform like youtube. Also unlike facebook and google tiktok has a thougher time following people all around the internet which is probably by far the biggest invasion of privacy.
  - namaria 5y ago
    Might be just me but I'm way more scared of the CCP then of the FB board of directors. The latter hasn't really used online data for genocide purposes yet...
- romwell 5y ago
  >the users like the parent comment are once again the prime product addicted under a para-social relationship with other addicted influencers That's quite a leap from what I said, not to mention a personal attack. Comment [0] doesn't make any factual claims about TikTok (please, go and read it). Comment [1] is outdated, as the policy they has changed since then. "That wall was black two years ago" is a factual claim, but the wall has been repainted since, and anyone with a pair of eyes can go take a look. Also, as a member of the several demographics mentioned in that comment - and, ostensibly, oppressed by TikTok -, me saying that my experience was the opposite and extremely valuable should make you reconsider your words. Have you been affected by TikTok's policy towards vulnerable people? If not, please do not speak on our behalf.

mbesto 5y ago

I think you missed the parent's point. Their point wasn't that these experiences aren't possible today, it's that these wonderful and joyful experiences are all nice now but will quickly fade as the company scales its commercial operations, just like what has happened at Facebook, Twitter and now Instagram and Snapchat.

romwell 5y ago
If that was the point, what's the point of stating that point? "The thing y'all enjoy now will be crap in a few years, get off my lawn?" I didn't come here for fortune-telling.
- random314 5y ago
  You might not care about the future. But others on this forum do.
  - romwell 5y ago
    I care about the future, I don't care much for reading other people's Magic 8 Balls. If you like doom prophecies so much, I have one for you! Looks like the effects of climate change will take us all out before TikTok goes down the drain, so enjoy it while it (and the humanity) lasts.
    - rualca 5y ago
      > I care about the future, I don't care much for reading other people's Magic 8 Balls. Sorry but that assertion makes no sense at all. Caring about the future does not mean naive wishful thinking. Caring about the future means analysing the likely outcomes and act so that the best ones are the most likely outcomes and the worst ones are least likely. TikTok has a very clear and obvious attack surface. This attack surface has been known to be exploited in a certain way. Intentionally turning a blind eye to the clear and real threat it poses is the exact opposite of caring about the future because you are thus actively engaged in enabling the worst possible outcome to become a reality. You do not make problems go away by pretending they don't exist.

whoknowswhat11 5y ago

Some people want tiktoks algo to exposure folks to the right wing militia folks and jam up the interaction heavily (offsense / counter offense). Tiktok (arguably) doesn't do this, but keeps people exposed to happy bubbles. If you click away quickly from LGBTQ+ you'll see less of it? Maybe? I'm not LGBTQ myself but I get plenty of that content. I can imagine tiktok also paying attention to this country by country (ie, Saudi Arabia probably not getting as much?). I read these types of things as the outrage / offense response, and at least from what I can see plenty of interesting (and diverse) folks are on tiktok. My feed feels MORE diverse their then facebook for example (including more unusual things relative to my FB feed including viewpoints) Comments seem more positive as a result.

dspillett 5y ago

> TikTok's algorithm has introduced me to my (now) favorite neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ content makers. But when did that start? Possibly earlier before the “people who attract trouble” filters were added in to the algorithms or tweaked. Now you've shown engagement with those families of content other parts of the recommendation system will be taking precedence over the negative filters. A newer user than yourself may have quite a different experience, only finding those groups through external recommendation. > Honestly, if they decide to keep it a clique... I don't mind at all. So now you are in the clique, you are fine with it being a clique (not just that: a clique born of external pressure to keep it quiet, not through the cliques choice) and other like you but not there yet can fend for themselves? [I'm deliberately pulling your words towards an extreme a little here to make a point: being happy with your position in the status quo does not mean it is a good status quo, just that you exist near a local maxima] As the userbase continues to grow, these artificial cliques will become increasingly more minority and the whole system will become a more unpleasant place for people who don't fit the supported pattern (and as they are filtering the bullied not the bullies, the supported pattern, the future majority if it isn't already, implicitly includes the bullies). > All the people I interact with there get me. I've never felt this anywhere else. While the filtering described above (stop bullying by hiding the people who might be bullied because it is easier than actually dealing with the bullies) can be seen to have a positive effect of keeping the knuckle-dragging numbskulls away from your communities, it also hides your communities from others like you who might need their support or could otherwise benefit from being part of them. > but simply being themselves As long as you don't mind being yourselves to a limited audience, where the limits are set by external pressures not your needs/desires. If you'll forgive another appeal to the extreme: tiktok filtering differences that might attract bullying seems to me not dissimilar to allowing you to be yourselves but only if you wouldn't mind terribly, being who you are in just those specific seats at the back of the bus, thanks. --- Not that I have an axe to grind for myself here (straight, white, middle class, middle-aged, native English speaker, approaching financially comfortable, ..., about as divergent as an entirely undivergent thing) other than a bit of bullied-for-being-different as a kid (being a geek/nerd type wasn't fashionable back then) but I have friends & other contacts all over the various spectra and from what I know of their experiences and how tiktok is run and how similar things have played out over the decades, what you describe sounds to be a very short term good thing that is (and will continue to be if unchecked) an increasingly closed off part of the system, a walled garden built not to keep you safe but to keep you out of sight. Allowing yourself to be kept out of sight is not how to encourage society to move forward and be more accepting.

