I was fine with memes over the past few years … sure they are a quick dopamine hit that make you laugh or think
But now when my friends send me tiktok videos … especially when someone has been watching these video streams for hours or days … they start sending out the most random, inane, mindless content … it’s the kind of material that keep a monkey occupied.
it’s the kind of material that keep a monkey occupied.
I think that’s kind of the point. There was an article a while back that said the CCP/Bytedance intentionally serve up braindead content to everywhere outside China, while promoting educational and uplifting content at home.
I have one 50 year old friend with very little tech know how and his kids set him up with a good smartphone. I saw his family about a year ago and his kids noted that their dad often sits up until about 2 or 3 in the morning at the kitchen table just scrolling through tiktok videos. He sent them to me about once a day until I had to block him and tell him directly to stop sending me this stuff. He’s since become ‘aware’ of his addiction and stops sending out videos as often as he did before. He still scrolls through thousands and thousands of videos a day.
It would all be funny if it wasn’t so frightening at the same time.
No kidding. I just find it ironic that the generation that kept saying “TV will rot your brain” is now completely consumed by social media.
50 is still too young. Endless scrolling should only be for old people who literally can’t do anything. Kids need to do physically stimulating things like playing outside, adults need to do mentally stimulating things like playing video games. Old people don’t need to do anything, they can veg out to short form.
Legitimately, when I was quitting nicotine, I would scroll on my phone when I was getting withdrawal pangs, and it helped.
Nowadays I have to watch myself, or else I’ll potentially lose hours. I know exactly what addiction feels like: going without and satisfying what feels like a need - it feels right. And these apps are definitely addictive. I didn’t really notice until I tried to stop.
I’ve had no trouble curating my feed to mostly professionals, psychologists and pet behaviorists. Occasional cute animal videos
Nice. I’ll be honest, I never bothered with tiktok, only Instagram. And even that got to a point where I just gave up and tossed it. Even Reddit was weird like that.
that sounds way too bizarre to believe without seeing a source. and i know there’s gonna be people replying saying it’s not that bizarre, because China, but really…?
60 Minutes did a spread on it way back when, it’s on YouTube I believe
thank you
Absolutely reasonable thing to ask.
Grep for “Companies like TikTok” to find the relevant portion.
The guy talking isn’t exactly a scientist and this ain’t a rigourous peer-reviewed study, but it does seem like he knows at least a little about what he’s talking about. Take it with a grain of salt.
I want to see a sampling of this “educational and uplifting” content.
Just don’t forget Blackrock owns a very sizable portion of Bytedance. Just saying.
That’s such a gross misunderstanding of the separation between TikTok and China that it’s very possible purposeful misinformation.
China has no control whatsoever over TikTok, and in fact, there are US intelligence officers on the board for the American company. If anyone is “intentionally serving up braindead content…” it’s the US company, who is under strict control and observation by US intelligence agencies.
Why are you lying? Every Chinese company is under the CCP’s boot, as made evident by the one time Tencent tried to fight it
Xenophobia and jingoism have so thoroughly riddled most American brains that you require no evidence of anything, and just exist in a “vibes based reality” where you accept entirely false information as truth because it fits your preconceptions. The US government has spent years at this point trying to prove what you’ve said about TikTok, and they’ve been entirely unable to do so, because it’s literally not true. And as I said, their US board is filled with US intelligence spooks, not Chinese ones.
Next you’ll tell me China is pushing pro-Palestinian content on TikTok, instead of the youth just being rabidly pro-Palestine.
I’m not even American, bot. Go suck CCP cock somewhere else.
it’s the kind of material that keep a monkey occupied.
And that’s what Ten Forward is for!
Oh shit!
This post actually made me look for a solution and I found one!
Solution to opening tiktoks without using tiktok app or site, not how to stop ur friends sending u garbage.It made me think… mpv player can play basically any link you throw at it (thanks to yt-dlp), and we also have mpv on Android, so why can’t we do it there as well. And sure enough, I found this https://github.com/mpv-android/mpv-android/pull/58, someone baked yt-dlp in mpv for Android, making it possible to open link in mpv (share >> play in mpv)
It works for instagram and all other shit.
Can’t wait to try this out. Thanks for sharing.
I have just moved to mpv from mx player due to this comment. Thanks!
Well that’s pretty cool
If you are sending the links through discord/chat with embed add vx in front of tiktok and it becomes playable in discord itself. (https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8b81Gu1/ -> https://www.vxtiktok.com/t/ZT8b81Gu1/)
In a removed move, a normal tiktok link will have a play button on the icon like it should play, but can’t. This one actually will.
So do we need to download something from your link to make that work? Or is it already part of MPV?
Gotta download the APK from the link
While this is useful, it could be even better! If the AndroidManifest.xml also contained support for Facebook, TikTok and Instagram links it could be set to directly open them instead needing to share it to mpv.
