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TikTok is banned in my country but friends from UK and US say that the algorithm is much better at recommending videos. True or just plain individual bias?

• Quikinterp 4y ago
  It's algorithm is way more aggressive than other social media. Sometimes it's almost creepy. I don't care about a lot of stuff on there but it's easy to find yourself in very niche communities on tiktok.
• system16 4y ago
  In my experience it's absolutely true. Maybe it's just early in Instagram's phase of their new feed and it's not optimized, but all I see are a bunch of seemingly random memes and videos that don't interest me at all, and they only appear targeted to me in the most superficial of ways. Essentially I skip past the videos looking for friend photos, and after about 30 seconds get bored and shut the app. TikTok on the other hand seems to know me better than I do myself (or care to admit). I go out of my way to not open it because I know 30 minutes of my time will vanish in an instant.
• dahdum 4y ago
  Very true, but partly due to the broad content variety TikTok has. Their tools to help creators are excellent and they do a lot to promote highly niche content. Instagram is a clunky mishmash of features rolled out in desperation. TikTok may suffer the same fate eventually, but I think they are years away from that.
• kylehotchkiss 4y ago
  https://restofworld.org/2021/instagram-and-class-in-india/ https://restofworld.org/2021/instagram-and-class-in-india/ I saw this last year and it does a great job telling the story of how Instagram's recommendation engine biased towards "elites"
  • spaceman_2020 4y ago
    When TikTok was available here, I loved it largely because it had a lot of creators from poor and rural areas. The content was genuinely way more fun and authentic than any slickly edited video on Instagram