After using TikTok, twitter feels like using a windows 95 computer after using modern operating systems. American social media feels way too parasocial, untargeted and clunky to me now.
Tiktok has better content, the fyp learns what you like and so it surprises and delights. I think american social media has been overly focused on the top 1% of content producers and advertisers, so the consumer experience has languished at their expense.
TT is really a consumer-first design, and users get visibility even without followers - it actually connects people so it feels a lot less like shouting into the void. It's cool to find a good post from a stranger that nobody has liked or commented on yet - liking that feels impactful to that person. American social media pretty much only shows you stuff from who you follow or advertisers, so any interaction you have is easy to get lost in the noise.
(Also, for whatever reason, I see a lot less angry shouting on TT, whereas twitter feels increasingly like the 2 minutes of hate from 1984)
The ease of posting leads to the content being much less polished: instagram feels like my friends are doing PR to convince the people they know that they are cool/beautiful/successful sometimes - just feels fake and distant to me.
Through TT I've found a bunch of people with the same interests and sense of humor as me, and I enjoy getting little glimpses into their lives and vice versa.
I think some amount of the 'tiktok is evil' meme is propaganda rooted in sinophobia, tech company PR counterprogramming, and american quasi-journalist influencers fearing their platforms are dissolving. About 2/3 of the criticism I've read seems hypocritical (based on industry standards) and alarmist, so it makes me more skeptical of the remaining 1/3.
Facebook and google being cozy with the feds that have power over me scares me a lot more than the CCP - who can do little to impact me directly.