Can someone explain the public fascination/obsession with TikTok to me?
From The New York Times:
The D'Amelios Are Coming for All of Your Screens
TikTok's most famous family wants to reintroduce itself on TV. Whatever that means now.
..."We just want you to take a look into our lives and take what you want from it."
"I've heard that people like to come to our pages for a little bit of an escape," Charli said dryly.
And should that escape feels like a trap, the most popular girl on TikTok offers the simplest of solutions. "I feel like it's very important to take some time off whenever you feel like you need it," she said. "You don't even tell yourself, 'Time to take a break.' You kind of just let it go." She waggled her fingers again, as if sprinkling magic dust. "Drop your phone for a little bit."
nyt
From The New York Times:
The D'Amelios Are Coming for All of Your Screens
TikTok's most famous family wants to reintroduce itself on TV. Whatever that means now.
..."We just want you to take a look into our lives and take what you want from it."
"I've heard that people like to come to our pages for a little bit of an escape," Charli said dryly.
And should that escape feels like a trap, the most popular girl on TikTok offers the simplest of solutions. "I feel like it's very important to take some time off whenever you feel like you need it," she said. "You don't even tell yourself, 'Time to take a break.' You kind of just let it go." She waggled her fingers again, as if sprinkling magic dust. "Drop your phone for a little bit."
nyt
I think the reason so many people find Tik Tok so entertaining because nowadays the average attention span for humans is roughly between 12 to 8 seconds. The content on Tik Tok fulfills these needs because of how quickly the videos appear and can change topics in seconds. I'm honestly very surprised that the D'Amelio family is trying to put themselves on tv. I find it ironic that Charli is talking about "taking a break" and "drop[ping] your phone for a little bit." The reason she and her family became a big deal was because of Tik Tok and now she's saying to hold the phone. Without this platform, I don't know how she would be today. Personally, I don't partake in Tik Tok because of how addicting it can be. While it does have some beneficial aspects (like a quick way to share information and promote new music), it's very one-sided and consumes people's lives daily.
ReplyDeleteH3
DeleteI find it ironic that Charli is talking about "taking a break" and "drop[ping] your phone for a little bit."—
DeleteMe too!
H03. Agreed. I also don't use tiktok, I know multiple people that complain about the amount of time wasted on the app. However, they still keep the app installed. I, too, find it Ironic that the person who's main source of income is tiktok and other social medias is advocating for taking a break from our phones.
DeleteH3 I agree tiktok is very addicting. I had to delete the app because of how much time I was wasting on it. Like you were saying the short clips keep your attention span and by the time you're beginning to unfocus the next video is playing.
Delete[H2] HANNAH LITVJAK:
ReplyDeleteLike pretty much all of social media, it is often a break from the hardships of reality. TikTok has some videos of funny, relatable standpoints to the general annoyances of life (such as working at customer service, bad traffic, etc.). Additionally, there's also just funny videos that make no sense, but they make us laugh anyways. It's good to laugh and enjoy life every now and then, but there is also a toxicity to TikTok - especially when it comes to physical appearance. I would not pursue a career in TikTok, and I also do not think that Charli or Dixie's problems are as groundbreaking as some like to believe. Everyone understands that social media can be exhausting, and the fact that her saying putting our phones down helps us feel better is terribly ironic. Getting back to the point, TikTok is simply lightweight white noise. :)
H02
ReplyDeleteI personally don't actively use TikTok a lot, but I've seen it grow substantially over the past two years. It follows a trend such as Vine, which was itself a host of short little videos that was mostly for comedy. Upon this being taken down it was followed by Musical.ly. This had a very similar purpose. TikTok eventually took the banner passed on by Musical.ly and had a rocky start. Of course it grew very popular but it had many people ridiculing it as well. Myself included. However, slowly but surely, more and more people- this included content creators and celebrities- flocked to this app and the following grew and grew. It became a great way to share trends and funny videos, and a perfect way to share news. Both real and fake. The short video format just works. It's perfect. We often don't have the attention span to watch full-fledged videos, but shorts are perfect as they can pull you in and make you sit through the video's length. Even if it's over something you don't quite care for. The video's got your view, and most the content you've just taken in has already left your mind. Then you're onto the next video and the loop continues.
