TikTok: C or D

Something about this platform makes it way more conformist than the other ones, at least so far. Half the videos seem to be people doing their own version of other users’ videos.

If, as seems to be the case, kids are super enthusiastic about Tik-Tok, even if it looks to me to be scarcely different than other short video platforms, I would hazard the guess that maybe it's because kids think of it, rightly or wrongly, as being an internet space that belongs to more to kids than adults. Even if that idea were in some degree correct, it will without a doubt be co-opted by adults to push stuff at kids so fast it will make your head spin.

vine was good because there were a lot of videos of people falling down and eating shit. these things are too long, giving its users too much of an opportunity to express their horrible personalities

First social media app that ive started using to try it out and realized immediately that I'm too old for it, I hate it, and I dont understand it.

that was / is snapchat for me. I can't even figure out how to use the app. every time I open it i just get the camera and the icons make no sense and no i don't want to import my contacts. it was the first app that made me feel completely old.

ok boomers

this was fun for the first couple of hours, but once you realise 95% of the videos fall into the same specific buckets (weeknd dance routines, shitty pranks on family members, kids’ voices ironically dubbed onto adults, cats/dogs, gym junkies in their pants, 31 year olds insisting they’re not too old for tiktok) it really loses its allure

3liza's curated TikTok threads are better than actually using TikTok:

tiktok thread directory

part 1: rednecks making huge strides on tiktok - https://t.co/QUkW1hiKYO

part 2: helo - https://t.co/FFiMB6rvu2

part 3: arson - https://t.co/8oLufiuEhL

— in fair corona where we quarantine (@3liza) February 7, 2020

I'm amazed that there hasn't been a gigantic moral panic about the platform yet.

There are rumours of censorship of political content on TikTok. I'm not sure how true they are. I wouldn't be surprised at all though, it's a relentlessly 'posi' platform.

This was good though:
https://www.tiktok.com/@kyscottt/video/6815758866769349894

https://www.tiktok.com/@coprobro/video/6650643313068084485?u_code=d512kgcmd6aa8e&language=en×tamp=1553533543&utm_campaign=client_share&app=musically&utm_medium=ios&user_id=6663118810343686150&tt_from=copy&utm_source=copy&source=h5_m

this one is really good

there was also a controversy because the company told moderators to suppress posts by obese people, disabled people, and others with "undesirable" traits

https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-users-discrimination/

jeez. that makes sense, honestly. the people i am seeing are mostly young, fit, and even blend in with the celebrities who pop up posting similar content.

there is something very untrustworthy about it. specifically, the fact that 1/2 the humor seems to be playing on gender and age stereotypes.

The biggest problem with the platform, imo, is there's basically no way of monetising prominence other than taking donations from users. You have a bunch of young people, often under or around the age of 18, with Amazon wishlists, Cash Apps, etc getting $$$ from internet randos of all ages. Inevitably, that leads to some of them selling nudes, etc, It's incredibly dodgy on an app that is largely intended for children.

yeah, eesh.

Totally.

instagram is like this too, i imagine. it's become so much more about people trying to become personal brands than it is a photo sharing app.

I think Tiktok has gone out of their way to heavily censor anything perceived as adult content tbf, much more than Instagram, but it's not a good situation.

that was / is snapchat for me. I can't even figure out how to use the app. every time I open it i just get the camera and the icons make no sense and no i don't want to import my contacts. it was the first app that made me feel completely old.

― akm, Thursday, April 23, 2020 10:38 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

oh I didn't get snapchat either but sort of categorized it as a messaging app more than a social media platform, I'm not even sure if that's correct mind you

this one is killing me somehow.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZS9QNE4s/

between this and the guy who tries to guess paint colors while he’s watching the constituent paints being mixed there’s this kind of joy in the abject that i feel like tiktok often just nails and i am a huge sucker for it

this one’s good too

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZS93wSxX/

https://www.tiktok.com/@rickastleyofficial/video/6890858524092402946

i almost clicked on that

amazing
https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/10/21559677/tiktok-cfius-court-petition-ban-deadline

I’ve been laughing at this TikTok for 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/ZTN5qBwEGo

