/b/ - Random

>Do you feel like your attention span has become worse because of the app?
Yes, and I feel like it's improved since I quit.
>Do you want to stop using it? Or do you love this app?
I deleted it about 2 months ago, I still miss it sometimes tbh but there were too many negatives.
>Are you concerned about how it's pratically chinese spyware?
Yes. I was using my phone number for 2fa and it kept trying to sync my contacts and even told me "you're in these people's contacts!" and that was the final straw. I don't like that it pedals your content to local people/people you know irl. Internet life and irl have always been very separate for me and I like to keep it that way.

Short format is great for my adhd, but it also made it so addicting and hard to quit. I hate how the algorithm is made like a slot machine. When the algorithm hits, it's great, but it made it so apparent when they were tweaking things around because I would get more content like sports or couples pranks that I don't care about.

>Do you regret getting into the app?
No, I don't. Like I said, I miss it sometimes now, and I learned a lot of neat stuff and saw lots of cute animals and funny videos, but for me it isn't worth the hours of time I would spend on it. It's a great "hey, I have 10 minutes to kill before this appointment" thing to do.

I'm not saying anyone should quit or delete the app, do what's right for you, but overall I feel justified leaving. Sorry if this isn't the exact response you were hoping for, op, since I'm no longer a user. I see positives as well as the negatives to using the app.

>>208609
You guys actually make videos?

>>208803

>Somehow I feel like the people are much more unhinged there as on tumblr.

Most unhinged people on Tumblr (sjws not included) don't take themselves too seriously at least. Tiktokers seem like they do. To a disturbing degree.

I have and use tiktok almost daily, but thats because in my head its nothing more but a tool for media consumption. I go on there when I want to wind down before bed time. I will say I have curated my feed to show mostly cat content or those weird family guy clips with gaming footage under it.

What if I don't have the app but watch tiktoks on other platforms?

>>208808
I've made video but it's mostly edits of plushies to nightcore music

>>208877
To me it still means you consume the content from the app so your input to the thread is still interesting

I love tiktok. It definitely has messed up my attention spam when watching videos, but I've earned more positives from it I think.
It made me get into crochet.
I also get lots of videos about emotional intelligence, which has helped me undo bad behaviors.
I used to get a lot of videos about children psychology, gentle parenting, Montessori children, which has helped me understand how early trauma affects you in adulthood and made me realize I will have to read a lot of books on early child behavior/development and parenting when I plan to have kids. It also taught me about baby sign language which is very cool.
I found out about the troubled teen industry in the US. I think it's very sad most people don't know about this.
It made me into less of a pick me after seeing so many videos of women getting abused. I used to think women in 1st world countries were always exaggerating and that all the feminism stuff was unnecessary. Seeing so many stories about women on tiktok made me realize women in wealthy countries also have it bad.
I have a chronic illness and found some other tiktok users who also had it, and they gave me really good tips on how to feel less pain.

I do not care that it's Chinese spyware. Google monitors you just as much anyway. At least tiktok shows me videos of things that are helpful instead of just targeted ads.

>>209100
>troubled teen industry
Can you explain in a few words what it is? I'm curious

>>209105
Parents who have difficult kids or just unwanted kids in general get convinced by the troubled teen industry to send them to "wilderness therapy" and other programs as a way to fix their kid. These are just a place to torture these kids into submission, and many of them die each year in these facilities. They get tortured, physically and mentally abused, medically neglected, sexually abused, etc. Many kids die from trying to run away, and the local authorities are usually on the program's side. Kids can't do anything since the parents legally sign them over to the program. They send them away for months or even years.
Paris Hilton was sent to one of these programs and spoke out about it.
Here's a wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_teen_industry
List of some deaths: https://1000placesudontwanttobe.wordpress.com/victims-of-the-troubled-teen-industry/

>>209108
Holy shit this is dark anon. I didn't even know this was a thing. Thank you for spreading the word.

Idk I like it. My feed only shows me cool and funny stuff, but I do try and limit my time on it as I already have ADHD so my attention span is shot to hell. I upload videos of my art process and I'm starting to get increased viewership (sometimes. Sometimes I'll post a video that gets a couple hundred views, and then the next gets like 20).

>>208609
Why are you here if you use normalcancer social media. Just go back.

