Essay: How do you describe TikTok? | Hacker News Reader

Essay: How do you describe TikTok?

kylechayka.substack.com

58 pointsmerrier38 comments

TikTok is a social media app that focuses on 'creating' interesting content 'in the moment'.

Instagram is about interesting content but more in a very curated museum sort of way. "Look at me when I am at my best"

Snapchat is about not-necessarily-interesting content that focusses on being in the moment. "Look at me shooting the shit"

TikTok is about showcasing talent in the moment. Even the prettiest instafluencer can't just stand there doing nothing in a TikTok video. The focus is on creativity and doing something creative. "Look at me showing you something entertaining / interesting / educational or all of the above."

Since you pretty much have to catch the attention of the viewer from the very first second (or you will get swiped up), there is none of that "Hey guys how's it going" bullshit that plagues Youtube videos. Extreme content density.

I really like this sort of "what is X" because I've often wondered what role TikTok fills. The funny thing is that, insofar as the description is accurate, it sounds like the kind of thing I would intentionally avoid using. A TikTok binge sounds like everything crummy about social media platforms that I've been trying to expunge from my viewing habits - empty, shallow, addictive an utterly unsatisfying.

One role it fills is seeing what people unlike yourself in all corners of the world, different age groups, different cultures of all kinds, and so on, are up to, interested in, how they live, and all sorts of unexpected things. I find it to be far more accurate than the imagination, which seems to be most people's preferred approach to forming opinions about people they know nothing about.

I fee like I've gone around on TikTok. At first it was a joke and a silly waste of time, then it blew my mind with how subversive and funny it could be, then I was scrolling it for hours at a time, then I felt uncomfortable, now I rarely even open it.

It's a bit like a drug. Heroin is supposedly extremely good, meth too. Yes, TikTok manages to find and repeatedly push that little satisfaction button in your brain in a surprisingly sophisticated way. That does not mean that it is good or healthy.

Yep, I love TikTok but I uninstalled it because it's so easy to spend hours on it and not even realize it.

This essay is probably what is going to make me finally install the app. Nobody has been able to explain to me what TikTok is beyond people dancing and reacting to memes. I think what the author says about the algorithm guiding you instead of what your friends want is something I've always wanted. Other social media gets so bogged down in the relationship between you and the people you follow rather than the nature of the content itself.

Really? I’m pretty sure the algorithm is guiding you in al the big players of social media. They are guiding you because they want your attention and they want to show you ads, if they counted only on your friends to do that for you then you’d leave. Facebook now injects random videos of pages you don’t follow just to keep you attached. Instagram suggests pages, friends, changes order of videos, etc. You have a relationship with the algorithm in many of them.

HN loves to hate on TikTok but it's by far the best entertainment app out there. I go there because it makes me happy.

It's like imgur or reddit but with a recommendation engine that works and where you can completely avoid all the community infighting drama bullshit.

I installed it out of spite a couple months ago and it's one of the best decisions I've made during the pandemic. It has brought me so much cheer. I expected it to be dumb, instead it's been delightful. I'm not sure it's possible to understand the appeal of TikTok without trying it yourself and seeing what the algorithm does.

Literally my "origin" story as well. I installed it to make fun of how stupid I "knew" it had to be. The funny clips friends had shown me could not have been surfaced easily, they must have spent hours and hours to find these gems.... Nope, within a few days it was showing me stuff regularly I found even funnier than what my friends had shown me before.

> I go there because it makes me happy.

Could not agree more, I have all my niche topics in an endless stream I can dip in and out of as I desire. The hit-rate on "things I like that it shows me" is incredibly high, higher than I would have believed possible without heavy tuning on my part. I did "nothing" but like the videos I enjoyed, swipe to the next video on videos I didn't like, and occasionally follow a creator if I've seen 3+ videos of their on my FYP that I like.

I might like if but I have major ethical issues with doing business with any Chinese (or Saudi or North Korean or Vietnamese etc) company if it can be avoided.

Why prop up a dictatorship?

China is the world's largest economy, there's no way to avoid doing business with it.

Doesn’t mean you can’t try. Being deliberate with whom you associate is all you can really do.

History is chock full of examples that demonstrate otherwise.

It's the second largest economy. And I agree that it's practically impossible to avoid it completely, I only suggest avoiding it where possible.

My personal rule is to not buy anything made in China for more than $100. I can't avoid buying Chinese for cheap plastic crap, but for significant purchases it's worth the time to be ethical in your purchasing decisions.

So you haven't bought a smartphone, computer, camera, etc? Give me a break. You should boycott australian goods too. It's committed genocide and stole land/resources from the aborigines and got rich selling resources to china.

No, they shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

The unawareness of the people here is worrying. Given its track record of censorships, especially of topics regarding the Uyghurs and Hong Kong, it is just unethical to support such a company.

To be fair, if you were to give the same treatment to all other nations, you wouldn't use or buy anything which involves electricity, or any advanced tool. Back to the stone age, to be clear.

The US, in particular, has a very "compelling" story of such things, even if some of these might not be as recent as China's.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam. Highest imprisonment rate in the world. Not even scratching the surface.

The source of all the supposedly funny videos some of my 'friends' just love to share...