— T. Kyle 🏳️‍🌈 (@tkylemac) November 20, 2020

(that woman has some severe apnea issues i think)

https://www.tiktok.com/@collroy/video/6887045734991023366

Somewhat related: It also looks like Epic records is paying tik tokkers to use old songs in hopes that a viral sound will lead to a boost in back catalog streaming. via @colinphl https://t.co/s6HV9hxzc7 pic.twitter.com/6aemUBKIb4

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) December 4, 2020

Coming up with a way to make people lip syncing even worse - bravo!

lol, that is a fucking sin

can't stop watching this

I think this is the best edited Tik Tok I’ve ever seen.

pic.twitter.com/OUCqiBKkSK

— Kristi Anderson (@CinderSlays) January 9, 2021

wtf
that makes mj's black and white seem amateurish

similar in the comments

This guy too pic.twitter.com/gzgncyu5o6

— n0 name (@mrnonamerod) January 10, 2021

^nice

tiktoks that are almost definitely terrifying to watch while high:

"wow these edibles are shit" pic.twitter.com/JT5Z7PALC7

— 𝖛𝖆𝖑𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖆 ✣ 𝖑𝖔𝖗𝖉 ⬜⬜🟥🟥⬜⬜👽 (@VPestilenZ) December 16, 2020

(@connection_intercepted)

awesome

amazing

I just watched the sea shanty, done with the four lads originally from a photo. Not only is it some dope work, the shanty is catchy as hell.

the shanty is horrifically catchy and satisfying to listen to but it's been haunting my dreams

oh, can't wait for that tonight then

gonna post it anyway

Sea shanty tiktok is WILD pic.twitter.com/rjY1iXFQkA

— Kristian 🇳🇱 (@vonstrenginho) January 14, 2021

https://www.tiktok.com/@overloadcomedy/video/6920289799702203650

A little weirded out by how weirded out the kids are by their non-mirrored faces.

https://www.tiktok.com/@maelynesque/video/6910768593911221509?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

?eah, ?eah, ?eah, I left that extra part in post haste.

No one is doing TikTok like him pic.twitter.com/TpjcGovjKX

— Kalhan (@KalhanR) March 18, 2021

i like the sea shanty video.

however.

the platform is mostly dystopian, as are the instagram "reels." most videos are autobiographical and self-commodifying -- people commenting on their personal life, their relationships, etc, but in a way that burnishes a curated image. so far so predictable. sometimes they are selling a product or have a cashapp in their bio or whatever.

what's weird is the way the users do so, usually recreating some kind of popular meme. they turn themselves not just into a commodity, but into a very dumb meme. and they draw their pets and family members into it. like they're all cartoon people, living out a slapstick existence. the most terrifying of these videos involve that robot-voice narration.

it's like, if adorno wrote a dystopian novel, this would be what people were doing all day in his version of 2021.

i've got a video for you treeship

https://www.tiktok.com/@geezyunit/video/6947387987659443461

ok, that's pretty good.

my usually social media-illiterate became obsessed with tiktok over the past year and now i can't send videos of my cats to the family gc for fear that she'll turn them into videos with stuff dubbed over them. she's getting to a point where she sees everything as fodder and she's addicted to getting views. she and my dad keep guilting me and my brother for not liking her videos and we keep having to explain that you need to have an account to do that

social media-illiterate MOM**** became etc

am also about 90% certain that she's going to end up in a cult as she's already shown an inclination towards some of the culty new age grifters - she was already prone to that stuff before stepping into a social media platform that shoves it in her face

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdqJj29q/

I’m not interested in your hot takes about Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/djBOCs1pR2

— Patrick J Loller (@PatrickLoller) August 16, 2021

this cadence is like having a needle shoved into your eardrum repeatedly

tiktok is where you get to listen to the world's most obnoxious twitter accounts recite their tweets in the exact cadence you always imagined they would use

Not sure why the perpetrator of that TikTok thought that adopting the persona of Howdy Doody would lend credence to his views about foreign policy and military interventionism.