I really wanted to hate it but unfortunately the algorithm is too clever and I end up scrolling for hours every time. It's really scary because I don't even notice it. There is some quality content, although you really have to dig for it, and I have also discovered some very cool music from it. One bad thing about Tik Tok is how the trends cycle SO FAST and how absolutely overwhelming they are for that short moment, only to be discarded 3 seconds later and turned into "cringe". If you can't stomach seeing everything you love become disposable and at the same time acquire some type of zoomer connotation to it then don't go on Tik Tok.
The worst thing about Tik Tok though, by far, is the way it exposes how absolutely MEAN the youngest zoomers are. It's not just teenage cattiness, these people are really evil psychopaths who thrive off other people's misery and instead of being scolded like they'd be in different times, they're coddled and validated. You see it everywhere. It's completely acceptable to make fun of people's looks, race, country, religion, style, music taste, sex, sexual orientation, anything is fair game really, but not in a contrarian imageboard type of way, rather in a very irritating self-righteous cry-bully way. These people are so hungry for blood that there's even a market for random white women to pretend to be "Karens" (which today only means to act in a normal, inconspicuous way while being a white female) so that others will "pretend" to hate-react to the acting videos and hate-masturbate in the comments. There's also a demand for videos of idiots poking random people with clear mental illness on the street on purpose only to expose them to ridicule on the internet.
And of course, they are incredibly misogynistic. Gender roles are extremely enforced, almost set in stone, and there's stupid trends like "how I love being a woman" going around (of course trans-inclusive) only to remind you that you're a little stupid woman with very few brain cells and your value is in your floaty dress aesthetic.
I could write pages and pages about this.

I don't use Tiktok, but I often see Tiktok videos reposted on Reddit. (inb4 >go back - I know that most of you also use Reddit and I am tired of pretending otherwise.)

One of the more concerning trends I have noticed from these videos is the sheer quantity of low-quality, obvious ragebait. You know those videos where people randomly waste massive amounts of food, like spilling an entire 5L jug of mayonnaise on a single slice of bread? It's obvious to anyone that these videos are made with the sole purpose of generating outrage for views and clicks, but people still give those creators exactly what they want by interacting with their videos.
A big problem of algorithm-based social media (especially Tiktok, but to a lesser degree also Youtube) is that an algorithm can't actually identify good content, just content that is popular. The system actively encourages low-quality content like those ragebait videos, lots of clicks for zero effort.

What worries me is that social media like Toktok conditions younger zoomers into this very same type of mentality, the effect of which being what >>209288 mentioned already. The future is looking bleak.

>>209288
Very well explained… I've seen people get mocked over the tiniest thing on tik tok and everyone acts so toxic for the sake of it. It's as if it's a new edgy-cool personnality trait to be like this. Even on places like imageboards I don't see this level of unhingedness (which says a LOT about the tiktok zoomies)

>According to Laysia, working from home was making her "lazy" and it was beginning to affect her in a big way.

>"I need to be out of the house to be motivated, so I got a job out of the house, just to get me out, get me more motivated and stop being so lazy," she explained. "I find a get more done when I have things to do."




Holy shit, do TikTokers really? The amount of stupid in this is ridiculous. To career suicide your ability to WFH in order to be a burger flipper is next level tard. When will people realize that it's not their WFH job that makes them lazy, but the little or no accountaibility for themselves outside of their job?

>>209477
Wow, I almost feel bad for her but I just don't. Hopefully the next person to take her former position will appreciate it much more than she did.

>>209477

Even if her previous job was that bad, it would have been alot easier finding a better one like it than it will be finding a better fast food job. I hope when companies see this, it is an incentive to defend having WFH or in-person as an option, not make one or the other mandatory. Morons with no personal discipline clearly aren't cut out for WFH, so if they want to go the freaking office so bad at this point I don't see why not. Just don't limit the people who actually have any to these standards. (That's also why I think the WFH might have just been an excuse and she would have been just as complaining as in-office, though. You shouldn't neglect your job responsibilites, whether it is in-person or at home.)

>>209477
What was her job that she couldn't find anything else to do except work at a McDonalds? You'd think the employer would find her overqualified and she'd be put into a managerial position first thing, right?

So I just want to say that tiktok is a breeding ground for pedophiles, and that's my #1 reason for hating the app. I know that pedos are pretty much on every platform and always were because they're always looking for a chance to take advantage of a child, but tiktok is so insanely popular, plus kids love doing stupid shit on camera, and now they get to post it for tons of people to see. There are videos of kids/teenagers doing innocent, non sexual stuff and a lot of the comments are fucking vile

>>209636
I follow a mom who advocates against putting your kids on the internet, and every day she posts videos about parents who exploit their kids on tiktok and Instagram. Parents who post suggestive videos of their kids on purpose knowing they will get attention from pedos, parents who get thousands of comments from pedos in their innocent videos but still decide to keep them up, parents who post suggestive material to advertise their daughters and then sell swimsuit photosets on other websites.
It's not just the pedos, but also parents who upload videos for likes and comments, creating content for the pedos. Moderation on Tiktok is really bad so nobody does anything about this.

