TikTok has a lot going for it as a platform, but you should always understand a company's motivations when using their product. TikTok wants you to spend more time with your digital friends, because they make money from peppering ads in your experience with them. So sure, much like Facebook, Twitter or any other platform with the same business model, they will tacitly encourage users to spend as much time as possible on the platform.
I've seen this comment echoed with Tumblr, Instagram, Musical.ly and about every other social media platform. The issue with them? Corporate interests superseded user control, and the whole thing went sideways. Nobody's telling you that you can't like TikTok, and I don't doubt you have an extensive list of all the things you like about it. Undeniably though, TikTok is stepping on the exact same banana peel that every other network did, even if they do a damn good job of controlling their western narrative.
Keep using TikTok if it makes you happy, but remember that happiness doesn't come from apps, it's a state of mind. There are healthier, less destructive ways to surround yourself with the content you love, trust me.
Too many to unpack here, but I'll start with this.
Repeat after me: digital friends are friends.
Personally, TikTok takes a very small fraction of my life (I go there when I don't feel I can do anything else), and I have many "real world" friends to interact with offline.
And I met some of them through social networks.
Question to consider for you: during the pandemic, when one probably couldn't see most of their friends and had to interact with them remotely, did they cease being friends?
Also, just an FYI, your comment comes off as patronizing, missing my point, and making a lot of assumptions about me.
And remember, there are healthier, less destructive ways to surround yourself with the content you love than writing such comments on HackerNew, trust me.
Just wanted to add: aside from assumptions you seem to be making about me and my usage of TikTok, I agree with your points.
>TikTok is stepping on the exact same banana peel
I wouldn't count on TikTok being great in a few years too.
But what I've seen with many products, platforms, and ideas is that something good comes along, perishes, and then the uniquely good parts are gone for good because people didn't get what was good specifically, and so nobody took the torch to carry it forward.
When Facebook started, the novel idea was creating a social network that connected people who already had something in common: namely, going to the same school. That's why it blew up. Because it facilitated bonding within those communities.
It was exclusive by design (no .edu email = no Facebook, not same school = no seeing info), and that's what made it great for the initial wave of users that made it big.
TikTok blew up for a similar reason. It connects people who are already related in some way really well: either by a common interest, or - as in the case I am highlighting - by sharing the experiences of being adults with ADHD / ASD / OCD / BPD / depression / anxiety / burnout / trauma / abuse etc -- a demographic for which it's hard to connect (and be open!) with people in general, people who can't relate doubly so (and unless you know someone really well, it's not something that you can openly discuss in this society).
This is the idea I want to highlight. I want that on other platforms. I want someone to make it when TikTok goes down the drain. And so far, few seem to understand what it is that TikTok gave us -- so we might be left without a platform again in a few years.
Which would suck.
>Nobody's telling you that you can't like TikTok
Many people in the thread shamed me for liking TikTok. If you scroll up, I've been accused of (quote):
* being an addict to parasocial relationships with content creators (with many implying that I only consume that content)
* enabling oppression and exploitation of underprivileged content creators
* etc
So yes, people here are literally telling me that it's bad to like using TikTok, equating it to a moral transgression.
>There are healthier, less destructive ways to surround yourself with the content you love, trust me.
It's not about content. It's about people.
And what basis do you have for telling me to trust you here? Do you have credentials in mental health to back that up, or are you just being patronizing? Relatable experience? Genuinely curious.
Note that I am not telling anyone here what they should do, I only give my perspective as a user of the platform.
But if you do know of "less destructive" ways, pray, do tell, how would one go about connecting to a couple of dozen people who would be willing to openly talk (with voice! while showing their faces!) about how they experienced the symptoms of surviving narcissistic abuse, how they spotted it within themselves, and what helps them personally?
Without paying a dime, I must add?
I'll be checking this comment for responses, because either I'll learn something new (great!), or I see no response, and conclude that you learned something new (even better!).
I've seen this comment echoed with Tumblr, Instagram, Musical.ly and about every other social media platform. The issue with them? Corporate interests superseded user control, and the whole thing went sideways. Nobody's telling you that you can't like TikTok, and I don't doubt you have an extensive list of all the things you like about it. Undeniably though, TikTok is stepping on the exact same banana peel that every other network did, even if they do a damn good job of controlling their western narrative.
Keep using TikTok if it makes you happy, but remember that happiness doesn't come from apps, it's a state of mind. There are healthier, less destructive ways to surround yourself with the content you love, trust me.