7 ms·

Your perception of TikTok likely depends on your TikTok for you page. If you spend time cultivating it, the algorithm will learn you like authenticity and show

by thorum 2y ago

Your perception of TikTok likely depends on your TikTok for you page. If you spend time cultivating it, the algorithm will learn you like authenticity and show you more of it. This seems to be less true on YouTube and Reels unfortunately.

Salgat 2y ago
The algorithm will spoonfeed you content that you perceive a certain way, whether that's true or not is a different story. Unfortunately for most people, all those hilarious situations that are not-so-obviously staged just fly over their heads as genuine. My wife is smart and well educated, but I even had to keep correcting her when she showed me videos that she believed were genuine.
- boringg 2y ago
  I think a lot of people fall for the feels authentic and confuse it with authentic. Also a lot of people cant tell the difference.
  - raydev 2y ago
    A lot of people are simply pessimists and will dismiss real authenticity because they don't have the tools to recognize it.
    - pixl97 2y ago
      Because the internet is filled by slop shit by people trying to make a buck from it. It's like saying I don't know how to recognize non-spam when I end up blocking 99.99% of all mail showing up at the server. I do recognize non-spam, it's just that I know most of it is crap.
      - snoman 2y ago
        I don’t know that it’s people trying to make a buck - and that seems a bit silly of a thing to say to begin with. I presume you try to make your buck doing whatever it is you do. What I will say is that it’s definitely a different form of expression from what we’ve had beyond recent history and - at the same time - artists, photographers, painters, jesters, philosophers, and playwrights have been trying to live off their form of expression for a while now too.
    - motorest 2y ago
      > A lot of people are simply pessimists and will dismiss real authenticity because they don't have the tools to recognize it. Do you think you have those tools? And if you do, do you actually have them? You are purposely being shoveled content that's expected to be engaging. Your feedback is used to tune your own personal model to maximize the volume of content you swallow.
      - pizza 2y ago
        If I ever get to know you, remind me not to recommend you books I think you’ll like.
        motorest 2y ago
        The mistake you're making is presuming that these recommendations are pushed to you with your best interests in mind. Read up on propaganda attacks such as the infamous alt-right pipeline.
        pizza 2y ago
        If we believe people can't be trusted with free access to ideas because they might become 'radicalized' or potential ’useful idiots’, we're advocating for more social control, not less. The ability to think critically isn't threatened by exposure to ideas - it's threatened by a broken social contract that deprives people of the conditions for self-actualization and genuine autonomy. Banning platforms or content just scapegoats symptoms while ignoring this deeper crisis.
  - hirvi74 2y ago
    Is there truly a difference? It's not our reality that shapes our perception, but our perception that shapes our reality.
    - topherclay 2y ago
      Excuse me, have you never "perceived" a lie before?
      - hirvi74 2y ago
        I have believed vastly more than I have perceived. Of the lies I have perceived, my reality has altered in response to the perception.
- OccamsMirror 2y ago
  My TikTok For You Page is almost entirely made up of Veritasium videos, sci-fi authors, some standup, lock picking lawyer and "how is it made" style videos. I don't get any of that brain-rot slop. If I did, I wouldn't use it. Which would be a slight improvement to my life. Although I'm not negatively impacted by the current level of my TikTok use, I can definitely see it takes an extra level of willpower to stop (i.e. close the app, put down the phone) than almost any other of my extra curriculars. From enjoyable hobbies to other fun time wasting activities such as gaming. Barring Factorio which is the biggest time warp I've ever encountered, with an almost perfect dopamine extracting game loop. The algorithm is good. It's too good, and that's why it's dangerous.
  - southernplaces7 2y ago
