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Comment by hellomyguys | Hacker News Reader

I would recommend using it a bit more. The algorithm is generally pretty good, it just takes some time to learn your interests.

The reason they don't have all those filtering options is probably because most people don't want to use them and it's fun to see video content from all around the world and even in different languages. Serendipity on TikTok is part of the appeal.

Although it wasn't the case for you, I'd say TikTok probably has the best cold-start experience of any consumer content app. For comparison, try creating a new account on YouTube or IG.

Still get that TikTok may not be for everyone, but imo it feels like the end game design of short video content consumption. The content can be really fun, silly, pointless, mundane, or educational. You don't need to follow people. Celebs are not as relevant. Don't like something? Just swipe up. It's a pretty refreshing take.

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It can't learn my interests if I don't see any new videos though. As I wrote, it's just the same over and over and over again. Usually one would mix in something completely different...which it doesn't do. That applies to the content and the music. And it's not like I'm not interested in things. On the contrary, my interests touch a large variety of topics but I never get a book recommendation, classical music played on different instruments, sports etc etc.

Actually, it starts you off with your native language only at first IIRC. I increased it to seven different ones which didn't matter at all and then decreased it to three. And again, no difference.

I don't use any social media and all the "celebrity" stuff is generally not for me at all. So I can't really compare the experience to anything.

Though, I guess I can attribute the success to what the others said, despite its demerits:

- really low barrier of entry (mrkramer)

- organic feeling, as opposed to corporate-controlled/generated (alexgmcm)

The addictive nature of seeing what comes next likely also plays a role.

As a typical "old guy" I just went over there to browse, as an experiment, and while I did find a neat (but too short) woodworking video that was kind of interesting, I generally agree: I don't know what I would get out of TikTok--it's mostly young people doing things that they understand and interest them. It's clearly not targeted at my demographic, and that's OK.

My only mild annoyance has been that sometimes my FYP gets stuck on a topic like golf that I really don’t like and it can take a while to get off of it. Otherwise the alg tends to send me a lot of small videos of stuff that’s extremely specific to very specific interests which is so much nicer. Searching for things and liking videos in those things tends to make those things show up on my FYP.

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