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So I downloaded TikTok a few days ago for the hell of it. Since I wasn& #39;t gonna upload content, I didn& #39;t give it access to my photos or location or anything, and since it has the sign-up-via-AppleID API implemented, I felt pretty good about my privacy. Here are my thoughts. 1/18
First, the formula is brilliant. They provide a framework and trends, so you don& #39;t even need to come up with your own content. Want to get TikTok famous? Do one of the challenges, using the same moves, the same music as everyone else, and just add your own little twist... 2/18
...or don& #39;t add a twist, and you might get a few likes and follows. Lather, rinse, and repeat, and you& #39;re good to go. Twitter& #39;s original brilliance was its constraint of 140 characters, which separated it from the wall-of-text social networks like Facebook and LiveJournal. 3/18
With TikTok, you don& #39;t even need to come up with 140 characters of original content. Do the same thing as everyone else, & people will watch.
So why will people watch? It& #39;s easy, short, consumable content, and if you watch three videos of a given type, there& #39;s something... 4/18
So why will people watch? It& #39;s easy, short, consumable content, and if you watch three videos of a given type, there& #39;s something... 4/18
...in our monkey brains that wants to see the next version of the same thing. Same music, same basic script, same voice-over. So comfortable, so familiar, look, it& #39;s new faces doing the same dance or magic trick or glass blowing or stupid car or pet tricks. 5/18
Hit like on a video where some gal is raising her arms and swinging her hips, and you& #39;ll get a dozen more. Like a video where someone finds bugs in strawberries, or uses batteries to get water swirling, and you& #39;ll get a dozen more. Like a video where somebody loves Trump... 6/18
...you get the picture.
Now, there is occasionally content that doesn& #39;t fit all the trends and challenges, but it appears to be few and far between, but it& #39;s hard to do the analysis scientifically on one account. Once you like a video, you have to scroll through a lot to... 7/18
Now, there is occasionally content that doesn& #39;t fit all the trends and challenges, but it appears to be few and far between, but it& #39;s hard to do the analysis scientifically on one account. Once you like a video, you have to scroll through a lot to... 7/18
...something different to like so that you get new content.
But even that scrolling is kind of addictive. Not intrigued by what& #39;s on screen? Just swipe up for something new (or new-ish). I haven& #39;t used Tinder, but I imagine it& #39;s something similar. It& #39;s so easy to... 8/18
But even that scrolling is kind of addictive. Not intrigued by what& #39;s on screen? Just swipe up for something new (or new-ish). I haven& #39;t used Tinder, but I imagine it& #39;s something similar. It& #39;s so easy to... 8/18
...keep going and find something over and over again that& #39;s comfortingly familiar while still having something new about it.
So why do people contribute content? I assume some of those folks are actually becoming influencers, but I don& #39;t see too many obvious ads, so... 9/18
So why do people contribute content? I assume some of those folks are actually becoming influencers, but I don& #39;t see too many obvious ads, so... 9/18
...I don& #39;t know what the numbers are. I imagine most folks are doing it because it& #39;s easy, the find it fun, and the dopamine blast from getting 1000 likes or followers is nice.
And am I going to keep it? No. I thought about doing one of the challenges ironically, but... 10/18
And am I going to keep it? No. I thought about doing one of the challenges ironically, but... 10/18
...realized that& #39;s a slippery slope. And while the constant flow of familiar-but-different content is addicting, it& #39;s also tiresome. After a week, it& #39;s lost its interest for me. I& #39;ll just have to trust that the best stuff will eventually find itself on Twitter. 11/18
That said, I still think it& #39;s brilliant. Even if most people are like me and use it for just a few days and delete it, I think it has the potential to capture huge audiences for a week or a month at a time, with only the dedicated users sticking around longer. 12/18
But the friction is so low that even if 90% of people who download it each day delete it in a week, they& #39;ll continue to get lots and lots of eyeballs. And where the eyeballs are, people will want to contribute content in hopes of going viral. 13/18
The main question that I& #39;m left with is, what is the purpose? I have not seen a single ad that I know of, and it hasn& #39;t asked me for any money in any way, so I don& #39;t know who& #39;s making what off of it, other than some of the content creators who are pushing their instas. 14/18
Maybe it& #39;s just a huge data mining operation, maybe they& #39;re waiting for some critical mass to add monetization, but for now, it& #39;s like YouTube with training wheels. Waste of time, but fascinating.
All that said, one thing that strikes me is that sometimes... 15/18
All that said, one thing that strikes me is that sometimes... 15/18
...when I& #39;ve had conversations with people about app ideas, folks will sometimes say, "That& #39;s already been done," and get discouraged. If there& #39;s one valuable lesson that TikTok contains, it& #39;s that you don& #39;t need to worry so much about... 16/18
