TIK TOK is scary

All these kids have been glued to tik tok for a while now. I just ignored it.
Out of the blue I decided to take a look.

H ere
My eyeballs 👀 almost popped out of my head!! IS This what my kids (just want to add my kids are adults) have been hiding frome me!
Keeping all this eye candy to themselves! Those greedy crumb catchers. They know Mama needs some excitement in her life too!

So I was hooked, and started scrolling, hook line and sinker!
But then...........it got dark, real dark...real fast

All of a sudden all the half nekked cowboys shaking their money maker were gone and all that was left was
some really depressing stuff!
I had videos on child sex abuse survivors, then people that have divorced their horrible spouses,
then people that are so much better since divorcing their spouses, then cheating girlfriends, boyfriends,
people that are mean to others, mean to gay people, child abusers.
Sprinkled in there were videos of how to have a "billionare" mindset
Then some of women that are basically prostitutes.

So I know there is some kind of algorithm. It is different from FB which shows you what you click on and like.
If you like cooking FB will suggest cooking sites, or cooking gear in their ads etc.
Tik Tok, would show you the opposite, like starving kids or some thing. I haven't figured it out yet.
I'm going to look at the feeds for my family members and see if I can figure it out.
I think they have something like how drug users are addicted to something, a hit and then withdrawl, hit then withdrawl.

For adults I don't see an issue, but I see a huge issue with children or teens using this. No wonder so many have anxiety, and issues.

I banned my kids from it a while ago. Told them if I catch them on there, there phone would be mine. Seems to have worked lol.

a reply to: HawkeyeNation

or they just got better at hiding it from you.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I don't use Tik Tok, but your post made me curious to find out how their algorithm works.

Here's an extensive article about it:

blog.hootsuite.com...

The TikTok algorithm is a recommendation system that determines which videos will appear on your For You page.

No two users will see the same videos on their For You page, and the videos you see might change over time based on your viewing preferences and even your current state of mind.

Much like the Instagram algorithm, the TikTok algorithm bases recommendations on a user’s interactions with content on the app. What kind of interactions? Anything that offers clues about the kind of content the user likes, or doesn’t like.

For example, your For You page recommendations are based on:

Which accounts you follow
Creators you’ve hidden
Comments you’ve posted
Videos you’ve liked or shared on the app
Videos you’ve added to your favorites
Videos you’ve marked as “Not Interested”
Videos you’ve reported as inappropriate
Longer videos you watch all the way to the end (aka video completion rate)
Content you create on your own account

I suppose it's not so different to Instagram or FB.

originally posted by: HawkeyeNation
I banned my kids from it a while ago. Told them if I catch them on there, there phone would be mine. Seems to have worked lol.

I hate to say it, but they are probably looking at it.

In addition to all the depressing stuff, there is a ton of basically x rated content.
It's not x rated visually, but what it talks about is. I can't imagine an 8 year old or something looking at this stuff..

a reply to: Encia22

even your current state of mind.

Well if they are going by my state of mind I want to see shaking cowboys 100% of the time, so they got that wrong!

a reply to: JAGStorm

LOL, you probably have to give it time to learn about your preferences. Keep searching hashtags to do with cowboys and "like" what you like... you'll soon be in Texas!

a reply to: Encia22

Here is a perfect example.


Here

a reply to: JAGStorm

Sorry, we can't see the contents without logging in... I'm commuting atm, maybe later tonight.

originally posted by: Encia22
a reply to: JAGStorm

Sorry, we can't see the contents without logging in... I'm commuting atm, maybe later tonight.

It's a video of a poor dude strung out on drugs.

Just like me with the dopamine Cowboy hit,
this video brought me all the way back down!

Someone I know is a high dollar investment manager and he spends hours on it a day. I honestly don't get it but to each their own. I'd much rather be improving something around the house or learning a new skill.

originally posted by: Stupidsecrets
Someone I know is a high dollar investment manager and he spends hours on it a day. I honestly don't get it but to each their own. I'd much rather be improving something around the house or learning a new skill.

