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I'm old. I barely engage with "normal" social media and thus TikTok and its appeal are an absolute mystery to me. All the TikTok trends - the dances, the "icebe

I'm old. I barely engage with "normal" social media and thus TikTok and its appeal are an absolute mystery to me. All the TikTok trends - the dances, the "icebergs", side-by-side video "responses", and now "sludge" videos - feel like communications from an Alien race. Heck, I still feel slightly annoyed when I see a vertical video of any kind. I guess this is how my parents felt about the internet and video games.

danielovichdk 3y ago
I dont know. Video games was one thing. It didn't context switch as a 10 second video with flickering content does. Next video. Next video. Next Next Next Next.... I am no brain expert but I know when our kids are over stimulated
- thih9 3y ago
  > When the Stockton-Darlington Railway opened in 1825, people feared the worst: the human body, surely, wasn't made to travel at incredible speeds of 30 miles per hour. People genuinely believed that going that quickly would kill you in gruesome ways, such as your body melting. https://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/12-technologies-that-scared-the-world-senseless-1249053 https://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/12-technologies... And both can be true, trains have killed people and tiktok can have adverse effects. So far we’ve kept trains, added safety measures and made them faster. I guess we’ll do the same with tiktok and the like.
  - Aeglaecia 3y ago
    now compare tiktoks net benefit to society with that of trains
    - thih9 3y ago
      Why is that relevant? I was showing distrust to new ideas, no matter their usefulness. The article also mentions television and cassette recorders if that helps.
- NoPicklez 3y ago
  I have to agree. Video games had a time and a place and I could play them all day. But these Tiktok's and reels are way too over stimulating for something I can watch in my hands. They provide way too much comfort and satisfaction not only when I have nothing to do, but also when I have a lot to do. And don't think this impacts only a group of people. My father who you could hardly find in front of a TV now loves his iPad.
  - raffraffraff 3y ago
    My nephew can't focus on one video game at a time. While he's starting one he starts talking about another, but the next thing you know he's in the play store installing some ad-filled garbage that he'll use for 20s before uninstalling. He asked me the other day if I knew any good rugby games. He has 3 already (one being pretty good). "yeah, I played those". I said "you played them maybe twice, but you didn't play long enough to get good enough to enjoy it". He doesn't really get it. To much on offer to pick one thing. Adding an online store to any video game system is cancer for the attention span. It's insane. He's only 5 but seriously, it's not a good start. I've told his dad but "whaddaya gonna do?" is the response. At that age I got days out of a rubber band.
    - tanseydavid 3y ago
      >> He's only 5... Wow, did not see that coming! My nephew and I have a similar connection but he's 30, so my mental picture was way off.
thih9 3y ago
I use tiktok daily or every other day, I can provide some first hand anecdotes. Dances are funny to me, at least the ones I see, they remind me of memes; it’s about 10% of my feed. I have no idea what are icebergs (please explain). Video responses (“duets” / “stitches”) can be funny or informative. Also perhaps 10%. I‘ve seen “sludge” only in a simpler form (minecraft gameplay and an automated voice reading a reddit post), I saw it maybe 2-3 times total. My point is just like you can tweak your twitter, reddit, etc experience to show you the content you want and enjoy - you can do the same with tiktok. Although if you don’t like vertical videos then absolutely skip it.
- AlexandrB 3y ago
  My mistake, icebergs are a YouTube phenomenon: https://old.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/kx5sj7/whats_the_deal_with_all_the_iceberg_videos/ https://old.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/kx5sj7/whats_... I just assumed they came over from TikTok. But as the saying goes: "When you assume you make an ass out of u and me."
  - KingGeedorah 3y ago
    Do you not like icebergs? I thought they were nice ways to organize information on a topic/community.
    - antifa 3y ago
      Icebergs are great because they go deep and random, but constrained to a very specific topic/subject, where most alternative content is repeatitively shallow or clickbait.
WhyOhWhyQ 3y ago
I thought I was immune to the dance video trend, but then I encountered the slick back slide and lost my job, my wife, and my kids
sureglymop 3y ago
I'm young and I feel the same. And I have many younger cousins (gen alpha) who don't understand or don't like these new age platforms like TikTok and would never use them.

