Yes exactly! So looking for theories on what something like that might look like.
Suddenly? Over 30 years ago, my Camaro was stolen, stripped, and abandoned in Alameda while I was at sea. When the ship returned to port, I reported the vehicle stolen. The local cops informed me that it was not uncommon for one of the local gangs to do that.
The only thing I think online video services have to do with such stupidity today is spreading the word on how to do it and also giving other cretins the “bright idea” to do it.
You said that you wanted countermeasures to TikTok changing your thinking. One option would be for you to more carefully curate your feed by filtering out the bad stuff.
My suggestion was going to be replacing the 15 rapid fire videos with one or two longer videos, like on YouTube. Because I think the main difference that TikTok has done to brains is that people have shorter attention spans.
Similarly, you could take charge by picking specific videos rather than just letting the AI pick videos for you.
And, then, if you can do it, then it could be something to try to get other people to do. I don’t see anything else that would help with the fundamental issue.
Also, Tik Toc isn’t a platform for serious content, it’s a site for eye candy—quick clips to amuse you. In that regard, it is successful. Expecting content with more depth and gravitas will disappoint.
Somewhat deeper content can be found on YouTube if you search properly. But, of course YT also has a lot of crap. Since anyone can post anything (legal) on these platforms, they do. It’s up to you to separate the wheat from the chaff.
For the best online content, you have to pay for it. The streaming service Wondrium (formerly The Great Courses) offers a series of college-level audio and video courses (on many subjects) and documentaries produced and distributed by The Teaching Company. This is online content at it’s finest.
This is true across all media channels and all demographics, not just teenagers and TikTok. Questions like the OP’s come up regularly with regard to television (“why is there so much reality trash, how do we make television better”), magazines (“why is there so much awful celebrity gossip, how do we change this”), ad nauseum.
In an open media marketplace where people freely choose what to consume, they will reveal human nature by their choices in the aggregate. And what the landscape has shown us over the last few decades is that humanity, overall, is pretty terrible, gravitating to short-attention-span primate-brain junk.
As long as media may be freely chosen, it will not improve unless and until people improve. It is a reflection. Full stop. Face that reality first.
I think the main difference with social media like TicToc, YouTube, and others is that people are not just free to consume but they are also free to create. This is in contrast to more traditional media like broadcast/cable television where content was created more centrally. At least with the more traditional media, you kind of knew the context of what you were watching goin in - whether it was news, scripted show or movie, reality show, etc.
So basically you have a lot of terrible people creating a lot of terrible short-attention-span primate-brain junk to entertain each other’s short-attention-span primate-brains.
I usually encounter TicTok videos on my Facebook “Reels”. Much like the OP, I feel like they have changed my thinking. Mostly in providing a negative view of humanity.
I’m not normally a spelling stickler, but this is driving me nuts in this thread for some reason. It’s TikTok. There’s no “c” in the name.
Nor is there a space between Tik and Tok.
Thank you, that was bugging me as well.