I'm not into Tik Tok style videos. I recently really cut back using both Instagram and FB because they're just showing me humorous videos and not why I used those apps.
TikTok seems like a more casual/fun experience to me. I suppose it depends on how you use it. My son and I have a great time watching animal videos, jokes and some other stuff.
I never got into instagram, but Facebook is always trying to lure me in with suggestive “interviews” of college girls and weird mom videos on the Facebook feed, which is otherwise very curated.
I gave TikTok a whirl about a year ago just to see what the fuss was about, and was disappointed. It wasn't long before I got videos about eating disorders, bare knuckle boxing, and videos on how to cope with depression. I much prefer Facebook & Instagram Reels. It's more sanitized, and Facebook can gauge with more certainty what my preferences are since I've been feeding them with my data for over a decade now so they 'get' what I like.
I refuse to install TikTok because it is so addictive. Last month I installed Facebook for some local Facebook groups (looking for second hand stuffs for my hobby), I accidentally scroll through Facebook videos, it has TV clips and apparently TikTok clips. I may have already spent 20 hours on this already. Plus I use Instagram, I watch ski reels from time to time. Short videos are VERY addictive.
Comparing numbers on Facebook videos and Instagram reels, reels is definitely much better. The content however, is limited comparing to TikTok. And most reels are from TikTok (with logos many times).
I disagree. I'm not a social media user, and yet I love TikTok, and have even posted a video there. I like to view it for about 15 minutes right before falling asleep. My wife and I get a lot of laughs out of the videos together.
Instagram's Tik Tok rip off, Youtube's Tik Tok rip off, the original to some extent etc are way worse than whatever we grew up with.
At least I believe so. It is just a gut feeling though.
Like, it is poison due to the manipulative algorithmic feeds, or something. Like how Facebook turned into a genocide enabler in 2013 something when they added their crappy non chronological feed.
The format in it self is probably OK, as in, short amusing videos.
TikTok absolutely nailed two things. First, it is just video. Facebook tried to shoehorn video shorts into two existing platforms (FB and Instagram) but that just breaks up the flow. People expect to read things on FB and look at photos on Instagram. Having a video suddenly playing in full screen sucks when those are your expectations.
Second, TikTok has an absolutely amazing recommendations algorithm. This is the core of the product: an algorithm that has a great mix of showing you things that have to do with your interests while also showing you things that are just slightly outside of them to expand your horizons. It feels cohesive and custom tailored. FB shorts are awful. They show you cheesy bullshit videos that have nothing to do with you or each other. Until you watch one and then they assume that’s all you ever want.
I don’t watch YouTube/Instagram/Tiktok at all, I feel that the content that people produce is more often than not manipulative, and the algorithms take care of the rest.
The reason why I don't have TikTok installed. Facebook is manageable, TikTok is a 2 hour rabbit hole of "oh crap, it's 2am and I've got work in the morning".
FB has recently added Instagram reels to the app. Not quite TikTok but it's getting to a point where I work out how to disable them or I uninstall FB for the first time in a decade.
There is something about the TikTok style swiping videos which just hits differently.
I am far from the demographic for TikTok, but find it super addictive so just keep it off my phone.
I barely use Instagram, but having checked in a few times recently I find myself mindlessly swiping their “Reels” for hours before pulling myself away from it.
YouTube is my goto timewaste, but now when I pick it up on mobile I find myself in their “Shorts” feature which is the same kinda thing.
Just that cycle of short videos in rapid fire…. humour, interesting fact, attractive woman, aspirational products, beautiful scenery, political argument then back around the cycle
again is just like digital crack.
I know it's off-topic but Tik-tok is really refreshing as a social network/entertainment thing to me. Lots of honest (even though the app encourages use of video effects) stuff on it, especially if you upvote things from time to time. User-generated content but haven't yet seen facebook outrage porn or twitter feud war ; lots of good vibe.
edit: my feed is filled with people with goth make up mimicking lyrics or movie dialogues, skate boarding tricks, contemporary dancers and weird jokers.
I guess... It's just the format that doesn't work for me. I'm not really into short video. I'm more of a long read person. Even the long videos that YouTube does don't interest me. I might watch only one YouTube a month, usually because what I need is not available elsewhere.
I find written content much more to the point and much more accessible. But short nonsense snippets like Twitter don't interest me either.
So with TikTok basically being the Twitter of video it's not useful to me.
Maybe I am just strange, but I find no appeal in TikTok, and would not like something that just shows me more of the same things. But I can see how it might appear to people who just want to be stimulated with stuff.
When I open TikTok, that is not what I see at all. It's funny videos, sketches, memes that are all pretty relevant to where I live and around current affairs.
That said I don't use TikTok (or Instagram, FB etc) so maybe it's more like you're saying.
Video on Facebook is still very big, though. A lot of publishers have taken to recycling TikTok videos and turning them into compilations for Facebook and Instagram. It's all low quality stuff, but it works. It's hugely ironic that some of the most popular content on Facebook's platforms is coming from TikTok.
What I don't like about the TikTok-like experience is that I can tell the algorithm "works" on me. I'd just keep scrolling through pointless, entertaining crap.
I'm not sure how I got sucked into Tiktok but I was quickly hooked. There's something so refreshingly playful, authentic, and raw about so much Tiktok content compared to Instagram. Instagram (explore/discovery) is generally pretty people with pretty things in pretty places. That was fun for a while but it's just not that interesting after a while. I don't need to see more pretty pictures of women doing yoga. I don't need to see more pretty mountain bikes I can't afford. I don't need to see anymore drone shots of Milford Sound in New Zealand.
Tiktok, on the other hand, is playful, diverse, and interesting (at least my feed is). Once you start liking content, the feed completely changes from teenage lip sync videos or other teenager-oriented content into such a nice variety of content. I legitimately laugh my ass off or smile happily at so much of it. Other content teaches me about food, gardening, dancing, DIY, media theory, hiking alone, gender bending, etc. etc. The list goes on. Some of the videos delight me and others inform me.
I had the opposite experience. Within an hour of using the app it had already profiled that I'm interested in woodworking, military, comedy, and anything with a solid story. I very rarely dislike a video unless I don't want to see that specific creator anymore. It profiles me based on likes (not something I do a lot), subscribes (once a creator has shown up 2-3 times with solid content I usually subscribe), and view duration. I am very quick to swipe to the next video if it's some dancing or other thing I'm not interested in.
Reels on the other hand, all it shows me is twerking and people getting hurt. Complete turn off compared to how well TikTok tuned in to my preferences.
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