Have you ever wondered what the success of TikTok is all about?
Analysts introduced the concept of “digital tobacco” in 2021. According to them, the biggest social media platforms are like the biggest tobacco companies because of the way they create addictive products.
At the end of 2021, the editors of the New York Times found internal TikTok documents related to the construction and operation of the application algorithm itself. TikTok itself is a unique phenomenon in the world of online platforms. The application is known to be the most effective in “drawing” the user into its snares. The said documents marked as “TikTok Algo 1010” obtained by NYT are true – representatives of the Chinese giant confirmed their authenticity.
According to them, addiction by means of algorithms is a successful, proportional combination of pure mathematics and psychology. A network of connected vessels working together for success.
In addition to numbers, TikTok uses natural traits and cultural cues in its models behind the app. Feeling bored is one of the most important factors in the addiction process. This boredom is, of course, covered with a whole host of other bricks. TikTok knows what we like, how we comment on who we follow, knows the appropriate hashtags, captions, sounds, language preferences and localization.
According to the Wall Street Journal, TikTok’s algorithms are able to analyze your reaction on an ongoing basis, what you click, which moments (within seconds) you don’t like, or where you paused.
Source: https://ohmydev.pl/post/dlaczego-algorytmy-potrafia-nas-tak-szybko-uzaleznic-3bi8?fbclid=IwAR1T90JfPjFHPn8bK7irU-X1-IrZHngsdTZBS03mJzTKLsQUQkecsOsw8Ig
The way TikTok’s algorithms work and their impact is so interesting!
Yes, TikTok is addictive, however, I think it’s better to be addicted to TikTok than other popular social media.
TikTok shows exactly what a person wants to see and might potentially relate to (even before they think about it), so it can be a tool of learning about, e.g., hobbies, or literally anything that sparks a person’s interest. What’s left me speechless, are many stories of people who’ve gotten official medical diagnoses, because the algorithms suggested them creators who speak out about them, which lead them to dig deeper. (I’m not taking about self-diagnosing!)
Of course, like any other social media, it’s not great and is full of controversies, but sometimes using TikTok can work in a person’s advantage.
Tik Tok is a tool. People can use hammers to build houses or/and hurt themselves and others. Tools are what we make them.
Comparing TikTok to Tabaco Company seems quite accurate. We are often, not necessarily only on tiktok, unaware of the manipulative algorytms that stay behind those certain apps. It is crucial to obtain skills necessary to distinct between doing what we want and what app wants us to do.
it’s also interesting how such algorithms can cause us to feel general dissatisfaction in doing any “normal” tasks. tiktok constantly gives new things to focus on and this makes it more difficult to pay attention for long in many other situations in life.
When tik tok was just combined i thought about it, but dont pay too much attention to it, hwever now i am just shoked about the results of this small media app
Mission accomplished. It’s so addictive that people stay hours watching these short videos, I think it’s a waste of time.
TikTok’s success says a lot about our times. Social Media as we now it, facilitated many things, but they also changed the pace of our lifes. We know much more, there is so much information out there, everything goes faster. However, in very fast world TikTok is a worst of all, truly a fast-food grade medium. Everything is based on minimizing attention span and simplifying the message, which makes entertainment a cheap business. You don’t need to try anymore to make good content, because it’s all about fitting in with the trends.