I wanted to make a general tiktok thread days ago but was too embarrassed so I can’t believe someone actually made it. I don’t use the app frequently but it’s become very much a rage bait machine for me.

My biggest gripe with tiktok is how almost all the videos are temporary and rarely do they have the staying power of YouTube videos. If I saw an interesting recipe or diy video it’s really hard to bump into it again.

Because I screenshot gendet-related tiktoks that annoy me to post online the app unfortunately assumed I like that shit and I keep seeing more and more of it.

I guess on a more positive note due to the sheer amount of people on it you can run into all sorts of people and removes the alienating feeling of “am i the only one” especially feeling like you’re the only one in your country that likes or does x y z. It was also one of the few things (if not the only) i like about twitter

>>209788
Except for gc people because they get reported to hell and back

I only go there to look at funny videos

>>209504


It didn't say. Just said she worked at some corporation.

>You'd think the employer would find her overqualified and she'd be put into a managerial position first thing, right?

If they already considered her overqualified, I don't know how she would have even been hired in the first place. Managers make little enough already and get threatened that overqualified people will come in to try and take their jobs. lol

The article also said this:

>Despite the TikToker being all hyped up for her first shift, things went downhill with the woman revealing her face was full of tears by the time the day finally ended.

>"I don’t know if I’m going to go back tomorrow. I’ve got bills to pay. It’s just bleak out here," she sobbed.

>In the caption, Laysia noted that she was "rethinking" her life decisions, adding that work was long and she "hates people."

As I thought, if she thinks she was going to avoid working with people, in food service of all things, this is not someone fit to work anywhere. I'm going into Software Engineering and hell, despite the stereotype of the "cowboy coder", I still experienced having to work with other people there despite not wanting to. No job, short of some kind of freelancing or beer money gig, keeps you away from working with people.

It's a step up from YouTube and ten thousand steps up from Twitch.
The ratio of drivel/quality is the same no matter what so it's better to be able to quickly sift through it.
YouTube parasites also have adopted the habit of padding out their videos with useless bloat where as with tik tok you can't do that.

>>209995
YouTube has way more variety though.

>>209995
I'd rather give data to Google than data to fucking China

>>209996
Does it really? Back in 2011 or 2012 maybe but the current output seems to be extremely formulaic. What do you mean by "variety" exactly?
>>209997
You couldn't possibly rationalize that opinion but I will leave you to it I suppose.

>>209996
I guess it depends on what you mean by variety. With tiktok I find all sorts of people all over the world which makes me really happy for some reason.
Until I see gender idiots in my country and region.

It feels like there are more women on tiktok and I'm not sure why. I find so many women talking about learning 3d modelling, programming, making art tutorials etc compared to youtube.

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politics/23523287/tiktok-ban-young-people-gen-z-campaign-outreach

It seems more and more likely that a full ban will happen, especially with legislation being discussed, and the move being surprisingly bipartisan in support.

>>210005
>I find so many women talking about learning 3d modelling, programming, making art tutorials etc compared to youtube.
i wonder if youtube is purposefully pushing those videos off the algorithm in favor of channels linus because it brings in more ad renevue
i've only seen weird shit like sexycyborg when searching for these sort of topics and thats just some moid pimping out his wife
or vtubers which is more so entertainment than people teaching what they know

>>209477
>>209845
This is clearly fucking engagement bait exactly like the posts directly above pointed out. There's an entire segment of the male population (particularly in the software hell world, good luck) seething about "girlbosses with cushy fake poolside jobs who wouldn't last ten seconds in a real job" that got really stoked once the tech layoffs started, particularly twitter's. There's definitely a ton of moids masturbating, literally, to this bitch's crying face

>>210004
There are foreign people on YouTube too- billions of people use YouTube.

>>210105
Yes I know but it’s easier to post videos on YouTube and i found so many people participating in a lot of subcultures on tiktok from my country.

>>209997
USA is running the biggest data harvesting operation in the world. In what world wold you want to give more data for them freely instead of spreading it to different providers?

She's hilarious and funny. I don't care I love her.
https://www.tiktok.com/@althea420/video/7174879248404991278

>>215349
Are you underage? Be honest.

>>215352
We're on a niche imageboard do you expect everyone to act like mature adults?

>>215352
I'm almost 30 and I love Althea too

>>215359
Yeah exactly we are on a niche imageboard, where did all the tiktok normalfaggotry come from?

>>215349
holy shit that is some of the most unfunny shit I have ever seen

why is everyone SO angry on this app?

My comments keep getting 20k hearts. I am very terfy and tik tok is creepy about showing your IRL contacts so I privated but I'm still paranoid I'll be found.
I also think the fact that it is extremely easy to get your 15 minutes of fame contributes to Tik Tok's success. Anyone can be a microcelebrity in some niche.

