TikTok: An Evaluation

In the fall of 2021, a Facebook insider -- Frances Haugen -- testified in front of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She informed the commission that Facebook's algorithm purposefully draws on the negative and brings comparable things to the user's forefront. In short, the more extreme a post, the bigger the usage draw and sponsor generated money making. Because I saw myself civically declining in the arguments I entered into on FB, largely fed by this algorithm, I departed FB. 

This last week, perhaps four or five days ago now, I downloaded TikTok, which is a popular -- especially with the youth -- social video application. My aims were threefold. First, I like YouTube, which is similar. YouTube allows for longer videos, which often means better quality, including professional outlets. TikTok allows for only a minute or two at a time, so to get viewers on the application, an content provider needs to either find a niche or cater to the absurd (toilet humor and silliness), the passive (think cat videos), or the provocative (as close to porn as one can get without exposing body parts or explicitly stating intentions, though adult site links are often connected to postings). My aim was to see if the platform was a good option should I want to post in a niche category.

My second objective was to simply to see what the hoopla was all about. And my third aim was to see what the draw is for my teenager and to check out her content. To the latter, I found that her videos were soft and innocuous. I was proud that she didn't get caught up in the baseness that the app seems to solicit in its algorithm. But, I did notice a few things that came upon my screen that got me thinking about TikToc's influence on her. 

First, she has been experimenting with the whole gender neutrality, personal pronoun, LGBTQ+ community thing on the app. I would say that about 60% of the videos that would scroll on my screen were sexual in nature, either advertising bodies or promoting certain sexual ideologies, and much of that would be LGBTQ+ related. It's no wonder, in my mind anyway, that an impressionable 14 year old would be attracted to this theme. Second, I posted in my Christmas blog article for 2021 how she had learned that paganism was simply repackaged into Christmas and so it de-legitimized Christmas. I originally suspected that she heard these tropes at school. I debunked these popular tropes against Christmas in that blog article, but now I suspect that she may have seen something on TikToc, because several of these paganism to Christmas videos came through my feed too.

I also suspect TicTok's impressionable nature because for about a week in August, the 14 year old would occasionally make a twitch, which she claimed was a "tick," as if she had tourette syndrome. One of the regular content creators that came up on my TikToc feed was of a young woman named Baylen Dupree, who showcases her sudden onset tourette syndrome. I do suspect TikToc as the source for my teen's expressions. My girl eventually dropped this act when little attention was given to it by me or my wife.

So, my end analysis of TikToc is that it is largely cheap and quick entertainment. There are indeed funny and meaningful items on the site. But these good things seem to be outweighed by social ideologies, politically charged rhetoric, sexual innuendo and ideology, gross toilet humor, half-truths, and absurdity. Though not a scientific analysis, I suspect that the site pedals 80% garbage, which is simply not worth my time or investment. YouTube seems more credible to me, and even there it's not always reliable. I will be deleting my TikToc. I am quite disappointed and find it all very mind-numbing. It is a serious time waster and brain drainer.