I felt this way with instagram. My phone can barely handle the web app and you can’t even replay the video without an account. Truly garbage UX
Im pretty sure that meta purposefully makes the mobile websites for all their products as shit as possible to get people to use the real apps instead
That’s what literally all social media sites do. It is far more profitable for people to be using your app than your mobile website. Apps make it much easier to harvest data and corral the user into the exact experience you want them to have (ads, suggestions, etc).
I know not many people here are going back to Reddit but just for a second, open your mobile browser, disable the add-ons if it’s firefox, and go look at Reddit currently. Within the last few weeks they have absolutely massacred it. Like, truly, it is astoundingly bad now. The original mobile redesign of the site was already terrible, but this new-new-mobile reddit is so painfully bad that the only conceivable reason for its existence is to get people to give up and use the app.
Man i really miss old reddit, what a shame. I hope lemmy continues to grow, none of my hobbies have active communities yet like they do on redddit
same, idk what to talk abt with you all lol
But I’m here and we’re chillin
Could I see some pictures of how bad it’s truly gotten?
I’ve occasionally browsed Reddit with Firefox private browsing plus uBlock origin, and while the website is quite crappy (Much nagging to use the app and to sign in), it hasn’t gotten any worse in the last few weeks.
I refuse to install their app(Facebook) phone on my phone. They have basically broken the mobile site once again, so I’ve just stopped using it. Much easier.
That’s why I use desktop mode on most websites
Any phone can barely handle the web app
I’m pissed when ppl send me links for it and they don’t play in mobile firefox and I’m forced to open chrome.
Wait until you are on a clever chinaphone OS that unloads the previous app while you play this.
I just shared this with my wife, since she has started sharing TikTok lately.
Sorry to hear your marriage is on the rocks mate. Hopefully it’s just a phase.
She sent this as a reply:
It’s too late for me. Save yourselves!
Mine’s been doing it too even though she knows how much I absolutely despise tiktok… There’s a reason I don’t have that app… Lol
And the fucking fake voices… Ugh… Such shit.
Like, usually I use my phone with the volume completely off and I don’t even want to turn it on for most of the videos I see on here or wherever but it seems like for all this tiktok garbage you need sound to even determine why the hell someone shared it with you.
PSA: If it’s links on Discord, you can prefix the link with
vxto make it natively embed so you don’t have to click through (e.g.vxtiktok.com). This also works with twitter links (vxtwitter.com). People out there hosting these domains doing the lord’s workFor Instagram you can usually do ddinstagram but it’s a bit inconsistent. I found it helps to remove the id at the end of the link.
Plot twist: the people hosting those are datamining the shit out of people
This but it’s instagram
It’s both. So annoying when the first bit is muted and you can’t replay.
My wife created an Instagram account in my phone so she can send me videos.
I fucking abhor TikTok. Anybody who installs that app is a danger to themselves and a traitor to mankind. Disgusting fucking thing, it pisses me off.
The thing about it that irks me the most is that it’s not even for any valuable means. It’s just a slightly different FaceBook or YouTube Shorts platform! You’re selling us all out for fucking video clips?!
My thoughts exactly.
I dunno man, my TikTok algorithm is about the wokest, most informative news feed amongst them all.
Sometimes they try something new, and I have to train the algorithm a little again, but nothing too annoying.The problem isn’t largely the manipulation of information you perceive through the app, although they do try their hardest.
The problem is the app. People are putting that shit on smartphones and walking around with it. It’s so bloated with spyware that the spyware outweighs the install data needed to run the app itself. I don’t care if they’ve got a headquarters in the USA or wherever else, at the end of the day I truly believe that the information being stolen is ending up in their Chinese HQ which is a fucking military operation of a hostile dictatorship.
It reads and transmits your message history, your GPS location, your photo library, depending on your model it’s probably recording sounds most of the time. They have your name, your address, the layout of your home, where you work, where you like to eat, which bank you use, every personal conversation you’ve had for months: you’re fucked if a global conflict ever starts. The other world powers will be completely crippled by a bunch of complacent fucking nitwits who chose Vines over their soul. Great job, assholes!
I just checked and the tiktok app has no access to anything on my phone lmao. It literally cannot access any of this data, unless you’re uploading videos then it will use your pictures.
Plus, even IF youre right and the app is somehow circumventing all of the rules the app stores require to even be on it, AND somehow Google and Apple are incapable of figuring out that the app is malicious AND they also for some reason don’t remove it for breaking those rules, I’m just some dude looking at stupid memes. China isn’t getting anything I care about.
though I disagree that you’re seemingly implying it’s harmless - I too do not care if some dude in China knows about my hobbies. I’m the safest type of person out there - I’m a nobody - the worst they can do is shove more targeted ads in my face, and guess what I have an adblocker.
you’re angry
lol
What is it about short vertical video that makes people froth insanely at the mouth? Don’t “china” me on it, people whine over youtube shorts, instagram reels, they poopoo on snapchat, loathed twitter stories, and thought vine was a stupid idea. It feels like an ancient redditor thing, but I was in the 11 year club too and it’s just a different type of format for media, media which can be used in many different ways, as always. Like how internet video generally is different to TV.
it’s addictive, and hard to pack helpful good information into a video that short, and so it just ends up being an infinite stream of completely pointless content. it cannot be good for young children to be swiping through endless shortform content all day, either.
honestly, i’ve mostly stopped using reddit, and it was kinda shocking switching to lemmy, where i can consume all of the content i am interested in that was posted today, and theres just, no more. it is certainly a healthier way of using social media though.