More of this, less of blandly attractive people lip syncing

https://www.tiktok.com/@hendersizzle/video/7001618935770615045

im on this now, and i am single-handedly saving it from itself

Okay, a buddy's kid was recently caught (or involved with) ripping a soap dispenser off the wall in the school bathroom (he denies having anything to do with it). I thought it was sort of an odd, kind of old-fashioned form of juvenile delinquency, something you might see in a 1981 after school special, or Seven Green Bottles.

But no, it's a tiktok challenge! And it's sweeping the nation: ...the goal of a new trend, the "Deviant Licks" TikTok challenge, is to either damage school property or steal items and post videos of it online in an attempt to go viral.

This includes vandalizing bathrooms, cutting up books, etc.

Sorry if I'm the last person on the planet to know about this.. I feel old

Furthermore, I question the wisdom of posting evidence of these crimes online, but what do I know

be gay
do crimes
post about them
online

Do you see the perpetrator?
Yeah I’m right here.

this is pretty good: In the video, the voice over the intercom said they don’t have the resources to call each of their parents to tell them what’s been happening, so the “only recourse they have” is to remove the doors from the hinges in both the girls’ and boys’ bathrooms.

My worst possible nightmare as a kid

lol Andy i don’t know where that’s from but the whole thing sounds like a pretty elaborate wind-up

even if it’s true, if it wasn’t tiktok kids would find other reasons to be idiots. i think you were right at the beginning: it’s a tale as old as time. i have a 12-yo who’s a bit of an idiot and even he would know that doing this kind of thing for the likes is moronic

No, it's a thing. It's called "devious licks," and it started with just swiping random things from school, like boxes of masks, and displaying them on TikTok. Vandalizing bathrooms was September's "challenge" so we did have a lot of people trashing the bathrooms at my school. My guess is it's fading out now, though, because the next set of challenges issued involved actual physical assault and most kids aren't dumb enough to slap their teachers and put it on TikTok.

Lily and Andy are right, but so is Tracer. If it wasn't #deviouslicks, there'd be another excuse.

Yes, school vandalism is as old of time; but voluntarily posting incriminating evidence online seems purely 21st Century.

Apparently tiktok has started pulling all the videos anyway, which may help explain why the phenomenon is fading

if it's a no bones day, i vandalize a junior high restroom

The rabbit hole of this one user claiming Ancient Rome did not exist and all the answers from academia is pure entertainment.

Just found out recently that my neighbours kid is a tik tok star with like two million follows.

Most of this shit is just made up, right? The pranks, pratfalls and funniest home video BS? Like the kids are all just pretending something went wrong and planned it?

And ones like that "devious licks" upthread - someone started that a joke Tide Pods style to see what would happen, right? Tell me people arent actively this much Darwin Awards material.

devious licks is an actual thing but the note upthread that if it weren't this it would be something else is 100% accurate as well

New D&D player: so the one I really don’t understand is “chaotic good?” Like what does that even look like…

Me: I gotchu https://t.co/EH8oNjVbcO

— Rusty Foster (@fka_tabs) May 12, 2022

That is amazing.

the duddest
https://www.stereogum.com/2187634/halsey-tiktok-viral-song/news/

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/health/sexual-health/a40938627/what-is-vabbing/

● Washing your hands both before and after

● Not allowing areas you’ve ‘vabbed’ to touch anything or anyone

● Wiping down gym equipment before and after use

● Making sure you get checked by a professional if you think you sense an unusual or bad odour

TikTok profits from livestreams of families begging

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-63213567

"vabbing"

The wisdom of the ancients alive today

this overlong essay on the "enshittification" of TikTok makes a good case for the vicious cycle of social media

Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

Hmm

I wrote about the unhinged therapists making videos about their clients on TikTok, and how social media has smoothed over the ethical issues of certain professions turning their jobs into content https://t.co/u6kflar9NN

— Sarah Manavis (@sarahmanavis) January 26, 2023

Pretty incredible way for so-called professionals to behave.

First time I heard of this was a therapist bitching online about a client "traumadumping" on her. What did she think her job was.

Hey GUYYYYYYYS it's ziggy here back again from VIENNA y'heard and you are NOT GONNA BELIEVE who this crazy bitch I'm seeing thinks she wants to fuck

TikTok has insane energy, the Four Loko of social media.