    >The algorithm is good. It's too good, and that's why it's dangerous. So, based on your description, the algorithm gives you almost exactly what you like, in terms of authenticity and legitimate interest on your part, instead of force feeding you crap that tries to change your perception of X or Y, and this is... bad? How exactly is it dangerous for doing what you want it to instead of pouring slop onto your brain?
    - rndmio 2y ago
      An endless supply of content you like is infinitely more problematic than just shovelling irrelevant slop at you. With the latter you’re going to put it down.
  - itishappy 2y ago
    I'd argue that shorts, even the educational ones, are still the same brain-rot slop.
    - OccamsMirror 2y ago
      These videos are often not that short. They're often broken into several parts and can be 30 minutes or longer. The true danger of TikTok is the "wonder what will be next?" which is an infinitely rewarding question.
- motoxpro 2y ago
  The funny thing is I think you're misunderstanding the scale. You wife likes videos that are not-so-obviously staged. Somone else would get purely staged videos. Someone else would get actual real videos. If you like real pilots landing planes on runways where the wheels make sudden noises, it will give you that. There are tens of billions of pieces of content there. TikTok is the furthest thing from a monolith possible. It has to start somewhere, so it recommends the things that the most people like, but it's not the only content there, that's just common sense and good business (recommend The Beatles/Taylor Swift before you recommend Arch Echo/Aesop Rock)
munificent 2y ago
> the algorithm will learn you like authenticity and show you more of it. Jesus, this is like a line out of a William Gibson novel. I hope you wrote that aware of the irony inherent in it. I'm also reminded of this George Burns quote: "The key to success is sincerity. If you can fake that you've got it made."
- echelon 2y ago
  > Jesus, this is like a line out of a William Gibson novel. I hope you wrote that aware of the irony inherent in it. There's a spectrum between Vaudeville and sharing family recipes. YouTube's MrBeast is on one end of that spectrum. This is the kind of stuff that happens on TikTok: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdXhx-yECOc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdXhx-yECOc This is what was meant.
  - karmakaze 2y ago
    It all looks the same to me. Something made to be amusing/viral for the clicks.
  - thrwthsnw 2y ago
    Is this supposed to be good?
  - motorest 2y ago
    > This is what was meant. I think you inadvertently made an entirely different point: it's all fake, but you just swallow some content acritically believing it's something personal that speaks to you. In the end, you're just complaining that some sirens are fake but others really do love you.
  - wqaatwt 2y ago
    > This is the kind of stuff that happens on TikTok: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdXhx-yECOc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdXhx-yECOc still confused. Is this supposed to be an example of “bad” or “good” content? Because I can’t (perhaps due to lack of empathy.. idk) imagine why anyone would want to waste their time watching stuff like that.
furyofantares 2y ago
I had cultivated a FYP that felt authentic to me, especially relative to everything else on the internet, but after a while it looked just as phony to my eyes, without any real change in the content itself. Just a different brand of phony.
- boringg 2y ago
  This is exactly it - its filled with phony garbage but its a new and exciting kind of phony garbage that people lap up. Also people are getting really good at making content seem real.
gunian 2y ago
the TikTok reocmmendation engine seemed to work better with a sparse history and better understood user feedback about content that one wants to see or avoid Instagram tbh just feels icky but at least you can explicitly like or dislike stuff not that it would fix the feed though YT shorts is also good but I hate you can't say show me this or do not show me that and it is all based on duration. idk what the powers that be at YT were thinking but I'm sure they did user studies and stuff so much for free market economics though stuck with two imperfect options because Zuck couldn't fix the feed :(