It’s not about vertical video. It’s not even about China.
It’s about the obscene amount of tracking that TikTok does. It makes Instrgram’s privacy violations look tame. It collects data on basically anything you can think of, and then uses it to show you exactly what you want, making it more addictive than most drugs while simultaneously having all of your data sold off.
The fact that it’s vertical video is bad enough on its own.
The fact that it’s short means you can’t actually do anything meaningful with it. Can’t meaningfully set up a scenario to tell a good joke. Can’t explain the context behind the educational fact you’re sharing. Can’t develop characters in a story. It can never be anything more than basic spectacle.
But the worst bit is the fact that it’s pure algorithm. YouTube at least shows you a screen of 10+ videos for you to choose from. Or you can go to your subscriptions page and see videos from people you’ve specifically said you want to watch. Or use search and find videos on a specific topic (though recently YouTube has made changes that make this significantly worse than it used to be). TikTok is “watch the video we want you to watch, or skip to the next video we want you to watch” on repeat. It’s incredibly patronising, and far less valuable as a user.
Just use YT Shorts if you love the videos format, don’t install an app from a military op in the world’s largest dictatorship.
You’re going to sit there and say “Don’t china me on it” when that’s literally the problem. You’re willfully ignorant of the actual problem with it. Fuck you!
Removed by mod
Traitor to mankind? Don’t you think you’re being just a little bit dramatic?
I’m operating under the assumption that the Chinese Dictatorship by their very nature are acting against their own interests, that they could be happier in a functioning democracy with more equality.
Definitely a traitor to everyone else on earth, though. It would be akin to being a proponent of Stalin, Putin, Mao Zedong, the generals or the emperor of the Dai Nippon Empire, etc. History will be on my side with this one.
I just ignore them because the videos are a mess of graphics and popups outside the app. It has literally made some videos unwatchable for me as they kept getting interrupted and breaking.
It’s the worst mobile website I’ve ever seen, which is impressive considering Facebook and Reddit have been intentionally breaking their mobile websites for years now.
I just don’t respond but she’s not getting the hint.
Lol people don’t know their friends are platform snobs 😅
Platform purist ty
Tyvm
I’ve told them repeatedly though? If they’re not aware at this point it’s on them.
As always I like promoting open source frontends for these pages. For tiktok I use proxytok. For changing any tiktok link to one of these instances use the libredirect extension for firefox, it also works in mobile
Have you heard about our lords and saviors the alternative frontends?
Do memes stop being memes when they’re on tiktok?
Once they hit TikTok, they’re purely Chinese spyware.
Facebook is just American spyware. The Chinese gov can’t exactly send the feds to my house. You better bet the US gov can though!
Forget countries, if Facebook is like having a prying eye spy on you, TikTok is like having 100 prying eyes spying on you.
And that’s different than American spyware in several important ways, such as…
Such as…
Well shit.
What sort of spyware do they employ?
The worst kind.
Any actual information on the spyware or nah?
Are you actually this ignorant? There have been exposés in multiple international newspapers on the source code after it leaked.
If you’re so stupid that you’ve entirely missed one of the largest spyware scandals in recent history, then I don’t think there’s a source I can give you that’s going to cure your other stupidity.
Trying to jaq off here like you are just makes you look like pathetic.
Could you link to any source that talks about this spyware or are you just going to insult me for not knowing about every single thing that is going on? Clearly this is an important issue for you, so I would love to gain some knowledge from you on this subject.
Eh, I used to think this too, but TikTok isn’t closely associated with chinese companies, any more than TakeTwo or anything made in Shenzhen.
I still abhor it for what it is though, alongside YTShorts.
i shall retaliate with fediverse links
Suddenly glad all of my friends are old people like me.
old people like me
The person who sends me far more TikTok videos than anyone else is my boomer dad.
This is why I wrote a Telegram bot that uses yt-dlp to convert videos and send them directly to people. My friend group all use different socials, Facebook, tiktok, Twitter, Lemmy, etc., and the bot will take the link, download the video, then send it back to the person, and then they can forward it to whatever chats they want.
It’s been pretty fucking handy. That is, if your friends use Telegram.
Brian is that you?
Are you any good at Japanese yet?
Indeed.
I thought I was getting okay at the basics, but actually visiting Japan taught me that I definitely was not. But I’m starting classes later this year, hope to become fluent eventually.