smoldesu 5y ago

TikTok has a lot going for it as a platform, but you should always understand a company's motivations when using their product. TikTok wants you to spend more time with your digital friends, because they make money from peppering ads in your experience with them. So sure, much like Facebook, Twitter or any other platform with the same business model, they will tacitly encourage users to spend as much time as possible on the platform. I've seen this comment echoed with Tumblr, Instagram, Musical.ly and about every other social media platform. The issue with them? Corporate interests superseded user control, and the whole thing went sideways. Nobody's telling you that you can't like TikTok, and I don't doubt you have an extensive list of all the things you like about it. Undeniably though, TikTok is stepping on the exact same banana peel that every other network did, even if they do a damn good job of controlling their western narrative. Keep using TikTok if it makes you happy, but remember that happiness doesn't come from apps, it's a state of mind. There are healthier, less destructive ways to surround yourself with the content you love, trust me.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
romwell 5y ago
Too many to unpack here, but I'll start with this. Repeat after me: digital friends are friends. Personally, TikTok takes a very small fraction of my life (I go there when I don't feel I can do anything else), and I have many "real world" friends to interact with offline. And I met some of them through social networks. Question to consider for you: during the pandemic, when one probably couldn't see most of their friends and had to interact with them remotely, did they cease being friends? Also, just an FYI, your comment comes off as patronizing, missing my point, and making a lot of assumptions about me. And remember, there are healthier, less destructive ways to surround yourself with the content you love than writing such comments on HackerNew, trust me.
romwell 5y ago
Just wanted to add: aside from assumptions you seem to be making about me and my usage of TikTok, I agree with your points. >TikTok is stepping on the exact same banana peel I wouldn't count on TikTok being great in a few years too. But what I've seen with many products, platforms, and ideas is that something good comes along, perishes, and then the uniquely good parts are gone for good because people didn't get what was good specifically, and so nobody took the torch to carry it forward. When Facebook started, the novel idea was creating a social network that connected people who already had something in common: namely, going to the same school. That's why it blew up. Because it facilitated bonding within those communities. It was exclusive by design (no .edu email = no Facebook, not same school = no seeing info), and that's what made it great for the initial wave of users that made it big. TikTok blew up for a similar reason. It connects people who are already related in some way really well: either by a common interest, or - as in the case I am highlighting - by sharing the experiences of being adults with ADHD / ASD / OCD / BPD / depression / anxiety / burnout / trauma / abuse etc -- a demographic for which it's hard to connect (and be open!) with people in general, people who can't relate doubly so (and unless you know someone really well, it's not something that you can openly discuss in this society). This is the idea I want to highlight. I want that on other platforms. I want someone to make it when TikTok goes down the drain. And so far, few seem to understand what it is that TikTok gave us -- so we might be left without a platform again in a few years. Which would suck. >Nobody's telling you that you can't like TikTok Many people in the thread shamed me for liking TikTok. If you scroll up, I've been accused of (quote): * being an addict to parasocial relationships with content creators (with many implying that I only consume that content) * enabling oppression and exploitation of underprivileged content creators * etc So yes, people here are literally telling me that it's bad to like using TikTok, equating it to a moral transgression. >There are healthier, less destructive ways to surround yourself with the content you love, trust me. It's not about content. It's about people. And what basis do you have for telling me to trust you here? Do you have credentials in mental health to back that up, or are you just being patronizing? Relatable experience? Genuinely curious. Note that I am not telling anyone here what they should do, I only give my perspective as a user of the platform. But if you do know of "less destructive" ways, pray, do tell, how would one go about connecting to a couple of dozen people who would be willing to openly talk (with voice! while showing their faces!) about how they experienced the symptoms of surviving narcissistic abuse, how they spotted it within themselves, and what helps them personally? Without paying a dime, I must add? I'll be checking this comment for responses, because either I'll learn something new (great!), or I see no response, and conclude that you learned something new (even better!).

mygo 5y ago

I'd love to hear your long list of reasons why. This is coming from someone who has heard of Tik Tok but has never used it. I'm a late adopter to social platforms, joining Twitter in 2014 and not really using it until last year.

romwell 5y ago
OK, I have responded to many people in this thread. The TL;DR is that TikTok connects people who are facing the same struggles, which really helps with dealing with them.