What's your opinion on TikTok?

[Artman2004]

As someone who's a total outsider of TikTok and its culture, I want to know your guys' opinion on it. Do you like it? Do you not care? Or are you not a fan of its short-form nature?

[DannyMan]

About TikTok, I'm just not a fan of it

[,,,]

Personally I don't care for TikTok but I do care about blatantly authoritarian laws giving countries the power to ban TikTok.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Individualised

[Murdoch]

I often said Tiktok is where creativity goes to get brutalised, beaten, and left for dead. Most of what's on their is absolute shite like lip-syncing bobbleheads and idiots doing the same guitar riff over and over. The short format essentially encourages tendencies to short attention spans in viewers, and obnoxious tactics to get attention by creators. There's the occasional creative person, but they are tiny islands in an ocean of dreck. I have never had the app installed, and usually what little I do watch is "secondhand" in compilations or videos mocking how awful it is.

[GibFrag]

I will never use tiktok. I stopped using Facebook years ago, and rarely use Instagram. The reels and shit are annoying and they push that shit on you. I don’t know if it’s just me getting older or what, but I don’t care for that aspect of social media anymore in general, and feel my life is better without it. I don’t care that others like it or find joy in it, more power to them, but I am fine staying away from this trend myself. 

Edited September 28, 2023 by CAM-7EA

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Kuckle-dragger shit. At least Twitter limits you to text so I don't have to listen to other people writing and reading Tweets. You can always tell when someone is watching TikTok, because the videos all sound the same. But still, I guess it's passable entertainment if you like arguing politics with people who can't respond to you, or if you're into half-naked 14 year olds dancing in their basement to music that I cannot and will not tolerate. The best alternative to TikTok is physical violence.

Edited September 27, 2023 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[Biodegradable]

A digital pipeline of vapid, grey sludge that bolsters the predatory attention economy for social media and its influence has done no favours for the distribution of substantive online media that's actually worth your time.

 

[Herr Dethnout]

A damage to the society and the kids + Chinese spyware (like almost everything from that country lol). 

A big NO in my books.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

7 minutes ago, Biodegradable said:

A digital pipeline of vapid, grey sludge that bolsters the predatory attention economy for social media and its influence has done no favours for the distribution of substantive online media that's actually worth your time.

 

I had ice cream today that looked just like that. I didn't realize it was a vegan ice cream place until I noticed that they use corn instead of sprinkles.

[Dark Pulse]

The less you interact with social media, in general the happier you will likely be.

 

Especially if it's for the latest dumb "challenge" that winds up causing teenagers without the capacity to think about risks and consequences to scrape their brains on the pavement.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Just now, Dark Pulse said:

think about risks

T i k T o k  C h a l l e n g e

[Sonikkumania]

Waste of time. 

[INfront95]

Firstly you laugh at creative skits, then you stumbe on mass produced Chinese ai dancers or Npc trend and realise: There is nothing in this twisted reality we call life, there is only oblivion beyond in this cold endless void.

[xScavengerWolfx]

TikTok is cancer, it is the most retarded thing the internet has ever made. TikTok needs to banned.

[Async Unicorn]

Trash.
That's it.

[Panzermann11]

While I've never used whatever that Tick-Tock site is, I did witness some of the stuff from that site. If I had a (girl)friend, wife and future children, I probably wouldn't subject them to that site. That site is apparently filled with teenagers with the intelligence of cavemen, encourages dangerous and life-threatening activities all in the name of pointless "challenges", and it distorts the reputation of media I like, such as music.

 

As I said, I've never used Tick-Tock, and I never will. Some people say it rots your mind and is a tool to brainwash young people, and I'm convinced it does. You know what Friedrich Nietzsche says, once you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back. Once you set foot on the Clock Ticking Site, you'll never be the same.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Panzermann11

[Amaruq Wulfe]

It started off rather simple, but over the time has devolved in what I consider not only a waste of one's time, but life threatening at this point. 

 

Challenges range from consumption of products you're not supposed to ingest, or outright theft or property damage. I'm not sure what drives people to harm themselves or commit to theft for a mere internet clout. While I'm against harming yourself, if you're going to do such challenges on yourself, then go wild. But now given that the effects seem to spread out towards others around you, I'd vouch for its ban worldwide. 

