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I wouldnt normally comment in the Nth “social media bad” post on HN, but for anyone who doesnt use the stuff - TikTok’s main feed is entirely algorithmic. My fe

by omeze 4y ago

I wouldnt normally comment in the Nth “social media bad” post on HN, but for anyone who doesnt use the stuff - TikTok’s main feed is entirely algorithmic. My feed (just went thru 20 videos) is all movie & restaurant recommendations, programming, Valorant (video game), finance, and cats. I think the disconnect here is that TikTok uses a lot of subtle signals like watch time / rewatches apart from likes/follows to place content. When I see something like an underaged girl dancing (very rare now, but common when I first installed) I make sure to instantly swipe rather than watch it until its end. My 2c: I think TikTok is actually a great product and a ourely algorithmic feed that helps people discover new things is clearly desirable! But people should know what the driving behaviora are that dictate the content being served, and parental controls should be present for kids.

rightbyte 4y ago
> I wouldnt normally comment in the Nth “social media bad” post on HN Sure. I agree. My complaint is somewhat of a "kids these days"-comment. However, just as Aristotle or whatever Greek philosopher allegedly complained about the next generation 2000 years ago allready, he could eventually be right. There could eventually be a worse social media. My point being, TikTok being better is bad. In the same sense a even better World of Warcraft when I was the target demographic would have been devastating for a chunk of my generation.