Though to be fair, TikTok seems to be the only one stamping shared videos with its logo, which is why I hate them in particular. I suppose most of the stupid videos I get without logo come from other sources which I would hate just as much if I knew what they were :P Here in the Netherlands there was a similar thing called "Dumpert" actually which I also hate (but people usually link to it instead of reposting videos so it's easier to avoid)

God, I must have had 20 people sending me one with those coffin dancers involved in some shape or form.. Really don't get why people think that's funny. And no, I'm not all grumpy :) Some videos people share to me I do like but they really never come from TikTok. The app seems to always generate the same kind of slapstick humor. Someone having an accident and then the coffin dancers.. Hahah fun lol.. Or whatever.

If they'd just remove the feature to share videos to other platforms I'd like TikTok a lot more.

Give it 1-2 hours of your time and I bet you'll change your opinion at least slightly. Your friends are just sharing content that you don't find interesting but there is a "X TikTok" for just about every topic no matter how niche. Everyone's TikTok is very different, you can have overlap in topics with friends but you can also have a highly personalized feed of stuff you like.

Edit: I say of this because I thought VERY similarly to you before I tried it.

I understand that at the end of the day, entertainment is just what entertains you, but it's hard for me to dismiss the idea that concentrated & repeated instant gratification is a detriment to a person's mind outside the scope of entertainment. This isn't a criticism of tiktok specifically but I think it's probably the purest form of this idea that I've come across.

The referral phrase that got my friend to download it: "it's a carnival"

This is an extremely well written and 100% accurate account of TikTok. As someone who thought they were past jumping on "what teens think is cool" I have to say that TikTok is a form of entertainment that I've never experienced before. I set timers on my phone before going down into "the TikTok mines" as my friend group has come to call it. It's highly addictive and very good at feeding you just the right content at the right mixture to keep you swiping up for "just one more video".

I had referred to it a worse Vine, just pre-teens/teen doing dances, not something I'd be interested, not meant for me but I was wrong. I downloaded it on a whim after having been shown countless hilarious and clever TikToks from other friends. Just as this article describes it starts off showing you fairly random content but it was able to hone in on at least a few things I like pretty quickly. Sure there are teens doing dances but I saw only a handful of those before TikTok got the hint and moved on to other things.

After using the platform for months now off and on I can say it still surprises me nearly every time I use it. Be it in introducing me to a topic I know little about, showing me a whole new section of content that I never thought to go looking for but highly enjoy, or just a very clever parody/sketch/etc.

Just about every topic you can think of there is a section of TikTok with videos about it. Here are just few that I've stumbled upon: Woodworking, tv/movie prop creation, cooking, cleaning, politics, every TV show/anime, BLM, LGBT, video games, tabletop games, comedy, dogs, cats, and so much. more. I've seen entire series (100's of videos) of a fictional character interacting with other characters in a show/anime/universe. I've seen how to cook X in Y way in accessible/easy formats. I've seen extremely clever D&D videos either using a popular audio to tell a D&D story or just using various D&D tropes role playing. I've seen videos of how to clean various household things from a house cleaner that does an amazing job. I've see 1 person play 4+ different characters (sometimes in costume, sometimes with just a label on the screen to designate) and it not only make complete sense but be some of the funniest comedy bits riffing off of popular trends on TikTo or riffing off current events that I've ever seen. The list goes on and on.

One thing I can say is is TikTok is fun and enjoyable in ways that no other social media network has ever been for me. In all things be careful but before dismissing it I would spend an hour or two and try the "For you page" (FYP) or try searching for some niche (or not so niche) topics you enjoy. Pick your most niche one though, I think you'll be surprised at the amount of content you find related to it. Just maybe don't link your social media or use any real data or give the app permissions.

EDIT: I did want to throw in one more thing about the various "topics" on TikTok. The ones I listed are ones I saw because I had interest in those topics. Your feed will look 98% different from mine, you can "train" the algorithm and if you don't like a topic or a creator you can block it fairly easily and never see content like that again. So just because you don't identify with anything I listed doesn't mean there isn't plenty of stuff that you will.

It’s fucking Vine. Fuck Twitter for mismanaging everything they touch.

I wonder if the constant surveillance aspect of Tik Tok is pure coincidence with the round-the-clock ticking of the clock, or quite intentional.

I liked it the first week or so and then it quickly dawned on me that tiktok is mostly one big ego trip of retreaded memes/dances/topics. There were a couple of interesting people on there with novel topics and entertainment ideas but certainly not enough to keep me engaged to the extent that I could justify having a possible CCP spy platform on my phone.

'America's Funniest Home Videos' meets 'Dancing with the Stars' meets 'Robot Chicken'

If that's what you like, then that's exactly what you'll get.

If however you like horses, lesbians and cats, then that's exactly what you'll get also.

The tikky-tok algorithm closes in your preferences very very fast.

I recently started using tiktok. I cannot believe, how much I love that app.

Im pretty sure there are only a few small things that tiktok needs to do. And a few mistakes they shouldn't do.

When they succeeds in doing those things, and if social media is a zero sum-game, it will kill all its competitors.

This is great, but even if it is not really in the scope of the article, it's extremely important to know how TikTok makes money. Maybe an external link?

Also, anyone else remembered that scene in Idiocracy? (Not that Tiktok is likely to be as bad...)

vine for zoomers

When Vine was killed there was such an opening...

In the words of the immortal Ke$ha, “TikTok on the clock, but the party don't stop, no. Oh wo-ah wo-ah Oh! Oh wo-ah wo-ah Oh!“

That’s what I would’ve said.

Tiktok? Highly edited meme like videos no longer than one minute in length and designed for virality, forever.

Harmonious procrastination crack with Chinese characteristics.

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