It’s very clear that TikTok causes brain rot:
- hours upon hours of scrolling;
- damaged attention spans;
- boring lip sync “memes”;
- whatever the fuck my little brother is watching;
- KKKringy song over equally KKKringe footage;
- TWs for almost literally anything. I’ve seen [TW: Aesthetic];
- iPad kids
You know? This applies to YT shorts. Now my attention span is so short I can’t even read theory for 5 minutes without thinking “What’s on TikTok?”
Let’s not even forget the KKKringe-ass use of 733tspeak, wtf man.
If I ever have kids, I’d waste my entire bank account just to stop them from getting in this hellhole of a site.
I plan on having TikTok banned after the revolution.
Just try not to fuel the ideological discourse to ban TikTok because this serves the interest of US monopolies on social media, who directly benefit from the banning of TikTok and regain monopoly on discourse and public opinion. More like opposition to banning but a demand to regulate TikTok, is a much better discourse. In fact, a regulation on social media in general.
US state department already has full control over the ideological bent of TikTok. Regardless of what the media and reddit brainlets say, the CPC does not control TikTok. The version of it used in China is called Douyin or something like that and is governed by a different set of rules.
TikTok was being forced to sell ownership to an American holder. I think Oracle and Microsoft were in contention at one point. Suddenly this requirement was relinquished and some NATO folks were given key position in TikTok. Mintpress News article about it.
This context becomes even more important to know in light of the recent moves in the EU and Canada to block TikTok from being installed on government devices. Blocking all social media on such devices makes sense, both in terms of productivity and security. Blocking one app because it’s associated with China in everyone’s head is just another bit of the current yellow peril propaganda campaign.
There’s a ridiculous take I’ve heard libs make based on this information. They say that the reason Douyin and TikTok have different rules isn’t because, as you pointed out in your second paragraph, TikTok is beholden to the U.S. Rather, it’s because TikTok is a weapon by the see see pee to make American children braindead. Douyin not being cancer is considered as evidence that this is the case.
Social media*
Nah, we’ll just have completely change the incentives the algorithms run on, making them less addictive and terrible. I’m not saying shitposting needs to exist into eternity, just that mass communication is helpful, and it’s nice to be able discuss and share things all around the world.
I don’t see how it can become less addictive. The algorithm feeds you content based on the things you like and are interested in, that’s the reason it’s addicting. Unless they change the algorithm to give you content you actively dislike (which doesn’t make sense) it simply can’t become less addicting.
There needs to be a complete paradigm shift in social media for it to be healthy.
That’s what I mean, a complete overhaul of the algorithms.
It could be that no or very little algorithms is the answer. Kind of like what lemmy does for sorting posts and comments.
“Sort posts in reverse chronological order” and “Sort posts by most recently commented on” are algorithms, but not the kind that will try to trap you in an endless loop of consooming content.