2 ms·

TikTok quickly learns what you don't like and the homepage becomes a mix of your subscriptions, new content that you might like and very new kind of content tha

by mrtksn 4y ago

TikTok quickly learns what you don't like and the homepage becomes a mix of your subscriptions, new content that you might like and very new kind of content that you haven't been exposed or stuff that you outgrew but you might like to revisit. Learning the things you don't like is important. It's much more pleasant experience when you are not exposed to the stuff you don't like. Unlike Twitter, the stuff you don't like doesn't mean things you disagree with. You very well might not like politics, TikTok keeps you out of the culture war then.

indiv0 4y ago
Interestingly it also seems to mix your content with content your friends tend to view. Or at least it does so tentatively, to see if you share the same interest. When I friended a pilot friend of mine on TikTok, I immediately started seeing pilot/plane content. This is after having had an account since forever and not once having seen pilot content on my For You page before. It's an interesting way to broaden your horizons, but it does turn a little common denominator, depending on what your friends like. Similarly (and I have no way of proving this, but I believe it 100%), TikTok seems to alter your feed to incorporate videos from other people watching TikTok near you. My friends and I have made a game of this where we cast TikTok to a TV, watch videos, and try to guess which of us the video was intended for. I've never once had a "oh wow that's a neat content discovery method" moment from Facebook/Instagram/YouTube but it has happened multiple times with TikTok. I'm not saying TikTok is the end-all-be-all of social media, but it's a good window into what social media could be, if they stopped chasing ad revenue and anger-driven content.
- mrtksn 4y ago
  Oh it definitely keeps track of you social circle and shows similar content. Bedtime browsing on the same phone often yields some "I've seen this before" reactions.
winternett 4y ago
Most political things don't generate huge amounts of platform advertising money probably on TikTok... The autopilot ad revenue is easy for them to make on political content as well because right now, there's only a few different aspects competing with each other... It's likely that a lot of users don't primarily go to TikTok for political content, it's primarily music and social influencer based as well... This is why TikTok allows users to avoid political content, it's not a "cash cow" niche for them.
- mrtksn 4y ago
  There's definitely political content too. It's just that it tends to be expressed much more creatively, through music, dancing and acting.
  - winternett 4y ago
    Of course, I'm just saying that there are more fart jokes, memes, and makeup tip videos than political ones on TikTok at this particular moment in time.

by mrtksn 4y ago

indiv0 4y ago

Interestingly it also seems to mix your content with content your friends tend to view. Or at least it does so tentatively, to see if you share the same interest. When I friended a pilot friend of mine on TikTok, I immediately started seeing pilot/plane content. This is after having had an account since forever and not once having seen pilot content on my For You page before. It's an interesting way to broaden your horizons, but it does turn a little common denominator, depending on what your friends like. Similarly (and I have no way of proving this, but I believe it 100%), TikTok seems to alter your feed to incorporate videos from other people watching TikTok near you. My friends and I have made a game of this where we cast TikTok to a TV, watch videos, and try to guess which of us the video was intended for. I've never once had a "oh wow that's a neat content discovery method" moment from Facebook/Instagram/YouTube but it has happened multiple times with TikTok. I'm not saying TikTok is the end-all-be-all of social media, but it's a good window into what social media could be, if they stopped chasing ad revenue and anger-driven content.

mrtksn 4y ago
Oh it definitely keeps track of you social circle and shows similar content. Bedtime browsing on the same phone often yields some "I've seen this before" reactions.

winternett 4y ago

Most political things don't generate huge amounts of platform advertising money probably on TikTok... The autopilot ad revenue is easy for them to make on political content as well because right now, there's only a few different aspects competing with each other... It's likely that a lot of users don't primarily go to TikTok for political content, it's primarily music and social influencer based as well... This is why TikTok allows users to avoid political content, it's not a "cash cow" niche for them.

mrtksn 4y ago
There's definitely political content too. It's just that it tends to be expressed much more creatively, through music, dancing and acting.
- winternett 4y ago
  Of course, I'm just saying that there are more fart jokes, memes, and makeup tip videos than political ones on TikTok at this particular moment in time.