[H03](If I remember correctly)
ReplyDeleteI am not an avid user of TikTok (or general social media outside my chosen lanes), but I am very much in the culture so I can grow my own miniature branding. To me, the appeal of tiktok is largely to those my age and below that grew up with less moderation in terms of time spent exposed to the internet. My own access was incredibly limited, and yet I still often realize how quickly I can lose focus on individual tasks (even something as straightforward as writing here).
Tiktok bridges that gap of tasks-per-minute for the brain to handle by bombarding the user with small increments for each action. On each video, lasting from seconds to a minute, one can argue in the comments, like, check out the creator, share it to their friends, or duet the video. All of these actions benefit the app itself and spread the influence to other platforms, as well as keeping the user signed in.
Tiktok also is very accessible, available on almost every platform, and most importantly, has very little initial time commitment. The largest attractor is that one can spend 30 seconds browsing to pass the time in something like an elevator ride, or a few minutes riding on the bus, and yet most of the time you will end up scrolling FAR longer than the initial draw because the algorithm is designed to distract and draw in users. This is so effective that I've seen people make jokes (or in some cases, Tik Tok videos) explaining how one can sit down and open the app "for a minute" only to realize how much time has passed over an hour later.
Overall, the draw is a low time commitment, an algorithm designed to be addictive by validating views and inciting conflict similar to that of twitter and YouTube, and a low barrier to entry. All these mixed with a younger audience focused on numbers make an excellent recipe for people to chase the idea of fame, as well as encouraging "mindless scrolling".
The medium has also grown popular on other social media that are prominent copycats such as facebook stories and youtube shorts. Generally the quote would read that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but in this case it's attempted theft of an idea that works. Generally, if facebook or google acquire or copy something, there is going to be a huge audience.
TLDR:
TikTok forms as an accidental addiction enabled by the mindset of the 21st century tech-mindset and an obsession with fame, numbers, and constant instant gratification while also capturing the focus of adults trying to relate to kids, wanting to remain trendy, or looking to advertise to a wide audience. It's outstanding only because of the more "real life" nature of the content, and generally is only a noticed symptom of a wider reality of the online world.
(h2)
ReplyDeleteI personally use tik Tok a lot. I do not post a lot of videos, but I do find myself spending hours on the app scrolling through lots of videos. A lot of things catch my attention, and I tended to be part of the population with an extremely short attention span. I, along with many other people grew up around the "vine" era, and because gf this, a lot of people chose a liking to the app Tik Tok. It's easy to sit behind a screen and procrastinate doing important things like homework and school. Because of the short videos, it allows people to thumb through them quickly, because each video is about a different topic.
A lot of people also like to keep up with the latest drama with celebrities, world events, news etc through the app too. People feel as if they can relate to the people that they see through the screen. Because of this, I think the reason why Charlie D'Amelio said "I feel like it's important to take some time off..." is so she can seem more relatable to her audience. Which, in return is a making her audience want to watch her even more.
[H3]
ReplyDeleteI'll admit I use TikTok a fair bit BUT it's not the same side of TikTok that this post is about. I don't get videos of random teenagers who have blown up for "dancing" or just "being famous." When they do occasionally pop up then I say I'm not interested in it so TikTok doesn't show anymore of that to me.
Everyone uses TikTok for different things and I've yet to see two people with the same kind of For You Page. That just shows the diversity of content out there. Once the formula knows what you like to watch then they'll keep showing it to you and it becomes addictive. Obviously creators like the D'Amelio girls aren't for everyone and it's hard to understand why other people like it if you don't.