>>215986
The algorithm itself promotes ragebait

>>215986
>>215996
The algorithm is showing you rage bait because that's what you consume.
I don't have any rage bait on my feed really it's mostly cute cats and dogs and amazing feats and positivity slideshows and clips of family guy playing over a shitty mobile game. What TikTok shows you consistently is a product of what you feed it, sort your social media habits out

Can someone explain why tiktok is so addicting to younger people? I just get frustrated by how short the videos are. It's like eating appetizers but never getting the meal.

>>216209
Not necessarily. It takes your location into account as well.

>>216251
compared to other video sharing platforms you don't have to pick from a catalogue but get spoonfed random videos until one catches your attention, it's just much less psychological effort required which i assume why some get addicted to it

>>216251
Spend more time with it, once the algorithm figures out how to entertain you it's over

>>216329
The algorithm is so accurate because of much that app tracks you, it's actually quite disturbing.

>>216405
don't care, i'd much rather be tracked by the chinese than on some american app that's sharing everything with my county's government

>>216436
I don't want to be tracked by anyone so I just refuse to use social media. I know that doesn't completely eliminate tracking but at least I try to not give that much data to Big Tech corporations regardless of country.

>>216436
I don't think it's so much the case that it' tracking everyday citizens, as much as its sending them Chinese propaganda. I've seen it a few times in my own feed.

>>216444
Yeah every time I get something in chinese, by a native chinese person, or related to china I block it. I also have chinese word filters. I used to get so much that I can identify when a video is stealthily Chinese produced, and can also identify chinese to english translated text. I block all that shit immediately.

>>216587
I hope you are making light of the other poster and not actually doing this. I get plenty of Chinese videos and half of them are about dangerous workplaces it doesn't really feel like propaganda to me (or if it is it's extremely mild)

>>216608
>>216587
what is this propagandising?
https://twitter.com/boygrrI/status/1609757949500563457

>>216807
i get these tiktoks on my fyp too… like i legitimately don't know why those get so many views

>>216608
No, I 100% do. Why wouldn't I?

>>216807
I don't even get this. I find this far less offensive.
What I get is sealthy chinese videos trying to sell you shit from aliexpress, accounts who repost videos, and those who make fake and "satisfying" videos for cash (like the fruit cutting ones). It's the most slimy, souless, uncreative, untruthful shit that only exists to make money. If I wanted to watch that, I would use youtube.
As a result it has also made me hate anything chinese related. So it all gets blocked now.

I feel like Tiktok would be way less annoying if its users used some damn headphones. I don't know why, but in public, people feel the need to play that shit out loud. Use your earbuds, or your headphones. I don't need to know what stupid damn video you have a repeat. I feel like a grumpy old woman for ranting about this, but it's one of my pet peeves.

>>216436
All these Chinese balloons and shit floating above countries and you still think American data collection is worse? Big cope.

The rage-bait on this app is turning me into a schizo (constant content about cheating in relationships, karens going nuts, kids acting stupid). It also data mines every app you use to shit, I could be texting my friend about pink ponies and suddenly my feed is all about pink ponies. At this point I feel like it can read my mind

>>215349
I laugh at her stuff too

>>220054
Yeah china's the only country in the world that's doing that.

>>220484
yeah i had this happen to me

Please do not let this data miner destroy your attention-span nonas, I beg of you.

>>209636
Agreed, most of the "pedobait" shit that gets posted to imageboards (besides cheese pizza) are typically Tiktok videos of young girls acting suggestive that these freaks go out of their way to find and repost.
As time moves forward, I'm honestly starting to buy into the conspiracy theory that Tiktok is nothing more than a means for the Chinese to mind poison foreigners with horrible shit.

>>220551
Is it really a conspiracy at this point? I use tiktok every day and it's obvious it pushes certain content and purposely keeps certain obscene content on their app despite it being against the rules. And it's also well known that the chinese version of the app does not allow these same things.

>>220577
I guess when you compare the two versions with one another, it's hardly a conspiracy theory at that point yeah.
In an ideal world, the internet would be 18+ as to prevent such a scummy business model from being used on minors (along with other things).

The tiktok ban hearing is doing a fantastic job at making American politicians look unashamedly corrupt and duplicitous.

>>220551
we did it to them with opium first. I guess we are now reaping what we sowed.

>>221042
There are "two versions" because the Chinese government has laws against the sort of thing you're describing while the US does not.

I mean what on earth do you want? The CPC to legislate for you? Western internet is a free for all because that's what western governments and big business want. What's next? Porn is a Chinese conspiracy because it's banned there but not here?