That is the other thing with this time sucker, unlike Netflix, podcasts, radio or the tv, you can't just listen or watch in the background. It is designed in a way you have to be actively scrolling.
It also has addictive qualities to it. You think you are scrolling for a few minutes and then realize an hour has passed.
It has also been designed for the attention deficit youth, quick little clips. Oddly I've enjoyed some of the longer ones.

A lot of the content is just not for me so I don't think i'll be using it much more.

a reply to: HawkeyeNation

I am glad you did, Tik tok is a Chinese communist regime tool to influence and target the US children for their own brainwashing benefits.

The last administration wanted to ban it from the US, then the communist lapdog Microsoft started to back the tool and after that it was not more talks of banning.

a reply to: JAGStorm

His wife said the same thing. She said he will be on it for hours but he loses track of time and thinks it's only 45 min or so.

a reply to: JAGStorm


Here's exactly what I'm talking about.

I just clicked on my own link to see what it would do. (for purely educational purposes

I get that gorgeous piece of eye candy, THEN
look what comes after!

They are messing with dopamine, body image, reality...

Also, guy #2 looks goofy as heck, but he actually looks more like the average Joe right?
The problem is when you show him after showing cowboy beefcake #2 looks like ground beef!

Now imagine that with the opposite sex and the kind of influence it has. I just think of all the young girls and the impact.
Man, that's sad.
I actually think it is probably much much worse.

originally posted by: JAGStorm

originally posted by: HawkeyeNation
I banned my kids from it a while ago. Told them if I catch them on there, there phone would be mine. Seems to have worked lol.

I hate to say it, but they are probably looking at it.

In addition to all the depressing stuff, there is a ton of basically x rated content.
It's not x rated visually, but what it talks about is. I can't imagine an 8 year old or something looking at this stuff..

You are right, they likely see it all. When my kids were that age we were building the house. The kids lived in cabins separate from me so I got them phones for safety as we had a lot of bears and cougars at the time. The boy's cabins were only 14' away from our cabin/kitchen and were duplex with a shared deck (they bust a hole in the wall to make it easier to visit each other) Those phones, however, also allowed the kids to discover Redtube.

Being 4H kids they bred rabbits/chickens, understanding sex on that level, comfortable enough that my youngest shared with me what he had found. I was kinda horrified as it was porn on such extreme levels. I'd never seen such things and I'm far from prudish. We had to have some talks about porn/sex as a performance versus some day you may meet a partner and they are very likely not going to be into that extreme stuff. In short, it isn't normal. Your future partner might like normal, like the animals, and that if you get into stuff like this you might miss out on all the good of normal, like connection and love. It was awkward to say to say the least.

Another time, I heard the afterschool crowd of kids howling laughing in one of the cabins and this time it was Chat Roulette. I stayed so they could show me how it works. Cute concept with some funny content but also lots of creepy folk. Most would cut the connections as soon as they realized it was a group of shrieking 8 year olds looking at their goods. The kids themselves cut it off if the person didn't so it was more like the game we played as kids, ringing door bells and running.

It's a different world out there.

a reply to: igloo

We had to have some talks about porn/sex as a performance versus some day you may meet a partner and they are very likely not going to be into that extreme stuff. In short, it isn't normal. Your future partner might like normal, like the animals

I had to read that three times!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought you were saying their partners might like animals and was like what in the Alabama am I reading!😂🤣😅😆


Hey Alabama peeps, don't get mad, I lived there, and you know and I know there are some people there that just aren't "right"

a reply to: JAGStorm

"But then...........it got dark, real dark...real fast"

Sounds a bit like how Satan works.

a reply to: JAGStorm

This is more or less how I view tik tok.



I really can't help but wonder if part of the reason people are getting so ridiculous nowadays is thanks to this place. People continually try to one-up each other on being "special", so we have people creating genders such as bug, fae, demon, etc......