How TikTok hooks its users
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Never been on TikTok.
Jon Freilich, a 51-year-old operations manager in California, described his TikTok behavior as an addiction.
“I’ve never smoked or used drugs, so I don’t know what chemical addiction feels like, but I feel like I’m addicted to TikTok,” said Freilich, whose daily watch time on the app increased by more than 50 percent last year. “There are times when I know I should stop scrolling and get work done or go to sleep, but it’s so hard to stop, knowing the next swipe might bring me to a truly interesting video.”
That’s how TikTok draws people in, with an algorithm that serves up an endless stream of hyper-personalized content to users such as Freilich.
But TikTok is massive, fragmented and opaque: Millions of Americans — a third of U.S. adults — are pulled into a nearly infinite variety of niche corners by a recommendation system that we don’t know much about, making it difficult to understand how the constant scroll affects real people.
Gift article:
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Never been on TikTok.
Jon Freilich, a 51-year-old operations manager in California, described his TikTok behavior as an addiction.
“I’ve never smoked or used drugs, so I don’t know what chemical addiction feels like, but I feel like I’m addicted to TikTok,” said Freilich, whose daily watch time on the app increased by more than 50 percent last year. “There are times when I know I should stop scrolling and get work done or go to sleep, but it’s so hard to stop, knowing the next swipe might bring me to a truly interesting video.”
That’s how TikTok draws people in, with an algorithm that serves up an endless stream of hyper-personalized content to users such as Freilich.
But TikTok is massive, fragmented and opaque: Millions of Americans — a third of U.S. adults — are pulled into a nearly infinite variety of niche corners by a recommendation system that we don’t know much about, making it difficult to understand how the constant scroll affects real people.
Gift article:
@wtg said in How TikTok hooks its users:
Never been on TikTok.
I have seen Tik Tok videos on YT and I think on the TT browser page but not on the app. I only watch if for example something links to one. (NYT’s articles sometimes do that). But I don’t have an account and I don’t seek out those kinds of videos.
Facebook has “Reels” which are similar in style — IOW short and if you watch one, it automatically pushes another to you. I used to watch those sometimes but I quickly notice that it was a mindless time suck, and I made a point of not watching them.
So I can totally imagine how someone could get sucked in. That’s the design.
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BTW, check out Netanyahu's televised conference in which he bragged openly about Tik Tok and X being the new "weapons" as opposed to "swords."
I don't know about you but I get a warm and fuzzy feeling whenever the leader of another country brags openly about propaganda campaigns designed to influence my opinion.
