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But is it really worth anything to have young kids post videos about how good they look or what they eat? Compare this to some really high quality content on yo

But is it really worth anything to have young kids post videos about how good they look or what they eat? Compare this to some really high quality content on youtube.

lelandfe 4y ago
Go get addicted to TikTok for a month and find out how high quality the stuff can get. There are farmers, professors, chefs, mathematicians, dancers, artists and so much more doing amazing things on the platform. Privacy concerns aside, it really is a wonderful nexus of humans.
- submeta 4y ago
  Wow, did not know I could find all of that on that platform. Still, the quality of those videos is rather mediocre, to say the least. - But maybe I'm not the audience of this platform. But at least I now see there is a target group for them.
  - the_lonely_road 4y ago
    Quality compared to Hollywood’s is bad of course. Compared to Reddit or YouTube it’s great. Depends on what you are expecting I guess.
- wafriedemann 4y ago
  >it really is a wonderful nexus of humans. Never heard anyone say that about TikTok, ever. Even if true, the amound of bullshit and disgust you have to endure to find one good video isn't worth it.
  - the_lonely_road 4y ago
    This simply is not true. One of the reasons TikTok is so addictive is because of the high signal to noise ratio in favor of signal. People talk about the quality of their algorithm all the time. The first day or two is naturally not as good as you are just getting a bunch of highly random content because it literally knows nothing about your tastes. But it’s literally the flick of a finger to move onto the next video and a tap of a heart to let it know you found something you like. I can now get pretty much 80% videos from creators I enjoy and the variety of that content is amazing. Funny rap, followed by serious rap, followed by a professional chef critiquing the creation of a dish, followed by a SNL skit, followed by a Ryan Reynolds skit and on and on.
    - wafriedemann 4y ago
      It's addictive, because you're chasing the good videos like wins on a one-armed bandit. Loss loss loss WIN loss loss WIN loss loss loss loss. Tha'ts why I would never use it for a longer period on a daily basis, because I think it fucks up your brain chemistry more than any other social media app (additionally to the appalling content I had to witness).
      - sirtomato 4y ago
        Sounds a lot like slot machines...
- saiya-jin 4y ago
  You could say the same about youtube, all you mention and much more. Yes I know there are differences. What irks me with these sort of uncritical apologists is how they see it as second coming of Jesus, when all I ever seen praised about tiktok keeps me hard in 'meh' category. I am sure its addictive as I see it clearly in other's people kids, but so is heroin and I feel 0 urge to get hooked on it nor make it available for my small children. Life, and its ultimate quality and beauty is something completely, utterly different thing. It never came, comes or ever will come off the screen.
  - lelandfe 4y ago
    > You could say the same about youtube, all you mention and much more YouTube's discoverability is abysmal, so it's really not comparable. I use YouTube every day and have not had it recommend to me a new channel I'm interested in... a year? When I refresh my homepage, nearly one half of the videos stay the same. I've already seen 5 of them. > I am sure its addictive as I see it clearly in other's people kids, but so is heroin Well, I'm not praising its addictiveness, right? I'm praising the people that post on it. TikTok is essentially Chinese spyware, and the quality of its algorithm is terrifying. But that's really it – it's just a good content platform, and its scale means its attracted great content. Ascribing all these silly qualities to it, like being in opposition to life, and similar to heroin, is hyperbole to the extreme.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  "get addicted but only temporarily" is insane advice.
Tiktaalik 4y ago
I think tiktok's "slice of life" short glimpses into how people live is dramatically more interesting than the bloated content youtube pushes at me, which is usually weirdos with fake sounding voices doing overly dramatized "explainers" or "reactions" about something the algorithm has identified I'm mildly interested in. What you see in tiktok feels more "real" (even when contrived) than the overly produced content of youtube.

But is it really worth anything to have young kids post videos about how good they look or what they eat? Compare this to some really high quality content on youtube.

lelandfe 4y ago

Go get addicted to TikTok for a month and find out how high quality the stuff can get. There are farmers, professors, chefs, mathematicians, dancers, artists and so much more doing amazing things on the platform. Privacy concerns aside, it really is a wonderful nexus of humans.

submeta 4y ago
Wow, did not know I could find all of that on that platform. Still, the quality of those videos is rather mediocre, to say the least. - But maybe I'm not the audience of this platform. But at least I now see there is a target group for them.
- the_lonely_road 4y ago
  Quality compared to Hollywood’s is bad of course. Compared to Reddit or YouTube it’s great. Depends on what you are expecting I guess.
wafriedemann 4y ago
>it really is a wonderful nexus of humans. Never heard anyone say that about TikTok, ever. Even if true, the amound of bullshit and disgust you have to endure to find one good video isn't worth it.
- the_lonely_road 4y ago
  This simply is not true. One of the reasons TikTok is so addictive is because of the high signal to noise ratio in favor of signal. People talk about the quality of their algorithm all the time. The first day or two is naturally not as good as you are just getting a bunch of highly random content because it literally knows nothing about your tastes. But it’s literally the flick of a finger to move onto the next video and a tap of a heart to let it know you found something you like. I can now get pretty much 80% videos from creators I enjoy and the variety of that content is amazing. Funny rap, followed by serious rap, followed by a professional chef critiquing the creation of a dish, followed by a SNL skit, followed by a Ryan Reynolds skit and on and on.
  - wafriedemann 4y ago
    It's addictive, because you're chasing the good videos like wins on a one-armed bandit. Loss loss loss WIN loss loss WIN loss loss loss loss. Tha'ts why I would never use it for a longer period on a daily basis, because I think it fucks up your brain chemistry more than any other social media app (additionally to the appalling content I had to witness).
    - sirtomato 4y ago
      Sounds a lot like slot machines...
saiya-jin 4y ago
You could say the same about youtube, all you mention and much more. Yes I know there are differences. What irks me with these sort of uncritical apologists is how they see it as second coming of Jesus, when all I ever seen praised about tiktok keeps me hard in 'meh' category. I am sure its addictive as I see it clearly in other's people kids, but so is heroin and I feel 0 urge to get hooked on it nor make it available for my small children. Life, and its ultimate quality and beauty is something completely, utterly different thing. It never came, comes or ever will come off the screen.
- lelandfe 4y ago
  > You could say the same about youtube, all you mention and much more YouTube's discoverability is abysmal, so it's really not comparable. I use YouTube every day and have not had it recommend to me a new channel I'm interested in... a year? When I refresh my homepage, nearly one half of the videos stay the same. I've already seen 5 of them. > I am sure its addictive as I see it clearly in other's people kids, but so is heroin Well, I'm not praising its addictiveness, right? I'm praising the people that post on it. TikTok is essentially Chinese spyware, and the quality of its algorithm is terrifying. But that's really it – it's just a good content platform, and its scale means its attracted great content. Ascribing all these silly qualities to it, like being in opposition to life, and similar to heroin, is hyperbole to the extreme.
MichaelCollins 4y ago
"get addicted but only temporarily" is insane advice.

Tiktaalik 4y ago

I think tiktok's "slice of life" short glimpses into how people live is dramatically more interesting than the bloated content youtube pushes at me, which is usually weirdos with fake sounding voices doing overly dramatized "explainers" or "reactions" about something the algorithm has identified I'm mildly interested in. What you see in tiktok feels more "real" (even when contrived) than the overly produced content of youtube.