by thorum 2y ago

Salgat 2y ago

The algorithm will spoonfeed you content that you perceive a certain way, whether that's true or not is a different story. Unfortunately for most people, all those hilarious situations that are not-so-obviously staged just fly over their heads as genuine. My wife is smart and well educated, but I even had to keep correcting her when she showed me videos that she believed were genuine.

boringg 2y ago
I think a lot of people fall for the feels authentic and confuse it with authentic. Also a lot of people cant tell the difference.
- raydev 2y ago
  A lot of people are simply pessimists and will dismiss real authenticity because they don't have the tools to recognize it.
  - pixl97 2y ago
    Because the internet is filled by slop shit by people trying to make a buck from it. It's like saying I don't know how to recognize non-spam when I end up blocking 99.99% of all mail showing up at the server. I do recognize non-spam, it's just that I know most of it is crap.
    - snoman 2y ago
      I don’t know that it’s people trying to make a buck - and that seems a bit silly of a thing to say to begin with. I presume you try to make your buck doing whatever it is you do. What I will say is that it’s definitely a different form of expression from what we’ve had beyond recent history and - at the same time - artists, photographers, painters, jesters, philosophers, and playwrights have been trying to live off their form of expression for a while now too.
  - motorest 2y ago
    > A lot of people are simply pessimists and will dismiss real authenticity because they don't have the tools to recognize it. Do you think you have those tools? And if you do, do you actually have them? You are purposely being shoveled content that's expected to be engaging. Your feedback is used to tune your own personal model to maximize the volume of content you swallow.
    - pizza 2y ago
      If I ever get to know you, remind me not to recommend you books I think you’ll like.
      - motorest 2y ago
        The mistake you're making is presuming that these recommendations are pushed to you with your best interests in mind. Read up on propaganda attacks such as the infamous alt-right pipeline.
        pizza 2y ago
        If we believe people can't be trusted with free access to ideas because they might become 'radicalized' or potential ’useful idiots’, we're advocating for more social control, not less. The ability to think critically isn't threatened by exposure to ideas - it's threatened by a broken social contract that deprives people of the conditions for self-actualization and genuine autonomy. Banning platforms or content just scapegoats symptoms while ignoring this deeper crisis.
- hirvi74 2y ago
  Is there truly a difference? It's not our reality that shapes our perception, but our perception that shapes our reality.
  - topherclay 2y ago
    Excuse me, have you never "perceived" a lie before?
    - hirvi74 2y ago
      I have believed vastly more than I have perceived. Of the lies I have perceived, my reality has altered in response to the perception.
OccamsMirror 2y ago
My TikTok For You Page is almost entirely made up of Veritasium videos, sci-fi authors, some standup, lock picking lawyer and "how is it made" style videos. I don't get any of that brain-rot slop. If I did, I wouldn't use it. Which would be a slight improvement to my life. Although I'm not negatively impacted by the current level of my TikTok use, I can definitely see it takes an extra level of willpower to stop (i.e. close the app, put down the phone) than almost any other of my extra curriculars. From enjoyable hobbies to other fun time wasting activities such as gaming. Barring Factorio which is the biggest time warp I've ever encountered, with an almost perfect dopamine extracting game loop. The algorithm is good. It's too good, and that's why it's dangerous.
- southernplaces7 2y ago
  >The algorithm is good. It's too good, and that's why it's dangerous. So, based on your description, the algorithm gives you almost exactly what you like, in terms of authenticity and legitimate interest on your part, instead of force feeding you crap that tries to change your perception of X or Y, and this is... bad? How exactly is it dangerous for doing what you want it to instead of pouring slop onto your brain?
  - rndmio 2y ago
    An endless supply of content you like is infinitely more problematic than just shovelling irrelevant slop at you. With the latter you’re going to put it down.
- itishappy 2y ago
  I'd argue that shorts, even the educational ones, are still the same brain-rot slop.
  - OccamsMirror 2y ago
    These videos are often not that short. They're often broken into several parts and can be 30 minutes or longer. The true danger of TikTok is the "wonder what will be next?" which is an infinitely rewarding question.
motoxpro 2y ago
The funny thing is I think you're misunderstanding the scale. You wife likes videos that are not-so-obviously staged. Somone else would get purely staged videos. Someone else would get actual real videos. If you like real pilots landing planes on runways where the wheels make sudden noises, it will give you that. There are tens of billions of pieces of content there. TikTok is the furthest thing from a monolith possible. It has to start somewhere, so it recommends the things that the most people like, but it's not the only content there, that's just common sense and good business (recommend The Beatles/Taylor Swift before you recommend Arch Echo/Aesop Rock)

munificent 2y ago

> the algorithm will learn you like authenticity and show you more of it. Jesus, this is like a line out of a William Gibson novel. I hope you wrote that aware of the irony inherent in it. I'm also reminded of this George Burns quote: "The key to success is sincerity. If you can fake that you've got it made."

echelon 2y ago
> Jesus, this is like a line out of a William Gibson novel. I hope you wrote that aware of the irony inherent in it. There's a spectrum between Vaudeville and sharing family recipes. YouTube's MrBeast is on one end of that spectrum. This is the kind of stuff that happens on TikTok: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdXhx-yECOc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdXhx-yECOc This is what was meant.
- karmakaze 2y ago
  It all looks the same to me. Something made to be amusing/viral for the clicks.
- thrwthsnw 2y ago
  Is this supposed to be good?
- motorest 2y ago
  > This is what was meant. I think you inadvertently made an entirely different point: it's all fake, but you just swallow some content acritically believing it's something personal that speaks to you. In the end, you're just complaining that some sirens are fake but others really do love you.
- wqaatwt 2y ago
  > This is the kind of stuff that happens on TikTok: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdXhx-yECOc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdXhx-yECOc still confused. Is this supposed to be an example of “bad” or “good” content? Because I can’t (perhaps due to lack of empathy.. idk) imagine why anyone would want to waste their time watching stuff like that.

furyofantares 2y ago

I had cultivated a FYP that felt authentic to me, especially relative to everything else on the internet, but after a while it looked just as phony to my eyes, without any real change in the content itself. Just a different brand of phony.

boringg 2y ago
This is exactly it - its filled with phony garbage but its a new and exciting kind of phony garbage that people lap up. Also people are getting really good at making content seem real.

gunian 2y ago

the TikTok reocmmendation engine seemed to work better with a sparse history and better understood user feedback about content that one wants to see or avoid Instagram tbh just feels icky but at least you can explicitly like or dislike stuff not that it would fix the feed though YT shorts is also good but I hate you can't say show me this or do not show me that and it is all based on duration. idk what the powers that be at YT were thinking but I'm sure they did user studies and stuff so much for free market economics though stuck with two imperfect options because Zuck couldn't fix the feed :(