Here's yet another reason not to panic over TikTok:
For the first time in TikTok’s history, its user growth is stagnating, according to people familiar with the matter.... U.S. average monthly users ages 18 to 24 declined by nearly 9% from 2022 to 2023, according to the mobile analytics firm Data.ai. Some users in their 20s say they have gotten off the app entirely to focus more on life and work.
Teens are notoriously faddish, and their favorite social media networks change rapidly. TikTok is big enough and has enough inertia that it will stay popular for a long time, but it won't be the "it" network forever. As with all things teen, what goes up must eventually come down.
Fine, but are any of those remaining on the platform celebrating St. Gertrude’s Day?
but if you believe the supposed tiktok threat is real (though like kevin, i'm not even sure what critics contend the threat actually is), the fact it may be much less prominent in a decade doesn't really matter much.
Now that elderly congressmen have gotten online, it's the opposite of cool (or whatever the expression for cool is this year -- maybe "cool" is the best description of just how totally out of it TikTok has become?)
I’ve just never understood the huge appeal. YouTube, Vines, Instagram, TikTok, who cares? It’s just a way to post videos online. What’s the big appeal of one vs another? You can essentially have the same content in any of them. Or whatever the next one to come along is. It just seems kind of ridiculous.
Coke. Pepsi. RC. Store brand… it is all just a way to drink sugared, carbonated water.
Each platform serves content differently, and hence, has only some content that works in it.
You can't, for instance, play a movie in TikTok, because they can't be that long. In fact, your instructional video needs to be quick enough or it'll be cut off.
And traditionally, YouTube penalized videos that were shorter (because view time would be low) and channels which didn't update daily.
So that shapes how content is... As does what aspect ratio the app is in, sound quality, etc.
A lot of the appeal is the sheer passivity. With Youtube, for example, you have to choose what to watch. There are recommendations and playlists, but you can't just head over to Youtube and just watch. Fire up TikTok, and you are watching a video, then the next video and so on. I gather you can tell TikTok to try something else, and it remembers what you like and don't like and provides an endless stream.
If you believe Cory Doctorow's theory of enshittification, TikTok got its big lead by providing value to its users, but it may already be shifting to give more value to its customers, the advertisers. Young people may be checking out because of the rising ad mix and the algorithm no longer being about them. TikTok is basically doing so well because it is at an earlier stage of the enshittification cycle. According to the theory, TikTok will eventually have to screw its advertisers just as it is likely starting to screw its viewers, but that hasn't happened yet.
Wow! That's frightening. I hate autoplay, and with autoselect and binge mode, it's even worse! In my opinion, at least; 160,000,000 American think I'm wrong and love, love, LOVE them some autoplay, autoselect, and binge.
The median IQ of these ppl is almost certainly a single digit so I wouldn’t worry about it too much
That, and the Millennials (i.e. the youngish parental generation) are getting involved, so The Kids will be moving on soon.
This was my stance from day one. Just let the Olds take any interest in their space and they'll vacate as sure as water is wet, the sky is up.
That's interesting. My main gripe with the "China will use TikTok to control teh kidz" thing is that if a significant fraction of videos it sent to users were to achieve some strategic objective rather than serve them the best crack available every time, it would undermine the appeal. Maybe the kids got bored with the not-so-shiny-and-new social media platform, or maybe China did try to use it as feared and this is the result...
And the more China or anyone else tries to flood the app with political messages masquerading as news, the more kids will abandon it in search of some other app where they can have fun and be kids together.
Exactly.
So, it shouldn't be an issue to ban it, is what you're saying, right?
Kids aren't dummies, they know what they can do on Tiktok they can do on multiple platforms, and given China is a totalitarian country and rival to the US and Western world, that's the last thing most of them care to support (and never much thought about until it became a thing all the boring adults talk about, right or wrong they'll move on because it was never about Tiktok, but their own videos and pop culture).
Excellent then it will be easier to ban with less supporters.
I think the main communication social media between teens and younger Zs is snapchat anyway.