 

 

[Craneo]

Never used the app myself, tho I have watched some YT tiktok meme comps and some do are funny..

[cracky-bracky]

I think it's really stupid and creepy. But it makes alot of money :D

 

To everybody talking about "banning tiktok" whatever, banning tiktok won't do anything, because it'll just come back again with another company. There will always be a "tiktok". The current "tiktok" just filled the gap left by musical.ly which was like the same thing (it's even by the same company!) And before that, there was vine.

People can't just go without their adhd vids forever, yknow :P

[Dr. Zin]

Eh, not a fan of the site but I think the moral panic is somewhat overblown. A lot of the people talking about how Tiktok is destroying teenage attention spans were mainlining Youtube Poop videos fifteen years ago; teenagers have always had the attention spans of goldfish. The same goes for stupid/dangerous stunts and pranks: has everyone forgotten planking, the cinnamon and marshmallow challenges, or all of the "Jackass" inspired stunt videos of 10+ years ago? Again, the platform is IMO essentially worthless, but to me it seems like Tiktok bashing has served as a very convenient scapegoat to direct scrutiny away from the other social media monopolies. Boomers rant about Tiktok corrupting the children between the conspiracy theories they are fed on Facebook, Gen Xers fire off tweets about how Tiktok destroys attention spans, while millennials are posting on how the site is just a bunch of attention-whoring clickbait to score upvotes on Reddit.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Dr. Zin

[ducon]

Where is it? I can’t find that caca emoji with vampire teeth instead of a smile.

I don’t agree with Dr. Zin: TikTok aggravates what you point.

It’s not because my generation is on Facebook (I’m not) that you must accept TikTok that is worse.

[Major Arlene]

TikTok suffers the same problems of human stupidity as every other social media platform, it's just really cool to hate on it because it's run by a company in a country that everyone thinks is shady (same deal with Tencent).

 

It's fine. Like everything it takes curation. It'll give you more of what you watch like Youtube. I use it for marketing as well and it's honestly not the best for that purpose but I don't buy into the moral panic. There's actually very kind and genuine people, musicians I love that I wouldn't have heard of without the platform, topics I wouldn't have thought to have an interest in, even if only fleetingly.

 

It's also wonderful for all your cute animal needs.

[Mr. Freeze]

brainrot 

[BonJoviStatue]

I don't care about TikTok, just another social media platform that people will glue their eyes onto.

[Professor Hastig]

Same as all other social media: A cesspool better locked up in the deepest bowels of virtual hell.

Although, unlike most other social media it tends to be even more vapid and free of intelligence.

Being Chinese-run only makes it worse.

 

The sad thing here is that being run by Chinese means there's zero chance it can go down due to financial problems.

[mrthejoshmon]

Hot take, but, it is fucking garbage.

 

I think this was the most definitive answer to the least required question in the world.

 

You knew the answer before you asked, the answer is somewhat universal to anywhere not invested into TikTok.

[Lippeth]

2 hours ago, Major Arlene said:

It's also wonderful for all your cute animal needs. 

I don't know what this says about my geolocation or demographic info that may or may not influcence the algorithm for the handful of times I've decided to give Tiktok another go for fomo, but I always seem to start about twenty swipes away from watching an animal die, either by a hunter or other animal. And every time is a reminder that the app is just not for me.

[Daytime Waitress]

Vine was hot garbage, but at least it put yeet into the global lexicon.

Longvine has yet to give us anything of that caliber.

[Gregor]

China's most powerful weapon.

 

"One app to dumb them all...

 

down."

[Chezza]

Like all social media platforms, it has its downsides.
And like all social media platforms, it has its upsides. That is, delivering content in a format and style certain people appreciate. If it's liked by many users and profitable for the business, then it's objectively an effective product for a market. And it's not forced on anyone.

 

Now if we were to talk about the social problems TikTok could bring, well that would deviate to a bigger discussion about the impacts of Social Media in the modern age of connectivity, where only a few decades is too early to conclude the long term impacts (good and bad) to our society.