danielovichdk 3y ago

I dont know. Video games was one thing. It didn't context switch as a 10 second video with flickering content does. Next video. Next video. Next Next Next Next.... I am no brain expert but I know when our kids are over stimulated

thih9 3y ago
> When the Stockton-Darlington Railway opened in 1825, people feared the worst: the human body, surely, wasn't made to travel at incredible speeds of 30 miles per hour. People genuinely believed that going that quickly would kill you in gruesome ways, such as your body melting. https://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/12-technologies-that-scared-the-world-senseless-1249053 https://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/12-technologies... And both can be true, trains have killed people and tiktok can have adverse effects. So far we’ve kept trains, added safety measures and made them faster. I guess we’ll do the same with tiktok and the like.
- Aeglaecia 3y ago
  now compare tiktoks net benefit to society with that of trains
  - thih9 3y ago
    Why is that relevant? I was showing distrust to new ideas, no matter their usefulness. The article also mentions television and cassette recorders if that helps.
NoPicklez 3y ago
I have to agree. Video games had a time and a place and I could play them all day. But these Tiktok's and reels are way too over stimulating for something I can watch in my hands. They provide way too much comfort and satisfaction not only when I have nothing to do, but also when I have a lot to do. And don't think this impacts only a group of people. My father who you could hardly find in front of a TV now loves his iPad.
- raffraffraff 3y ago
  My nephew can't focus on one video game at a time. While he's starting one he starts talking about another, but the next thing you know he's in the play store installing some ad-filled garbage that he'll use for 20s before uninstalling. He asked me the other day if I knew any good rugby games. He has 3 already (one being pretty good). "yeah, I played those". I said "you played them maybe twice, but you didn't play long enough to get good enough to enjoy it". He doesn't really get it. To much on offer to pick one thing. Adding an online store to any video game system is cancer for the attention span. It's insane. He's only 5 but seriously, it's not a good start. I've told his dad but "whaddaya gonna do?" is the response. At that age I got days out of a rubber band.
  - tanseydavid 3y ago
    >> He's only 5... Wow, did not see that coming! My nephew and I have a similar connection but he's 30, so my mental picture was way off.

thih9 3y ago

I use tiktok daily or every other day, I can provide some first hand anecdotes. Dances are funny to me, at least the ones I see, they remind me of memes; it’s about 10% of my feed. I have no idea what are icebergs (please explain). Video responses (“duets” / “stitches”) can be funny or informative. Also perhaps 10%. I‘ve seen “sludge” only in a simpler form (minecraft gameplay and an automated voice reading a reddit post), I saw it maybe 2-3 times total. My point is just like you can tweak your twitter, reddit, etc experience to show you the content you want and enjoy - you can do the same with tiktok. Although if you don’t like vertical videos then absolutely skip it.

AlexandrB 3y ago
My mistake, icebergs are a YouTube phenomenon: https://old.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/kx5sj7/whats_the_deal_with_all_the_iceberg_videos/ https://old.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/kx5sj7/whats_... I just assumed they came over from TikTok. But as the saying goes: "When you assume you make an ass out of u and me."
- KingGeedorah 3y ago
  Do you not like icebergs? I thought they were nice ways to organize information on a topic/community.
  - antifa 3y ago
    Icebergs are great because they go deep and random, but constrained to a very specific topic/subject, where most alternative content is repeatitively shallow or clickbait.

WhyOhWhyQ 3y ago

I thought I was immune to the dance video trend, but then I encountered the slick back slide and lost my job, my wife, and my kids

sureglymop 3y ago

I'm young and I feel the same. And I have many younger cousins (gen alpha) who don't understand or don't like these new age platforms like TikTok and would never use them.